By The Southeast Climate Hub Outreach Team (Ashlynn Amon, Amit Chandramouly and Renai Nez)
Working lands (forest, agricultural and range lands) are impacted by many types of stress including drought, floods, insects, invasives and disease to name a few. Having helpful tools and resources available allows landowners to keep their lands safe and productive amid the various challenges of working with natural resources. At the USDA Southeast Climate Hub, we create tools and resources to assist landowners in managing their lands by helping them prepare for and make decisions based on climate variability and change. We are the Southeast Climate Hub Outreach Team, and we oversee the sharing of these resources with landowners across the Southeast.
Connecting with Landowners
Connecting directly with landowners is central to our mission. We participated in the Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project’s 2023 Forest Landowner Conference last October. During the two-day conference we were able to speak with landowners from across North Carolina about their lands including issues and trends they were noticing, and we offered resources and tools to help with these topics. The Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education (FOCCE) Factsheet was one of the resources that many participants were not familiar with but wanted to know more about. The FOCCE program is used to assist forest landowners in making smart decisions about engaging in the carbon economy. The goals of the program are to facilitate an understanding of forest carbon incentives and programs, to provide access to management tools and resources, to engage in forest carbon issues, and to analyze and advocate for more diverse and inclusive carbon incentives. To explore more about FOCCE, use the links below:
Southeast Climate Hub: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northern-forests/topic/forest-owner-carbon-and-climate-education-focce-program
FOCCE Program website: https://sites.psu.edu/focce/
FOCCE Resource Page: https://sites.psu.edu/focce/resources/
Last fall, we also attended the Virginia State Fair in Doswell, VA, in late September the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, NC, in mid-October. There was great interest in our Soil Salinization Manual by producers and landowners at the two events. This manual outlines the stages of soil salinization and presents management strategies that can be taken to keep your lands productive as the salinity levels of coastal soils increase. Strategies such as planting crops and trees with a higher salt tolerance and maximizing soil coverage to reduce erosion are suggested. If you are interested in this manual, visit https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/southeast/topic/saltwater-intrusion-and-salinization-coastal-forests-and-farms to learn more.
The Hurricane Preparation and Recovery Guide was our most popular resource this past fall. At both fairs and the Forest Landowners Conference, producers and landowners were interested in learning how they could make their operations more resilient to these devastating natural disasters and the associated impacts such as high-speed winds, flooding, and storm surge. Covering the 25 most economically valuable commodities in the Southeast, each guide is state-specific and includes emergency and industry contacts. Our Pine Forest, Beef, Swine, Poultry, and TPE (Tomato, Pepper, and Eggplant) guides were especially popular. Please visit https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/southeast/topic/hurricane-preparation-and-recovery-southeast-us to learn more about how this resource can help you.
We are looking forward to a busy 2024 and many more opportunities to share information that will help working landowners keep their lands safe and productive.
Additional Tools
https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/southeast
The USDA Southeast Climate Hub homepage where you can search for and access all our free tools and resources.
https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/tools/all
A searchable, public-facing database of all tools produced and co-produced by the USDA Climate Hubs.
https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/southeast/topic/emerging-forest-threats-state-fact-sheets
A state-specific forest threat guide that discusses forest health, biological diversity, water quality and quantity, wildlife, and wildfire, along with management strategies you can implement to reduce your risk to these threats.