​County Forest Planning

Michael Mills, Naomi Albert and Casey Olson worked with Dr. Anna Haines to better understand how climate change is influencing planning for county forests. The research included surveying county forest managers to investigate whether climate change adaptation is being incorporated into planning and if so, to what extent. The students presented their research poster at the UW-Stevens Point Jim & Katie Krause College of Natural Resources Student Research Symposium on April 5, 2019 where they received an Honorable Mention for their work.

County Forest Planning Abstract and Poster​

Climate change is projected to shift ecosystems in northern Wisconsin, bringing profound change to forests including altered forest structure and habitat loss for vulnerable species. These changes will pose management challenges which should be addressed in forest planning. Counties manage the greatest acreage of public forest in Wisconsin. Since the number of privately-owned forests is high and it is difficult to access landowner management plans, county forest plans are our best tool to gage climate change preparedness in Wisconsin forests.

We examined current county forest plans for inclusion of climate change issues and topics, but most plans were created in 2005-6 and do not address climate change. Thus, in order to understand county forests’ preparedness for climate change, we surveyed county forest managers to investigate whether climate change adaptation is being incorporated into planning and if so, to what extent. Our objective is to understand how climate change is influencing forest planning.

View the poster. (this is a large file will take awhile to display)