Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 13.2
Location of the Upper South Platte Watershed Protection and Restoration Project, Colorado, United States.
limited by the availability of suitable planting stock
from tree nurseries. In general, most nurseries are not
actively incorporating information about climate
change into their stocking choices, and may be unable
to provide appropriate planting stock due to policies
that use seed zones designed to protect locally adapted
genetics (Tepe & Meretsky 2011). Since forest distribu-
tion and composition in western North America are
highly correlated to the availability of annual mois-
ture, small changes in precipitation could have signifi -
cant changes in determining what type of forest, if any,
can grow where.
Lastly, the current practice of restoration on public
forests in western North America remains more reac-
tive than proactive. Planning and projects are driven
by priorities to protect
habitat
for wildlife species on
the brink of extinction, or to head off potentially cata-
strophic fi res. Goals are modest, mostly to sustain
endangered or threatened species at or just above
minimum viable population
thresholds, or protect homes
and property from fi re at the wildland-urban interface.
While recent initiatives, such as the public-private US
Fire Learning Network and the CFLR Act, suggest a
shift toward landscape-level restoration, public forest
