USFS Climate Gallery - Climate By Forest StoryMap

After the 2012 National Forest System Planning Rule directed the USDA Forest Service to begin considering climate change in their land management plans, Forest Service personnel turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Explorer tool to get projections of future climate conditions. This tool from the U.S. Climate Resilence Toolkit provides climate projections for every country in the contiguous United States.

Working with developers of the open-source Climate Explorer, employees from the Forest Service Service Region, Southern Research Station, and the USDA Southeast Climate Hub requested a new version of the tool, called Climate By Forest, to access projection data by ecoregion within National Forest System (NFS) lands. This StoryMap includes instructions on how to use the tool, an embedded version of the Climate By Forest tool, a guide to the ecoregions used in the tool, and a description of the climate variables used.