Priority 3: Science to mitigate risks to people, property, and natural resources

Climate change is the defining issue that will greatly influence the way we manage land and natural resources for the foreseeable future. It will continue to be a crosscutting priority for our work because forests and rangelands are central to climate mitigation and adaptation.

We need to provide more science information and tools to help land managers prepare for unlikely yet catastrophic events and support management approaches and rural communities in a world that is being increasingly disrupted by extreme weather and other climate-related disturbances.

The potential breadth of impacts and interactions from climate and other drivers of change means that successful adaptation and mitigation efforts will require collaborative efforts that unite diverse disciplines. We are collaborating with national forests; tribal, state, and federal agencies; regional landscape-scale climate collaboratives; and other partners to support climate-smart management and planning in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Outcomes of work under this priority

• Fundamental scientific knowledge about ecosystems to support science-based management to avoid, adapt to, or mitigate key environmental threats and their consequences, especially those related to climate change, wildfire, invasive species, and insect and disease outbreaks.
• Information about the cause, detection, prevention, and effects of disturbances and interactions of disturbances across multiple scales. 
• Decreased risk of catastrophic loss to communities, ecosystem services, and economic disruption from disturbance, including fire, insects and disease, invasive species, drought, and flooding.