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.

The 2026 RCAP Wraps Up!

This summer, seven graduate students joined scientists and natural resource managers to tackle some of the most pressing climate adaptation challenges across the North Central region of the United States.

Future Wildfires in a Warming United States

While wildfires are a natural part of our ecosystems in the North Central region, climate change is increasing the conditions that promote larger, more frequent, and more intense wildfires.

Improving Seasonal Rainfall Forecasts in the Northern Great Plains

Can conditions in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans help predict summer rainfall in the Northern Great Plains? New research by NC CASC researchers Prasad Thota and Imtiaz Rangwala suggests they can.

New Publication on Wildlife Disease Dynamics

Prairie dogs are a keystone species of the Great Plains, but periodic outbreaks of sylvatic plague can rapidly devastate entire colonies, with cascading effects on grassland ecosystems. New research by Ana Davidson and collaborators draws on nearly 30 years of monitoring and observations...

2nd Annual Tribal Climate Workshop

In June, the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center's Tribal Liaisons, Janna Black & Kynser Bell, joined partners and Tribal communities for the 2nd annual Tribal Climate Workshop in Browning, Montana with Blackfeet Nation.