Forest Service Presents Climate Change Information

BEND– In mid-March a nationally known forest researcher with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station and a researcher with the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington jointly will present their recent assessments of the impact of climate change on national forests in South-Central Oregon in Bend, Ore.

Dr. Dave Peterson. Senior Research Biologist with the Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Dr. Jessica Halofsky, Research Ecologist with the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, will discuss their studies on the impacts of climate change in South-Central Oregon on Monday, March 14, 2016 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Willie Hall at Central Oregon Community College’s Coats Campus Center, 2600 NW College Way. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Dr. Peterson is a well-known researcher on climate change and shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr. Halofsky coordinated the climate change vulnerability studies on the national forests in Oregon.  Following their presentation the public will be able to discuss the information with the researchers.

For the past year, scientists and local resource managers worked together to assess how climate change may affect water resources, fisheries, vegetation, wildlife and recreation on public lands of the Deschutes, Ochoco and Fremont-Winema National Forests, the Crooked River National Grassland and Crater Lake National Park.  In addition to this research, these same public agencies formed the South-Central Oregon Adaptation Partnership (SCOAP) to seek solutions for coping with the effects of a warmer climate on public lands.

Preliminary findings of the assessment also are being shared during a Climate Change workshop with researchers and land managers in Redmond, Ore. on March 15-16, 2016.  Workshop participants will develop adaptation strategies, which may be used to minimize negative impacts from climate change.

Following the workshop, the final assessment will be peer reviewed and published by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station.  The results will be available to federal agencies, other landowners, and the general public.  For more information about the SCOAP assessment, see http://adaptationpartners.org/scoap.