WASHINGTON, DC—Climate change directly affects the health, diversity and productivity of America’s forests and grasslands. Healthy forests and grasslands are vital to the well-being and livelihoods of Americans. They provide drinking water for millions of people, supply food, support rural and urban jobs and provide places to recreate. They are also home to diverse fish and wildlife populations—and they influence the global carbon balance.

Climate change is already having substantial impacts on forests and grasslands, including seasonal shifts and more frequent and severe drought and other disturbances. Forest Service research on climate change provides the scientific knowledge and innovation needed to manage forests and grasslands for a sustainable future.

Agency scientists and partners inform and help develop management practices that are adaptable to changing climate conditions. For example, they are assessing the vulnerability of tribally important ecosystem services to climate change and investigating how tropical forests respond to hurricanes. In addition, researchers outreach agroforestry practices to mitigate climate change, providing science-based agroforestry and other land management practices to help land managers and decision-makers incorporate considerations for climate change into future planning. These efforts will make forests and grasslands more resilient to future disturbances, communities more prepared, and green markets and initiatives more viable.