Colorado State University, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS), Iowa State University, and the Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources will be hosting a virtual climate change adaptation workshop for partners working on the ecology and management of dry-mesic forests in the Driftless Area. This workshop will be held virtually on July 20, 21, & 22, 2021. There will also be a site field visit prior to the workshop on June 29. 

This workshop is part of a project titled the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) Network, which is a collaborative effort between managers and scientists working to establish a series of experimental trials across a network of diverse forest ecosystem types throughout North America. Each trial is focused on understanding and evaluating management options designed to enable forests to respond to a changing climate. Site-specific treatments are developed according to local conditions and tailored to meet site-specific management objectives, while at the same time aligning under a common framework for answering questions about how different forest types will respond to future climate.

Workshop Goals

Our workshop focusing on dry-mesic forests in the Driftless Area will serve two primary purposes:

• Engage managers and scientists in the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) co-development framework to create a suite of adaptive experimental silvicultural treatments in dry-mesic forest stands in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to be part of the ASCC Network.
• Begin defining research and monitoring questions as part of the Driftless Area ASCC installation.