In a changing climate, forests are an asset – helping to mitigate carbon emissions, protect our air and our water quality, safeguard our precious biodiversity, and more. However, forests are also at risk, struggling under the combined stresses of climate change, forest fragmentation and loss, non-native invasive pests and pathogens, and more.
Understanding how to manage and take care of forests in such an uncertain future is a complex undertaking: we must balance managing forests for climate resilience and adaptation, carbon sequestration and storage, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, while also considering the benefits of local renewable resources to justice, equity and human health.
The Sierra Club hosted Ethan Tapper, the Chittenden County Forester and Tim Stout, Principal of Northam Forest Carbon, for a discussion of how to take care of our forests in a changing climate. Recorded 9/16/21