El Niño 2026-2027: What Could It Mean for the North Central Region?

A potentially very strong El Niño is developing for 2026-2027, but what might that mean for the North Central region? Explore a new USGS CASC resource to learn what scientists are forecasting.

Shifting Shades of Drought

How do we better track when landscapes are becoming unusually dry? In the latest NC CASC blog, graduate researcher Kelsey Warren shares her work developing a new approach to Consecutive Dry Days (CDD).

Shifting Shades of Drought

I spent the summer of 2026 as a graduate research assistant with the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) and this RCAP team, developing a proof of concept for a new approach to an existing drought metric: Consecutive Dry Days (CDD), a way to quantify the occurrence of dry spells.

Bringing back bison to Colorado using plant functional traits

Bison (Bison bison) were the dominant, keystone grazer across the Great Plains, North America’s largest biome, for millennia and shaped prairie ecosystems. However, European settlement in the 1800s across this region led to widespread slaughter and near extinction of this once prolific species.

Bringing back bison to Colorado using plant functional traits

Bison (Bison bison) were the dominant, keystone grazer across the Great Plains, North America’s largest biome, for millennia and shaped prairie ecosystems. However, European settlement in the 1800s across this region led to widespread slaughter and near extinction of this once prolific species.

New RCAP Blog on Woody Plant Management

How are land managers working to keep grasslands from turning into woodlands? In a new NC CASC student blog, CU Boulder PhD student Em Wright explores the growing challenge of woody plant encroachment across the Great Plains.

Keeping the Grass in Grasslands: How Land Managers are Managing Woody Plants for Healthy Prairies

Forests play an important role in removing carbon from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change. So, if trees are so critical, why cut them down? The answer is a bit complex.

The SPARRO tool has launched

Over the last three years, scientists, economists, and conservation partners have worked together to develop SPARRO and address a critical gap in consistent, reliable information about grassland bird populations and conservation priorities.

NC CASC Webinar Series is Back! September 10, 2026

Join us for an upcoming NC CASC webinar highlighting collaborative efforts that are advancing the science and practice of pinyon-juniper management.

When

Managing pinyon-juniper woodlands for resilience is increasingly challenging as climate change, altered disturbance regimes, and diverse stakeholder priorities reshape western landscapes. Across the West, these landscapes provide a wide range of ecological, cultural, economic, and recreational values, including wildlife habitat, Tribal and community resources, watershed function, livestock forage, recreation opportunities, and wildfire mitigation. Because conditions, management goals, and available resources vary substantially across this vast region, land managers face difficult decisions about where, when, and how to invest in actions that will sustain resilient pinyon-juniper ecosystems and the benefits they provide. These challenges underscore the need for collaborative approaches and tools that help managers balance multiple objectives while adapting to future climate conditions.   This webinar highlights complementary efforts that are advancing the science and practice of pinyon-juniper woodland management across the western United States. We first present a climate-informed decision support framework developed through collaboration among researchers, land managers, and stakeholders to support the planning, prioritization, and evaluation of management actions across the Colorado Plateau. We then introduce two biome-scale initiatives led by the Intermountain West Joint Venture: the Pinyon-Juniper Mapping Project (PJMap), which is developing a spatial framework to assess woodland extent, condition, ecological integrity, and management needs across the biome; and the Pinyon-Juniper Management Network (PJMN), a manager-focused community of practice that facilitates knowledge exchange and supports the integration of science and practitioner expertise into management decisions.   Finally, we highlight two place-based efforts that are testing and applying these concepts on the ground: the Pinyon-Juniper Adaptive Silviculture Project in southwestern Colorado, which evaluates how thinning intensity and structural heterogeneity influence drought resilience and wildfire risk, and the Pinyon Community Climate Action (PiCCA) project in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, an interdisciplinary partnership among Tribal Nations, land managers, community organizations, and researchers working to strengthen woodland resilience under future climate conditions. Together, these initiatives demonstrate how collaborative science, manager-focused tools, and adaptive management strategies can help sustain resilient pinyon-juniper ecosystems across the West.