Alright everybody, thanks for coming.
Very large room with scattered attendance.
This is how the rays or the Florida Panthers feel, I guess,
when they play games.
Few of you'll appreciate that joke.
So what we're doing today,
and I appreciate people coming out,
this is kind of step two of the earlier session
when we were talking about NSRC-funded projects.
And kind of working with ways
to translate some of the work that they're doing,
and kind of more broadly
what the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science
and some of us at UVM are doing.
And looking at just trying to think through solutions
for addressing climate change impacts.
And so a goal of this session
is to get feedback on a draft guide
that we've been working on that really is meant to try
to take some of these broader recommendations
about adaptation to climate change
and invasive insects and diseases
and step that down to more site level actions.
And so, again, Tony D'Amato from UVM,
but I'm really fortunate to be supported by Sam Myers
who's also from UVM and NIACS.
And so you'll be hearing from her in a second.
But again, just to acknowledge NSRC-funded project.
And the team on this, really, this is a collective,
so myself and Sam will be talking mostly,
but Ali Kosiba is involved with the project.
Erika Rowland from the Forest Stewards Guild,
as well as Amanda Mahaffey has also been very much involved,
as well as Maria Janowiak and Danielle Shannon.
So all been kind of contributing
to what you're gonna see today as a guide.
And then also others have been involved
with just generating some of the science
as well as some of the feedback
on just what we even planned on doing for this work.
And so acknowledging folks from Dartmouth College Woodlands,
Lyme Timber, Vermont FPR, US Fish and Wildfire Service,
and as well as Nature Conservancy.
So what you're gonna see today and give feedback on,
this is kind of the process we've used
to develop this guide and...
I hate being stuck to a podium,
but so what we've basically been doing
is taking information both from research,
but importantly also from more the work
that's been happening in the field
by via managers and practitioners
that are actually doing adaptation on the ground.
And so a big source of information for this guide,
which really specifically focuses in on northern hardwood
spruce-fir forest and mixedwood forest,
is using existing adaptation demonstration sites that again,
are part of the climate change response framework.
If you haven't ever been to forest adaptation.org
or if you've been the last 10 years,
but forest adaptation.org,
you can go and look
at all of these adaptation demonstration sites
that have been designed and put in the ground
by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science.
And so these basically are examples
of people doing adaptation in practice,
but we also have many things that aren't in that website
that people are doing on the ground
that we're also gaining insights from as well as research.
And so the idea of being,
taking that collective wisdom that's out there
and distilling it down into a guide
that hopefully can help us do more adaptation
out there in the field.
So goals for today is to improve this.
So what you're gonna see
is a kind of a very initial draft of some content.
And so the idea is that we're at a stage right now
where we can not easily,
but somewhat easily either pivot or add more information
or change how we're delivering this,
as well as just get feedback
on how do you ultimately want this information
when we're finished with that.
And so this really is meant to be,
there'll be some interactive components,
but also a big piece of it is whether you like it or not
is us extracting information from you
in terms of what you think works what doesn't,
and how do you like that to be improved.
We'll do initially in a second
just an activity to get a feel for who's in the room,
how you're thinking about adaptation,
and then we'll actually hand out
a draft of a chunk of the guide
and have some opportunity for you
to kind of work through that,
look at what we have for content, provide feedback to us,
and then we'll have some activities around that
just to see what some of the emergent themes are
in terms of what we can improve upon.
And then the goal is those that weren't in the NSRC session.
So in Burlington, the third week of March,
I'm looking at Alex, I know she's on the committee,
knowing an SAF meeting will be here,
and so the goal is the final guide will be presented
in about fourth week, thank you.
So be right next door, larger venue,
hopefully same quiz bowl winner this year.
We'll be sharing the guide with folks
and it's kind of as a final document,
this is really an opportunity for us today
to get feedback from you on that.
So what we're gonna do is provide an opportunity first
just to get some feedback.
Like I said,
the hope is that even though we're sitting in this room,
at the end of the day, there'll be some interaction.
I think we're okay in terms of distribution,
but am I make sense as we go through
kind of some other activities
people might need to move a little bit
to be closer to one another.
I think right now we're okay? Yeah.
But first thing we wanna do,
those that just finished a semester with me then it's a lot,
but if we're gonna use Menti to get some information
about higher thinking,
about adaptation in the work,
and to lead this, again, I wanna introduce Sam Myers
she's been a big force behind this project.
So come on up, Sam.
Yes.
(audience applauding)
So if you have never used Menti before,
you're gonna see this number again in a second so you'll...
Yeah, so I'm just pull up the website.
Lots of thumbs up. There we go.
Okay, cool.
Great. Thanks, Tony.
And yeah, to introduce myself again,
my name is Samantha Myers,
I'm a forest adaptation specialist at UVM,
work primarily with the Northern Institute
for Applied Climate Science.
Hopefully what this activity will do,
and if you haven't gotten to it yet,
you can scan the QR code that's still on the screen here
to get here to this Menti activity.
We have 76 people on, so that seems pretty good,
considering that I think we had 70 registered. (laughing)
So that's great. Glad everyone's with me here.
And this activity, which as I go through the slides,
you'll see the questions pop up on your personal device
to go through it with me.
And again here we're just gauging the audience,
gauging who's here,
and how you all are kind of coming in here
already thinking or not thinking
as much about climate adaptation.
All right.
First question, "What sector are you coming from?"
Okay, on a state folks.
Academia.
Nice, thanks.
Awesome.
Out of state, academia,
some other or multiple kind of people as well.
Next question, "What's your position or role?"
So we're really kind of trying to gauge, you know,
where people are coming from, whether you're a forester,
natural resource manager, researcher, botanist,
executive director, professor, forest technician, awesome.
Grad student outreach, seed coordinator, wildlife biologist.
Awesome.
Next question, "What forest types do you work in primarily?"
So primarily here we're asking northern hardwoods,
mixedwoods which that being spruce-fir hardwoods
and spruce-fir forests.
We know there may be others here as well.
These are just the three forest types
that this guy is primarily focused on.
So it's interesting to see where people are coming from.
Any of people and other
wanna shout out where they're primarily working?
Southern New England. Huh?
-[Audience 1] Riparian. -Riparian lands? Cool.
Awesome.
Lot of northern hardwoods,
but a good amount of mixedwoods too and spruce-fir.
Awesome.
All right, "How often do you already kind of think about
or are you implementing climate change adaptation
in your work today?"
So we have all the time, often, occasionally, never,
but not currently but wanna do more, so...
Okay, awesome.
Lots of people are often.
I know there's a weird line
between like all the time and often.
Occasionally. Awesome.
All right.
There's a lot more people in this room
but you're all spread out
so it's hard to imagine that there are 82 people on here.
Okay, I guess we have some folks online as well, so...
Okay, next question.
"When thinking about climate adaptation,"
like many of you sound like you are,
"what kind of guides or resources do you use most often?"
And particularly, if you're able to kind of describe briefly
why it's useful to you?
None, current research, okay.
(laughing)
Okay, Ali Kosiba, I see Tony, Vermont Conservation Design,
lots of it's...
Adaptation Workbook, other knowledgeable staff.
No, it sounds like there's a lot of important
kind of partnership connections
that are really important knowledge sources here
rather than, like, specific documents or tools
that people are are pulling up or have in their office.
Tree atlas,
12 steps of climate adaptation
helpful for working with landowners.
Too much information
but also that means a lot of good resources.
Just overwhelming.
Yeah, we definitely hear that a lot.
NIACS. Awesome.
Not sure. Okay.
Next question here.
So "When thinking about climate adaptation,
the piece of information" or kind of,
you can think about this in a specific or broad way
that you wish you had is?
You can also think about, like, more topic-based,
like, what you're thinking you want.
More certainty for sure.
All the answers. Okay.
Predictive models,
results of long-term implementation results.
Definitely getting at that kind of monitoring piece.
Optimism time machines, some of these...
I see it's the afternoon,
everyone has really creative answers here,
but also useful and, you know, yeah.
Coordinate with soil types, lag times,
thinking about translating to landowners
so that like communications piece, species lists,
refugia maps, specific actions for landowners.
Yeah, this is all great.
I don't know if you can submit more than once,
but it feels like keep coming in, that's great.
Brevity Directness, less big long jargon for sure.
Awesome.
Thank you all for your responses here, yeah.
A good guide, planting resources.
Okay, now I'm gonna move on.
Yeah, I think you can still answer question
if it kind of comes to you
after the fact that this is being shared.
I think it'll still stay your screen.
Now "At what stage of management
do you find that you need more information
to support your climate adaptation goals?"
Planning, implementation, monitoring outcomes.
And here it's asking you to kind of, like, rank on a scale
of like at which from insufficient information
to sufficient information
about each of those three kind of stages of management.
Yeah, and this density plot is cool
'cause you can see the average popping up,
but you can also see if there's some outliers in this.
In terms of less, yeah,
I'm seeing generally less information
maybe when it comes to monitoring outcomes,
like the further along you're getting in this work
over time.
Awesome.
I think that's the last question for now.
We're gonna move on to...
Do you wanna like over, yeah, walk through the guide.
Okay, cool.
Don't know what...
Do you need a slide up for that?
-Yeah. -Okay.
-(Tony speaks indistinctly) -(Samantha laughing)
Hopefully not.
No, I think it's duplicated, so...
Okay.
All right. Thank you for that feedback.
And I give a lot of these but I never do them.
So the thumbs up, people just need you to click that, huh?
You know, it's just on the screen, click.
Appreciate the thumbs ups and the feedback.
And I think a lot of what we're seeing there
in terms of the information
that there's a lot of information out there,
a lot of guides.
Again, we're super lucky that NIACS
has produced so many resources,
but also that there's a need to maybe distill that down
to some of these other kind of more site level
and also advances in what we're trying to think about
in terms of species list, et cetera.
So hopefully aspects of what we'll show
in terms of this guide, we'll hit at some of those marks.
And so what I'm gonna do
before you actually physically get the guide
is just talk you through some of the logic of it
because you're not getting the full blown guide,
you're essentially getting kind of the front part of it,
the section dealing with northern hardwoods
and then some of the appendicy material
that will be in the guide.
So it's not the the full blown guide,
but at least we'll give you a feel
for how we're approaching this and giving credit already.
There's many guides that have been developed already
for other parts of the region that NIACS serves
that really serve as an inspiration for this.
So we're kind of building off
of some of the work they've done
with adaptation field guides and other approaches.
So this is the draft cover.
And so the way it's organized,
as people mentioned in terms of content, you know,
even though most of you have been exposed
to the mountains of great information that exists
on thinking through adaptation, adaptation planning,
the first part of the guide that you'll see really
is just linking you back to those places
where you can find those documents
you somehow may have missed like the adaptation workbook
or how to think through even monitoring adaptation outcomes.
And so the beginning,
we'll just be talking a little bit about just, you know,
how you approach adaptation
and then getting through kind of that list again,
how many folks in here have been through a NIACS training
on using the climate change response framework?
So, many of you know this menu of adaptation options,
this is a common menu of options
that really exists for broad forest types.
There's also a specific adaptation guide for hydrology.
So some folks mentioned working with riparian areas.
So there's different resources that you can also go to,
but this is just a quick reference list
for some of the broad recommendations for forest adaptation,
so you'll see that and it'll be cross-referenced throughout.
And then what we're most excited about
is not kind of rehashing on that information
that already exists out there,
but really trying to localize this to the region.
Obviously, sitting in the state
that produces the best maple syrup in the globe,
a lot of us are in the northern hardwood region.
But the idea again being for the footprint
of the northern forest to focus in on northern hardwoods,
mixedwoods and spruce-fir,
all of which occur in this state,
but obviously become more important as we move to our west
as well as to our east.
So what will happen as after you get beyond
that early initial information
as there'll be kind of chapters
for each of the forest types.
And so what I'm gonna show and what you're gonna look at,
that's gonna get handed out after I go through this,
is the northern hardwood section.
So kind of how we've approached that.
Nothing is written in stone,
it's really meant to be at a draft stage,
just for feedback on how we're approaching it.
So again, the first part,
just begins with a broad community description,
kind of what we're talking about
in terms of northern hardwood forests,
kind of the prevailing ecology of those sites,
where they're found, underlying disturbance regime.
And then again, those that haven't looked up,
another giant resource that was produced by the NIACS,
the New England and Northern New York
vulnerability assessment.
What it'll contain
is a summary of that vulnerability assessment
for that system.
So basically what you're seeing up here
is the general ranking for northern hardwoods, you know,
the kind of in the middle part of that depends on the site,
depends on kind of where you're at.
So it gets into both put the vulnerability is,
what some of the current stressors
that we're worried about are,
and then the adaptive capacity of the system.
So the other other side of that vulnerability
is kind of what's the potential response.
So this will be a summary for each of the communities.
From there is when we kind of start stepping it down
and localizing it.
And so this is when we're trying to actually build in
some of the challenges that we face.
And so the way that we organize this
really is kind of calling out those site level factors
that really are gonna make a difference
between northern hardwood site
being highly vulnerable and at risk and one that's not.
And likewise, will make a big difference
in terms of the overall adaptation actions you can take.
So what will we have?
And you'll see this and you can respond to them.
Some of the feedback we want is,
"Well what about this or what about that?"
Or "I'm not looking at this way"
is that we kind of divide this
into this binary classification.
Either it's gonna decrease or increase climate risk
or more broadly on global change impacts
like invasive insects and diseases.
And so as an example, overstory composition,
if it's a site that's dominated
by future climate adapted species,
we're maybe not as worried about as vulnerability.
If it's a site that's 95% white ash,
maybe we're thinking a little bit differently
about that site.
And so kind of stepping through
how that vulnerability might vary
depending on those conditions.
And so again, you'll have an opportunity to look at that.
We then step that down
to then what do you do based on the vulnerability?
And so if you are in a site
that has a high issues with regeneration,
if you aren't in Corinth and you're in Groton,
you're dealing with like poorer soils
and so you can't just regenerate on the species that are,
you know, you really done with beach issues,
how you might kind of vary your silver culture for those.
And so it steps down into those specific recommendations.
And then parenthetically,
what you're seeing up there are those are the numbers
that correspond to that adaptation menu.
So where can you find those tactics in the menu.
And then finally a key piece of this
is that people have been doing this stuff
and so it's worth knowing, like,
what does this look like in practice?
And so the last piece of those sections
is that in the case of what you'll see,
we have two case studies,
the Tug Hill example that I showed
in that presentation earlier.
as well as an example with Atlas Timberlands
looking at kind of the infrastructure
and trying to retrofit that for adaptation purposes.
And so a couple of different of examples,
similar to those that are familiar
with the Forestry for the Birds work
often have kinda these examples,
you can kind of at least look
as to how people are approaching things.
So those will be specific to each forest type.
And then what's nice
is that you can link to online demonstration sites
and see more about those what's happened at those sites.
Other examples, but in the interest
of not having this be like a 300-page booklet,
we have a couple of examples here that can be a springboard
for looking at what other folks are doing on the ground.
The last piece, and this will be the appendix material.
So after everything, is somebody wants species lists,
this was kind of the species list
that came out of the last vulnerability assessment.
There's a page before this that tells you
these are just kind of averages of models
as I mentioned in my session.
I don't always agree with how red spruce is assessed.
You have to think about your local site,
you have to think about kind of the conditions you're on,
but at least just general ranking for the region.
And then kind of stepping it further down into
if you actually are thinking about planting trees,
both how those approaches vary
depending on the flavor of assisted migration
as well as some of the risks and considerations.
I don't have that up here,
but there's additional material on that.
And then the final piece,
I'm gonna just have it up here for northern hardwoods
are just some of the species
that have been commonly tried and why.
It's not just because we want red oak out there
it's because we might lose a mass producing species.
So thinking a little bit about the function
that we're trying to sustain.
Likewise, if I want a conifer species
for conifer litter and deadwood in a riparian zone,
thinking about those functions,
I can sustain with those approaches.
And so those will be part
of the kind of final boilerplate information.
So what we're gonna start circulating around
are two documents.
And I think we have it,
we might not have enough physical copies
depending on how many people are online.
So if you don't get a physical copy,
the other document we're handing out has a QR code,
you can scan to access a digital version of this.
And what we're gonna be asking you to do
is kind of take some time on your own
to work through the document,
provide some feedback,
and then we we're basically gonna break this up
and have opportunities for you to pair up
and talk to your neighbors about it
and give us kind of your perspective on,
like, what were some of the emerging things
that people felt were missing, what could be improved.
But the idea really is to hopefully crowdsource
your own opinion and perspective on this
as we try to improve the guide.
And so Madison and Sam will be,
we starting to hand that out
and I'll take a second in a moment as well,
but you'll see on the worksheet itself.
So I dunno if Sam could hold up the worksheet just to...
So we have this worksheet
that we're really hoping to collect from people
at the end of the session.
So we're asking you specific questions about what's missing,
what can be improved, what do you like?
And then after we've done all this,
we also want feedback just on format.
We haven't decided on, like, the final format for this,
how we're gonna work with that.
So getting a feel for just what makes sense
in terms of delivering that guide.
So we'll take some time getting that distributed
and then I'll kind of remind folks of the task
once everything's been handed out.
So this is the QR code,
still up here in case you're not here with us yet.
We're racking up these thumbs up.
Did someone say there was like a thumbs down option
or something?
Oh, someone wanted one?
Alright, I assume we won't have as high a number as earlier.
We've lost some people,
but appreciate everyone who's here with us still.
All right.
And if you miss the QR code,
you can always join, go to menti.com.
So the bar at the top will always be there,
so join at menti.com and use that code.
Alright, so first we're asking you,
just broadly kind of trying to get a consensus
of some of your less specific thoughts,
but which sections of this draft guide
that you just looked at were the most useful?
You can select multiple here, I believe.
Assisted species migration table
or assisted migration species table,
site level considerations, and adaptation actions coming up.
I think there were like 50 people on...
All right.
Awesome.
Alright, next question
is "When do you think you might use a guide like this?"
So at your desk, as a kind of printed version,
at your computer as a digital version,
in the field as a printed version,
or kind of on your tablet or phone?
I don't remember if you can select multiple for this so...
You can, okay, cool.
So I see my computer as a digital,
people might be thinking about using this
when they're kind of in the office or at their desk, yep.
Next question is thinking back
to what kind of printed resources you use
and why they're useful to you.
Is it because they're quick and easy to access?
They're static reference material,
they have like a broad level of information
that kind of doesn't need to be updated, it's timeless.
They have maybe like lookup tables,
they fit in a vest for field use
or maybe large text resource for desk use.
(audience speaks indistinctly)
Kind of talking in general
because there's no set idea of what a guide like this
will look like in the end,
so we're trying to gauge
how we can make this most helpful to you.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Oh yeah, sure.
So yeah, so just some examples of printed resources here.
Like, something that can fit in your vest or your pocket
or more kind of larger size desk guides.
This can really be, you know, can take it anywhere really,
desk or field as just as in the mall
or a larger form kind of desk printed material, larger text.
Alright, nice.
Thinking about digital resources
that are most useful to you,
is it because they have static content for reference?
Do they have like interactive content
where it kind of you're guided
based on the topics you click on?
Does it have some kind of interactive decision tool
thinking about outputting some options
based on your site level or site level characteristics
or inputs that you put in there?
They have multimedia formats.
You can view 'em on on a phone or tablet.
They have maybe more specific or detailed information
or maybe they're able to be updated
kind of with the most current
and recent data and information.
Awesome.
Yeah, I definitely think that current data information piece
is probably really valuable in this way.
Cool.
All right, and final question
is thinking about what other challenges or barriers
that you're seeing to adaptation work that you're doing
could a guide like this address?
So maybe this came up in discussions,
things that were missing from the guide
that you'd really like more information on?
I know it kind of leans a little bit
back to that question from earlier on
what information that you're missing
in climate adaptation work,
but this can be barriers
or challenges related to information
or kind of more broadly that you're seeing.
Managing for multiple objectives,
social barriers, non-English language options.
Let's see.
Funding, definitely.
Soils context, scale context,
accessible language to communicate
with kind of a variety of audiences or stakeholders,
maps for spatial content.
Yeah, this spatial idea coming up here.
Wetland watershed BMPs,
a broad document that allows for collaboration,
intended audience.
Yeah, prioritizing, awesome.
That's kind of all I had, yeah.
Tony, any other wrap up thoughts?
We appreciate all your feedback that you've given.
It's been, yeah, really helpful
and have a lot to dive in and sift through there.
Yeah, I don't need to step up there but just...
Yeah, thank you everybody for the time and feedback.
You can hold us to it the fourth week of March.
We'll have a guide but really if things come to mind,
so Sam will provide an email address
or others wanna write down other comments
before we you leave, we can take on.
We really appreciate people's insights
and everybody engaging on this, so thank you.
Yeah.
I'm just gonna...
So hopefully on the Menti, I don't think it'll show,
but on the Menti I left up just an opportunity for you
to give your email.
It shouldn't show up here.
If it does, I'll close this window.
So in addition to my email
that's on the bottom of the feedback form,
which we're collecting, it's not very helpful.
I guess I don't have my name,
my email written down anywhere.
But if you wanna offer your email here
to stay in touch about the guide coming out
or provide other feedback,
you can enter your email in this question here.
You can write your name on the sign in sheet,
which I can bring around at the end.
And we do wanna collect the feedback sheets
that you left notes on so you can find me afterwards.
And if you took notes directly on the guide
and the margins or whatever,
you can also hand those to us if you'd like.
Yeah. Cool.
-(all applauding) -Thanks, everyone.