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This paper describes the road infrastructure found in California’s national forests, their vulnerabilities, and specific measures that can be taken to adapt to projected climate change effects, thus minimizing damage from fires and storms. Over the past 40 years this region has been hit by numerous climate change–related events including droughts, major forest fires, major storms, and flooding. Billions of dollars in damage have been sustained and numerous lives lost. It is necessary now to assess vulnerabilities, rank resources at risk, and prioritize adaptation actions. The Forest Service has recently been involved in infrastructure vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategy projects involving climate model studies, interviews, a literature review, local workshops, website information, and publication of the project findings. Different agency vulnerability assessment methods have been reviewed to establish a functional assessment and risk analysis methodology. Efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change have included greenhouse gas reduction from agency vehicles, evaluating alternative transportation routes, implementing energy-saving measures, and identifying “stormproofing” road design measures to reduce the vulnerability of roads to extreme climate-related events. Much of the effort has been the identification of road adaptation and resiliency measures, particularly measures that are practical and implementable at minimum cost. These measures include: routine road maintenance; relocating road segments as needed; adding trash racks and diversion prevention dips to prevent culvert failures; building stream simulation projects; protecting bridges from debris and scour; covering soil with deep-rooted vegetation; and using soil bioengineering stabilization and deep-patch shoulder reinforcement to prevent local slope failures.
This paper describes the road infrastructure found in California’s national forests, their vulnerabilities, and specific measures that can be taken to adapt to projected climate change effects, thus minimizing damage from fires and storms. Over the past 40 years this region has been hit by numerous climate change–related events including droughts, major forest fires, major storms, and flooding. Billions of dollars in damage have been sustained and numerous lives lost. It is necessary now to assess vulnerabilities, rank resources at risk, and prioritize adaptation actions. The Forest Service has recently been involved in infrastructure vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategy projects involving climate model studies, interviews, a literature review, local workshops, website information, and publication of the project findings. Different agency vulnerability assessment methods have been reviewed to establish a functional assessment and risk analysis methodology. Efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change have included greenhouse gas reduction from agency vehicles, evaluating alternative transportation routes, implementing energy-saving measures, and identifying “stormproofing” road design measures to reduce the vulnerability of roads to extreme climate-related events. Much of the effort has been the identification of road adaptation and resiliency measures, particularly measures that are practical and implementable at minimum cost. These measures include: routine road maintenance; relocating road segments as needed; adding trash racks and diversion prevention dips to prevent culvert failures; building stream simulation projects; protecting bridges from debris and scour; covering soil with deep-rooted vegetation; and using soil bioengineering stabilization and deep-patch shoulder reinforcement to prevent local slope failures.
Parks near urban areas provide important opportunities for locals to connect with nature and enjoy outdoor leisure. Climate change planning needs in these parks are pronounced, especially given the large local populations they serve. Ecosystem services, particularly cultural ecosystem services, can frame people’s perceived benefits from these park systems and the larger region. Place attachment on park system and regional scales can differentiate the extent of perceived benefits by the strength of park and regional connection. Together, these can highlight priorities for climate action and communication. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks in densely populated southeast Michigan (US) exemplify an important urban-proximate park system grappling with climate change effects within the parks and across the region. We assisted the Metroparks in creating their Climate Action Plan, including surveying regional residents’ and Metroparks recreationists’ (n = 4069). Here, we examine associations between respondents’ prioritized ecosystem services and levels of place attachment to southeast Michigan and the Metroparks. Results show that on both geographic scales of the park system and region, the three most valued cultural ecosystem services were leisure time spent outdoors, appreciation of beauty, and physical/mental health benefits. However, place attachment level (ambivalent, moderate, or strong) on both scales surfaced ecosystem services prioritization differences and a potentially enhanced role of cultural ecosystem services related to relationships—cultural heritage, social capital, and spirituality—within the Metroparks and with the strong place attached. We discuss these patterns and their connections to the park system and regional climate action planning and communication.
The protection and expansion of forest carbon sinks are critical to achieving climate-change mitigation targets. Yet, the increasing frequency and severity of forest disturbances challenge the sustainable provision of forest services. We investigated patterns of forest disturbances’ impacts on carbon sinks by combining spatial datasets of forest carbon sequestration from biomass growth and emissions from fire and bark beetle damage in the western United States (U.S.) and valued the social costs of forest carbon losses. We also examined potential future trends of forest carbon sinks under two climate-change projections using a global vegetation model. We found that forest carbon losses from bark-beetle damage were larger than emissions from fires between 2003 and 2012. The cumulative social costs of forest carbon losses ranged from USD 7 billion to USD 72 billion, depending on the severity of global warming and the discount rate. Forest carbon stocks could increase around 5% under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 or 7% under RCP 8.5 by 2091 relative to 2011 levels, mostly in forests with high net primary productivity. These results indicate that spatially explicit management of forest disturbances may increase forest carbon sinks, thereby improving opportunities to achieve critical climate-change mitigation goals.
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