Gifford Pinchot: A Life in Progress

Gifford Pinchot\u27s conservation principles evolved throughout his life. Born into a lumbering and mercantile family, he was trained in traditional European methods of forest management, a perspective central to his work as first chief of the USDA Forest Service. When, as Pennsylvania\u27s governor, he protected old-growth forests and later urged Franklin Delano Roosevelt to buy up private timberlands, he broke ranks with many foresters. Always controversial, he acted as the Forest Service\u27s conscience until his death in 1946

A Transformative Place: Grey Towers and the Evolution of American Conservationism

On a beautiful late September day, just 2 months before he was assassinated, President John F. Kennedy spoke from the front porch of Grey Towers, the Milford, Pennsylvania, estate of Gifford Pinchot (1865–1946), founding chief of the USDA Forest Service. His visit served two purposes. It kicked off the president’s 5-day, 11-state “conservation tour” during which he would deliver a series of addresses on the environment to buttress his conservationist credentials in a society shaken by the searing images of a poisoned nature depicted in Rachel Carson’s seminal Silent Spring (1962). His presence in Milford also marked the Pinchot family’s gift of Grey Towers to the nation, and the establishment there of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation Studies

Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene: Science, Policy, and Practice

Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene provides thought-provoking insight into the ongoing environmental and climatological crises that climate change is generating and raises critical questions about how public and and private land managers in North America’s will adapt to the climatological disruptions that are already transforming the ecological structures of these forests. In this pathbreaking anthology, a team of leading environmental researchers probes the central dilemmas that ecologists, forest land managers, state and federal agencies, and grassroots organizations are confronting—and will continue to confront—in the coming century. In each chapter they examine strategies that are currently being tested across the country as scientists, citizen-scientists, policy makers, academics, and activists work to grasp their options and opportunities for a future that will be shaped by ongoing environmental upheaval. Successful adaptation to the challenges of climate change requires a transdisciplinary perspective. Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene provides a compelling set of arguments and case studies that underscores the need for innovative policies and energetic actions. The book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and professionals in environmental science, forestry, and ecology.https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_facbooks/1048/thumbnail.jp

US strategy for forest management adaptation to climate change: building a framework for decision making

International audience& Context Recent policy changes in the USA direct agencies managing federal forests to analyze the potential effects of climate change on forest productivity, water resource pro-tection, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and other values. & Aims This paper describes methods developed to (1) as-sess current risks, vulnerabilities, and gaps in knowledge; (2) engage internal agency resources and external partners in the development of options and solutions; and (3) manage forest resources for resilience, not just in terms of natural ecosystems but in affected human communities as well. & Methods We describe an approach designed to character-ize certain climate change effects on forests, and estimate the effectiveness of response options ranging from resis-tance to a realignment of management objectives. & Results Field testing on a 6,300 km 2 area of conifer forest in the northwestern USA shows this decision model to be useful and cost-effective in identifying the highest sen-sitivities relating to vegetation management, biological diversity, water resources and forest transportation sys-tems, and building consensus for adaptive strategies and actions. & Conclusions Results suggest that this approach is an effec-tive means for guiding management decisions to adapt to the effects of climate change, and provides an empirical basis for setting budgetary and management priorities

Developing and Implementing Climate Change Adaptation Options in Forest Ecosystems: A Case Study in Southwestern Oregon, USA

Climate change will likely have significant effects on forest ecosystems worldwide. In Mediterranean regions, such as that in southwestern Oregon, USA, changes will likely be driven mainly by wildfire and drought. To minimize the negative effects of climate change, resource managers require tools and information to assess climate change vulnerabilities and to develop and implement adaptation actions. We developed an approach to facilitate development and implementation of climate change adaptation options in forest management. This approach, applied in a southwestern Oregon study region, involved establishment of a science–manager partnership, a science-based assessment of forest and woodland vulnerabilities to climate change, climate change education in multiple formats, hands-on development of adaptation options, and application of tools to incorporate climate change in planned projects. Through this approach, we improved local manager understanding of the potential effects of climate change in southwestern Oregon, and enabled evaluation of proposed management activities in the context of climatic stressors. Engaging managers throughout the project increased ownership of the process and outcomes, as well as the applicability of the adaptation options to on-the-ground actions. Science–management partnerships can effectively incorporate evolving science, regardless of the socio-political environment, and facilitate timely progress in adaptation to climate change

Modeling future U.S. forest sector market and trade impacts of expansion in wood energy consumption

This paper describes an approach to modeling U.S. forest sector market and trade impacts of expansion in domestic wood energy consumption under hypothetical future U.S. wood biomass energy policy scenarios. The U.S. Forest Products Module (USFPM) was created to enhance the modeling of the U.S. forest sector within the Global Forest Products Model (GFPM), providing a more detailed representation of U.S. regional timber supply and wood residue markets. Scenarios were analyzed with USFPM/GFPM ranging from a baseline 48% increase to a 173% increase in annual U.S. consumption of wood for energy from 2006 to 2030, while consumption of fuelwood in other countries was assumed to increase by around 65% in aggregate. Results indicate that expansion in wood energy consumption across the range of scenarios may have little impact on U.S. forest sector markets because most of the expansion can be supplied by logging residues that are presently not being utilized and also mill residues that will increase in supply with projected expansion in wood product output in the decades ahead. However, analysis also suggests that forest sector markets could be disrupted by expansion in wood energy if much higher levels of wood energy consumption occur, or if projected recovery in housing demand and wood product output does not occur, or if more restrictive constraints or higher costs are imposed on wood residue utilization.Forest products Market modeling Wood energy scenarios