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Are you a resource manager or researcher interested in learning how to work with climate data in Python?

Register for our next Climate Data 101 in Python Workshop

Are you a resource manager or researcher interested in learning how to work with climate data in Python? If so, the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center and Conservation Science Partners invite you to register for a Climate Data 101 in Python Workshop.

Jennifer Balch Quoted in AP Article on Fireworks

NC CASC University Director, Jennifer Balch, was quoted in a recent AP article on recent cautions in the West on firework use before July 4th celebrations amid a historic drought.

New Paper: Rapid assessment to facilitate climate-informed conservation and nature-based solutions

A new article from the Wildlife Conservation Society (@WCSAdapts), a North Central CASC Consortium Partner, and co-authored by PI Molly Cross, introduces a rapid assessment framework to make nature conservation more resilient to climate change. The authors draw on lessons learned from a decade of funding over 100 adaptation projects designed to benefit wildlife and ecosystems. The new "5Ws" framework offers conservation practitioners initial steps to ensure their work will withstand climate impacts by considering the "what, when, where, why, and who" of their project design. 

Upcoming ESA Webinar: Guidelines for the Use of Traditional Knowledges

Join the Ecological Society of America (ESA) for their upcoming webinar on July 23rd at 12:00pm EST, "Guidelines for the Use of Traditional Knowledges."

Join us for the next Joint Stakeholder Committee (JSC) Listening Session on Grasslands

The NC CASC and USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub will hold a series of topic-based listening sessions with the Joint Stakeholder Committee (JSC) and their team members. The JSC provides guidance, coordination, and collaboration to these two unique but complementary entities and helps facilitate communication and awareness for federally funded climate research.

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Presented by: Gregor Schuurman, Ecologist, National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program Abstract: Strong climate trends and other modern human drivers effectively place ecosystems in new contexts with new challenges for managers and society. Mounting costs of restoring past conditions or even “holding the line” to preserve current conditions are increasingly likened to paddling upstream. This situation is both a practical and a philosophical challenge for managers because an assumption of stationarity—i.e. “the idea that natural systems fluctuate within an unchanging envelope of variability”—underlies traditional conservation and natural resource management. This assumption is expressed in widespread reliance on ecological baselines to guide protection, restoration, and other management. In this brave new non-stationary world, resisting change is not always the most effective approach for achieving long-term management goals. In fact, unexamined resistance may lead to misinvestment of limited management resources and loss of opportunities for more effective action. Managers are therefore expanding their toolkit. Resisting change continues to be a valid approach where careful consideration shows it to be strategic (i.e., feasible and cost-effective), but is increasingly complemented by options to instead “go with the flow” and either accept the trajectory or intervene to direct it towards preferred new conditions. New thinking in the National Park Service along these lines encourages managers to consider the full range of potential decisions, as expressed in the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. The RAD framework, the product of long-term collaboration among a diverse set of partners, helps managers make informed, purposeful choices about how to respond to the trajectory of change. This presentation will describe the challenge of strong ecological trajectories and transformations and introduce the RAD framework and illustrate its application alongside other important tools and concepts. About the speaker: Dr. Gregor Schuurman is an Ecologist with the National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program, which is headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado. He works with parks and partners to understand and adapt to a wide range of climate change impacts. Specifically, his work focuses on 1) helping incorporate climate projections into management and planning, 2) producing and synthesizing management-relevant science, and 3) developing climate adaptation tools and concepts. Gregor received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington's Zoology Department and his M.S. from University of Minnesota’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.

NC CASC Webinar Series: Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework for Modern Natural Resource Management and Action

Strong climate trends and other modern human drivers effectively place ecosystems in new contexts with new challenges for managers and society. Mounting costs of restoring past conditions or even “holding the line” to preserve current conditions are increasingly likened to paddling upstream.

Imtiaz Rangwala Quoted in The Guardian on Recent Heat Wave

Imtiaz Rangwala, the NC CASC’s Climate Science Lead, was quoted in an article in The Guardian, “Record-shattering heat wave bakes Western US, raising drought and fire concerns,” on June 18th.

Join ITEP for a Virtual Climate Change Planning Course for Tribes

Join the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) for the virtual course, "Introduction to Climate Change Adaptation Planning (Western Region)," from August 9th-13th.