Pennsylvania

Changes in the climate, including warmer winters and increased precipitation during some parts of the year, are having a significant influence on the Northeast’s forest products supply chain. A recent report describes specifics of climate impacts and adaptations for three links in the Northeast’s forest products supply chain. Topics include: harvest scheduling, BMPs, roads, and forest health.

Evidence of climate change can already be observed in the Mid-Atlantic region. Understanding vulnerabilities is an important first step to sustaining healthy forests and ecosystems in the face of changing conditions. As part of the Mid-Atlantic Climate Change Response Framework project, more than 40 scientists and forest managers collaborated to assess the vulnerability of forest ecosystems in this region to the range of projected climate change

The region's forests will be affected by a changing climate during this century, but individual tree species will respond uniquely to climate change, depending on their particular silvics and ecological tolerances in a given location. Future heat and hardiness zones are modeled in this document.

Forests are a prominent feature of the landscape across the Mid-Atlantic region. The first three sections of this story map highlight key themes from the report and describe the general effects of anticipated changes across the region. The final section shows what foresters and land managers are doing to protect these forests and all of the benefits they provide for us.

Many landowners have begun to ask how their forest management strategy affects the carbon within their forest and thus the forest’s ability to mitigate climate change. Every strategy has its tradeoffs; therefore, to meet all of society’s needs, we will ultimately need a mix of passive and active strategies across the region.

The tool provides a rapid and simple process to assess forest resiliency. This publication contains background information on important characteristics of resilient and healthy forests and examples of potential adaptation strategies. It is accompanied by a scorecard to be used in the field to evaluate the resiliency of a forest.