Climate change necessitates collaboration and an understanding of how foresters can begin to adapt management to meet the needs of a climatically-altered future. The Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) Network seeks to understand what climate adaptive management looks like in different forest types by bringing local experts, scientists and land managers together to develop experimental forest management approaches for specific forests, and then continues to assess the outcomes of these different treatments. The ASCC framework develops three experimental treatments centered on resistance, resilience and transition, with goals, objectives, and evaluation criteria developed as part of a collaborative workshop process. In December 2020, the Colorado State Forest Service worked with the ASCC Network Leads (Nagel and Peterson at CSU) to develop a set of experimental treatments for the Colorado State Forest near Cameron Peak, CO. In Summer 2022, ASCC leads will be partnering with managers and scientists from the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG) to develop a new ASCC site in lodgepole pine forest ecosystems.
While partner engagement is high within individual projects, engaging broader audiences surrounding climate adaptation in forest management is more difficult. This internship position will help produce an outreach and engagement plan, which includes easily disseminated outreach materials that summarize ASCC forest management treatments, with special attention to differentiating resistance, resilience and transition adaptation approaches and climate-adaptive forest management actions. Our student intern will work closely with mentors, ASCC Network personnel, members of the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, and the Colorado
