Minnesota

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.

Minnesota’s forests will increasingly be affected by a changing climate. Understanding these potential impacts is an important first step to sustaining healthy forests in the face of changing conditions. As part of the Northwoods Climate Change Response Framework project, more than 30 scientists and forest managers collaborated to assess the vulnerability of forest ecosystems in this region to the likely range of climate change.

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.