Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Planning for National Forest Lands in Southern California

This project will conduct a vulnerability assessment, develop climate-smart adaptation strategies and actions, and generate implementation plans for focal habitats of the South and Central Coast regions of the CALCC, with a specific focus on four Southern California National Forests (Angeles, San Bernardino, Cleveland, Los Padres).

Specific project goals include:
(1) Assess the regional vulnerabilities and resiliencies of focal habitats to climate change and non-climate change stressors.
(2) Generate climate-informed maps to identify how vulnerabilities vary spatially to help prioritize conservation areas and activities.
(3) Identify implementable climate-smart conservation strategies and actions to conserve priority habitats.
(4) Develop an implementation handbook that describes where, when, and how to implement climate-smart actions on the ground.

This project leverages current funding from the USFS to conduct a vulnerability assessment and begin developing climate-smart adaptation strategies and actions for Southern California forests. This directly supports a need identified by the USFS to assess the vulnerability of priority habitats to climate change and to identify potential adaptation strategies to help build resistance, enhance resilience, or facilitate ecological transitions. This effort will provide information and tools for USFS planning and management (e.g., NEPA analyses, Forest Plan Revisions, Climate Change Performance Scorecard - "Scorecard") and other natural resource management and conservation efforts to prepare for climate change impacts in the South and Central Coast regions.