No abstract

employees across three management levels, we assessed their perceptions, actions, concerns, and needs regarding incorporating climate change into managing the National Forests. We found that regional-and forest-level employees tend to think climate change presents new challenges and requires new approaches to address it, whereas on-the-ground managers tend to view it as a buzzword and want more flexibility to continue doing what they do. We found that forest managers have been engaged in conversation and thinking about climate change but few on-the-ground actions. Our study suggests a need for incorporating local staff knowledge into agency decisionmaking, establishing common ground within the agency by promoting climate change initiatives in the context of enhancing forest resilience, providing more scale-relevant data, research, training, and guidance, and developing strategies that enable forest managers to address management challenges that interact with climate change.