Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s (NW CASC) Tribal Liaison, Chas Jones, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Pathways Intern, Coral Avery, were among authors on the Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment, which was published this week. This biennial report, released by Oregon State University’s Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, explores the latest science on how climate change stands to affect Oregon’s natural and human systems and provides strategies to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.
For context and key takeaways about the report, read the press release.
For a high-level overview of the report, check out theexecutive summary.
Access the full Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment report here.
Amy Snover, Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) University Director and Director of the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, which hosts the NW CASC, shares gratitude at the end of a challenging year.
The University of Montana (UM), in partnership with the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC), will be releasing an announcement early in 2021 seeking a postdoctoral researcher as part of the National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Center’s Postdoctoral Climate Adaptation Scholars (CAS) Program. The CAS postdoctoral researcher will be based at the University of Montana with co-mentoring from the NW CASC at the University of Washington.
The researcher will:
lead regionally focused research projects related to climate-fire dynamics;
collaborate with a national cohort of CAS postdocs on national-scale research and synthesis on climate-fire issues;
participate in regular training and professional development opportunities, including training on translational ecology and the co-production of actionable science with natural resource decision-makers, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration across academic disciplines.
The full position description will be posted on the NW CASC website as soon as it is finalized. The Climate Adaptation Scholars program is designed to support management-relevant research and scientific synthesis of emerging research needs related to climate impacts on fish, wildlife and ecosystems. The objective of the CAS Program is to provide regional-to-national syntheses of climate change impacts on fire regimes, fire management and fire response; explore resulting impacts on fish, wildlife and ecosystems; and provide the scientific research necessary to help managers adapt to these changes.
Students from University of Washington Professor Brian Harvey’s Lab conduct research of the 2017 Norse Fire in the Snoqualmie National Forest.
Source: University of Washington
Large and severe wildfires, like those recently experienced across much of the West, are expected to become more common as the climate changes. In addition to the obvious damage and disruption these wildfires wreak on human communities, there is a lesser-known side effect of growing concern to managers and researchers — that some forests may not be able to recover from more intense wildfires under hotter and drier conditions brought on by climate change.
We know that more frequent and severe wildfires can prevent tree seedlings from establishing between fires, and that drought conditions after fire also make it hard for seedlings to root and grow. However, the extent to which patterns of large-scale, recurring drought affect forest recovery after fire have remained largely unexplored, until now.
A new NW CASC-funded study, led by former NW CASC Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Caitlin Littlefield, with NW CASC Researcher Dr. Solomon Dobrowski and co-authors at the University of Montana, found that recurring drought patterns that span the continent have both short- and long-term impacts on the regrowth of ponderosa pine in the Interior West. They also point to a critical period in post-fire recovery, showing that conditions in the year or so following fire can influence the condition of the forest decades later.
This issue of forest recovery after fire is just one piece of a larger climate change phenomenon — ecosystem transformation — which describes ecosystems shifting to new states once they can no longer cope with changing disturbances and climatic conditions caused by climate change. The NW CASC and national CASC network are focusing on this emerging climate issue to better understand what research is needed to help manage our lands in the face of ecosystem transformation.
The researchers uncovered a climate dipole, a recurring fluctuation in temperature and moisture that spans regions, and showed that this dipole affected forest regrowth. This dipole is like a “drought seesaw,” in this case, describing how drought conditions alternate between the Northern Rockies and the Southwest every few years. When the seesaw is active, conditions in the Southwest may be relatively moist while the Northern Rockies are dry — or vice versa.
They found that ponderosa pine regeneration in each region tracks the seesaw, with greater tree regrowth in the relatively moist region and greater seedling mortality in the relatively dry region. In other words: if, and how, a forest recovers from wildfire is largely determined by whether the conditions are relatively moist and cool in the few years following the fire. This is because, in the period after fire, ponderosa pine seedlings need moist soil to germinate and put out roots quickly before they’re outcompeted by other species. Seedlings are also highly susceptible to drought.
The drought seesaw switches on average every three to four years, yet its effects can be long-lasting. Since even a single very-dry year shortly after fire was shown to reduce the longer-term presence of young trees compared to postfire conditions with more moisture, the influence of this drought dipole can affect the cumulative likelihoods of ponderosa pine presence multiple decades after fire.
The results of this study highlight a critical window of opportunity for forest recovery within the first few years after fire. Since this study also confirms overall increases in aridity across the western US, climate-smart management strategies that take advantage of this window of opportunity will become even more important as climate changes.
Littlefield describes, “In some ways, the drought pattern we’re looking at is like a seesaw on an elevator. The Northern Rockies and the Southwest alternate in terms of where there’s drought and where there’s not — that’s the seesaw. But overall, aridity is increasing and making it increasingly hard for tree seedlings to regenerate in both regions — that’s the elevator. It’s important that we get a handle on these patterns so that we can anticipate the impacts of climate change. We’re losing millions of acres of forest to wildfire each year and that trend isn’t likely to stop. But I’m glad that policy-makers are increasingly recognizing the dire need for dry forest restoration and post-fire replanting, and I hope this sort of research can help us develop the best strategies for promoting forest recovery.”
This research was funded by the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, NASA and the Joint Fire Science Program.
The U.S. Forest Service and Montana DNRC work to plant more than 13,000 whitebark pine seedlings in the Swan Mountain Range as a cooperative post-burn restoration project in June 2018.
Mike Hudson is both a Regional Climate Change Coordinator and a Fish Biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and has served on the NW CASC’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee since 2018. In his role as Regional Climate Change Coordinator, Mike works across Fish & Wildlife Service programs to better integrate climate science into the agency’s work. As a Fish Biologist, Mike is part of the Integrated Conservation Science Program at the Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. He primarily works on bull trout recovery implementation and reintroduction in southwest Washington and Oregon; spring Chinook salmon and winter steelhead recovery through the Willamette Action Team for Ecosystem Restoration; and urban conservation. In both of his roles, Mike builds partnerships by working across multiple USFWS programs in the region and by working closely with Federal, Tribal, state, private and non-profit partners.
What led you to work in the field of climate adaptation?
Mike in the field working on humpback chub conservation in Desolation Canyon, Utah.
Source: Mike Hudson
I have been working in natural resource management for over 25 years now. After graduate school, I was working in southern Utah during drought conditions that began in the late 90s. It was at this time that I began to understand how our climate is changing and its potential to impact so many things, including the natural resources I work to protect and conserve. After moving to the Pacific Northwest and taking a job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I took an opportunity to serve on our Regional Climate Board in 2012. Since that time, I have been working with others within and outside our agency to better integrate climate science into all that we do and to meet the goals of climate adaptation, mitigation and engagement within our agency’s climate change strategic plan.
What does your day-to-day work look like?
In my position, I spend one-third of my time as Regional Climate Change Coordinator and two-thirds of my time as Fish Biologist, which provides a lot of diversity in the issues I work with and unique opportunities to crosswalk between both parts of my job. I spend a lot of time working with others within and outside my agency to better integrate climate science into our work and to protect and conserve several threatened, endangered and sensitive aquatic species. The various aspects of my job give me the opportunity to work locally, on specific projects such as bull trout reintroduction; regionally, with partners such as the States, Tribes and other Federal agency groups like the NW CASC; and nationally, with colleagues in USFWS throughout the continental United States, Alaska and the Pacific Islands, helping to continuously pave a road forward for climate adaptation work in our agency. The multiple geographic scopes of my position parallel the climate crisis, which must be thought about and tackled on so many levels across all of the sectors.
How does your organization support climate resilience in the Northwest?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is doing a lot to support climate resilience in the Northwest. We have a cross-programmatic Regional Climate Workgroup composed of agency representatives from several western states, the Pacific Islands and three CASCs (NW, SW, and PI) that meets once a month to share information and promote collaboration. We are engaged in several efforts and forums throughout the region including the Cascades to Coast Landscape Collaborative and the Cascadia Partners Forum, both of which focus on landscape conservation in part through climate adaptation actions. We have developed tools and resources that incorporate climate science into habitat conservation plans and biological opinions. We have an internal Regional Climate Seminar Series that provides an opportunity across our region for continued education and promotes communication about our changing climate and how it relates to the work we do in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Broadly, we continue to try to find ways to work with and support our partners addressing the challenges our changing climate presents to those natural resources that we all care about and that we are charged with protecting and conserving for future generations.
What is your favorite thing about your work?
I started working in this field because of my love and passion for natural resources, particularly fish and wildlife, and for the sense of service the work provides me. I found that I am not alone in this thinking. My favorite thing about my work is that I get to work with like-minded people every day toward making a difference. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” – Desmond Tutu
An upcoming webinar mini-series about Collaborative Fire Planning on the North Coast will introduce a new NW CASC-supported project to develop strategies for managing future wildfires in the North Coast Resource Partnership and Western Klamath Mountains planning areas and solicit local input on key questions and dynamics to consider as the project is developed.
Current NW CASC Fellow Skye Greenler’s NW CASC-funded research is contributing to a larger collaboration aimed at melding Western scientific and Indigenous Knowledge, ecological understandings and cutting-edge fire risk science to re-imagine fire management in the Western Klamath Mountains. This effort to create a shared vision for managing fire in the Klamath Mountains involves proactively planning for climate change, demonstrating the long-term benefits of tending this landscape with cultural burning and showing how these methods can help bring fire back to a highly-altered landscape.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 | 12 – 1 PM (PT)
Join this webinar to learn about how the collaboration was developed; understand how the project can help build future climate and wildfire resilient ecosystems and communities; and share your questions, interests and insights about how this project can best serve the region.
Presenters: Will Harling, Mid Klamath Watershed Council Frank Lake, U.S. Forest Service Skye Greenler, Oregon State University
Thursday, November 12, 2020 | 12 -1 PM (PT)
Tune in to learn more about the tools this project will be using; understand the collaborative processes that will help build these tools; and share your experiences and knowledge about how the models can be best developed to reflect the unique landscape of the Klamath Mountains.
Presenters: Join Paul Hessburg, U.S. Forest Service Susan Prichard, University of Washington Chris Dunn, Oregon State University
The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center is hosting its fall skills-building webinar on Improving Ethical Practice in Transdisciplinary Research Projects on Monday, November 16th at 10:00 AM (PT). This webinar will explore ethical concepts to consider to better account for working with individuals, communities and organizations as partners in, rather than subjects of, transdisciplinary research.
This year, the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, host of the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, celebrates 25 years of building climate resilience across the Northwest through a series of virtual lectures and other events related to climate resilience.
The Northwest Climate Conference Program Committee invites practitioners, scientists, tribal members and community organizers working to build a climate-resilient Northwest to submit abstracts for the 11th Northwest Climate Conference. Abstracts are due Friday, November 27. The 11th Northwest Climate Conference, hosted by the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, will take place online on April 6-8, 2021.
Monica Moritsch, postdoctoral researcher, surveying Sitka spruce tidal forest on Otter Island in the Snohomish River estuary.
Source: Kristin Byrd
While visiting the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on the southern tip of Washington’s Puget Sound, you’ll find a mosaic of coastal wetland habitats on the Nisqually River Delta. Freshwater tidal forests, hosting deciduous trees like black cottonwood, red alder, willow, Oregon ash and bigleaf maple, rise above the tidal marshes along the delta.
Native salmon find critical habitat refuges in this woody freshwater area as they move between the river, where they spawn, and the ocean, where they live most of their lives as adults. And this is just one of many benefits plants, wildlife and humans gain from this ecosystem. This ecosystem stores carbon; plays an important role in the marine food web; provides habitat structure from large woody debris; and is a beautiful natural area. However, these vegetated lands next to streams, rivers and marine shorelines — known as marine riparian areas — have not been well studied in Puget Sound.
To address this research gap, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Monica Moritch and NW CASC project lead Dr. Kristin Byrd recently conducted field work in Puget Sound tidal forests, including the Nisqually River Delta, to enable improved modeling of how sea level rise and management decisions affect this important habitat. This research also seeks to better understand the ecosystem services, or the benefits to people and society, that these tidal forests provide.
Despite new challenges to conducting research in our current socially-distant COVID reality, Monica and Kristin are embracing adaptation and finding creative ways to continue the critical work of helping our region’s natural and cultural resources adapt to climate change.
What would your workdays look like right now if it wasn’t for COVID? How have you adapted your research practices to accommodate for social distancing restrictions?
Monica: We probably would have conducted field work in Puget Sound last spring instead of waiting until this fall, but there has been plenty of work to do at home to get the sea level rise modeling ready for incorporating tidal forest data once we have it. As we scoped out field locations where we could expand our adaptation research, we wanted to do an in-person stakeholder engagement workshop to understand the climate-related concerns of the nearby communities, management groups and tribes. We have shifted to video calls and small masked meetups at potential field sites where it’s easier to maintain distance. We don’t get to talk to as many people, but these small tours are great for better understanding the site and the management needs compared to hearing about it in a conference room.
What advice do you have for other researchers navigating research challenges right now?
Monica: I had been at the U.S. Geological Survey for six months before we switched to all-remote work, so I hadn’t fully established what “normal” looked like before needing to switch gears. I would say stay flexible and do what you can within your situational constraints. Identify a backup plan for how you could move forward if you can’t do things the way that you originally planned.
Kristin: Flexibility is key, and also being prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they arise, which may take additional planning and lead-time to make happen. Continue to connect with and build your team, either through video calls or in the field. With schedules upended from school and work closures, being able to rely on and support team members really helps to move projects forward.
What’s been most surprising to you about working during the pandemic?
Monica: I’ve been surprised at how we transitioned to all-remote work relatively smoothly, and I know that other people at our center put in a lot of work behind the scenes to make that happen. We continue to get great support as we adjust our project timelines and field travel plans in response to the pandemic.
Kristin: At the U.S. Geological Survey, we work on team projects with multiple scientists located across the state and the country. The economists on our project, Dr. Emily Pindilli and Dr. Tony Good, are based at USGS headquarters in Reston, VA. I was surprised at how well we could continue to work together, despite office shutdowns, since we had already established a remote collaboration.
Stay tuned to hear more about this NW CASC-funded research as it progresses!
Deciduous tidal forest in the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Olympia, WA.
