Photo: Wildfire destruction and regrowth in the Bastrop State Park fire of 2011. Copyright 2017, Delena Norris-Tull.
Climate Change Impact on Forests
Updated December 2024
The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service jointly manage millions of acres of natural forests throughout the USA. Those forests are already being impacted by climate change. Climate change has caused millions of acres of loss to forests due to wildfires. Although forests reseed themselves after wildfires, as more and more wildfires occur, trees have fewer opportunities to reseed. After wildfires, invasive plant species can make it more challenging to replenish forests.
The BLM manages 19 million acres of pinyon and juniper forests, and has published a Workshop on Management and Conservation of Pinyon and Juniper Woodlands, with valuable information on the health of old growth pinyon pine and juniper forests. Pinyon and Juniper forests represent half of the forest acreage managed by the BLM. "These woodlands have significant values to Tribes, both as sacred sites and sources of pinyon nuts, fuelwood, and traditional uses." Various factors have led to decline in these forests, human activities, such as logging, wildfires.
The US Forest Service has numerous projects to monitor the impacts of climate change on forests and grasslands. And the USFS has developed a National Roadmap to respond to climate change impacts.
Recent wildfires, such as the fires in Bastrop State Park, Texas in 2011, and in Yellowstone National Park in the 1980s, and the most recent fires throughout California and Oregon have destroyed many thousands of acres of forests. Fortunately, in Yellowstone National Park, some of the native woodland trees have seeds that are adapted to fire. I have visited that park numerous times over the decades since those fires and have witnessed astounding regrowth. For more information on the impacts of wildfires on forests, refer to the section of this website, Wildfires in the Western USA.
References:
Links to Next Sections
Climate Change Impact on Forests
Updated December 2024
The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service jointly manage millions of acres of natural forests throughout the USA. Those forests are already being impacted by climate change. Climate change has caused millions of acres of loss to forests due to wildfires. Although forests reseed themselves after wildfires, as more and more wildfires occur, trees have fewer opportunities to reseed. After wildfires, invasive plant species can make it more challenging to replenish forests.
The BLM manages 19 million acres of pinyon and juniper forests, and has published a Workshop on Management and Conservation of Pinyon and Juniper Woodlands, with valuable information on the health of old growth pinyon pine and juniper forests. Pinyon and Juniper forests represent half of the forest acreage managed by the BLM. "These woodlands have significant values to Tribes, both as sacred sites and sources of pinyon nuts, fuelwood, and traditional uses." Various factors have led to decline in these forests, human activities, such as logging, wildfires.
The US Forest Service has numerous projects to monitor the impacts of climate change on forests and grasslands. And the USFS has developed a National Roadmap to respond to climate change impacts.
Recent wildfires, such as the fires in Bastrop State Park, Texas in 2011, and in Yellowstone National Park in the 1980s, and the most recent fires throughout California and Oregon have destroyed many thousands of acres of forests. Fortunately, in Yellowstone National Park, some of the native woodland trees have seeds that are adapted to fire. I have visited that park numerous times over the decades since those fires and have witnessed astounding regrowth. For more information on the impacts of wildfires on forests, refer to the section of this website, Wildfires in the Western USA.
References:
- US Department of the Interior. (July 2024). Workshop on Management and Conservation of Pinyon and Juniper Woodlands. Bureau of Land Management.
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