A Guide FOR Land Managers
An Overview Of Tools To Inform Land Management Decisions
24 Decision Support Tools Researched/Analyzed To Help Guide Land Managers
The Science Advisory Panel of the California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force, in collaboration with US Forest Service Region 5 and Pacific Southwest Research Station created this guide to help land managers, both government and private, better understand the tools available to them to help make the critical decisions required to keep their lands healthy and resilient.
Background
The project team curated a list of 24 available tools for land management decision-making in California. Tools included in the list were “application ready” and applied at a regional or larger scale. For each tool, they identified a range of characteristics that could help land managers determine which tool or tools best meet their needs. The characteristics were selected through the project team’s expertise and engagement with tool users and developers.
The following characteristics were
surveyed for each tool:
- Management applications
- Geographic and spatial domain
- Pillars of Resilience
- Metrics used
- Data input and output
- Key strengths and limitations
- Required expertise and training
- Model validation
- Sustainment and maintenance
- Financial cost
- Documented applications
Click on graph to view
RESOURCES
How To Use This Page
Below are two tables representing two key results of the survey conducted by the project team.• Table 1 shows which categories of Management Application apply to each of the tools.• Table 2 identifies which Pillars of Resilience (from the Tahoe Central Sierra Initiative Framework For Resilience) each tool addresses.Land Managers should review these result tables as a first step to determining which tools would be most applicable to their land management decision making needs.
Complete Survey Responses For Each Tool
Write-Up On Additional Findings
Authors
• Jennifer Smith
USDA California Climate Hub
• John Battles
UC Berkeley
• Patricia Manley
US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station
• Steven Ostoja
USDA California Climate Hub
• Carlos Ramirez
US Forest Service Region 5 Information Management – MARS Team
• Peter Stine
Pacific Southwest Research Station