Key projected climate change impacts that the project team considered for the Colorado State Forest include:
Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of the Colorado State Forest including:
What approach best prepares forest ecosystems for climate change? Adaptation options occupy a continuum of management goals related to their levels of desired change. A team of natural resource specialists from the Colorado State Forest, regional managers, and scientists came together for a virtual three-day workshop in December 2020 to develop the study design for the ASCC project site. The team developed a set of desired future condition statements, objectives, and tactics for each major climate adaptation trajectory:
Blair Rynearson, Zach Wehr, Carolina Manriquez, and John Twitchell from the Colorado State Forest Service are the site managers helping lead the Colorado State Forest ASCC Project. Mike Battaglia (Rocky Mountain Research Station) and Ethan Bucholz (Colorado State Forest Service) are scientists helping lead the research efforts for the site.
Key collaborators include Marin Chambers (Colorado Forest Restoration Institute) and Lance Asherin (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), Paula Fornwalt (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), Chuck Rhoades (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), Zachary Steel (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), Wade Tinkham (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), Katie Nigro (ORISE fellow working with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, RMRS), and the Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department at Colorado State University.
State Forest Manager
Colorado State Forest Service
59228 Highway 14
Walden, CO 80480
Phone: 970-723-4505
blair.rynearson@colostate.edu
Research Forester
Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service
Forest and Woodland Ecosystems
Science Program
240 West Prospect Road
Fort Collins, CO 80526
Phone: 970-498-1286
michael.battaglia@usda.gov
Forest Monitoring Program Manager
Colorado State Forest Service
3843 Laporte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521
Phone: 314-757-0387
ethan.bucholz@colostate.edu