Forest Assisted Migration and Adaptation Plantings in the Northeastern US: Perspectives and Applications from Early Adopters

Abstract

Threats to the future function of forested ecosystems and stability of ecosystem service provisioning due to global change have motivated climate-adaptive forest management strategies that include various forms of tree planting termed “adaptation plantings”. Despite the emergence of these strategies, less is known as to how foresters and other natural resource managers perceive or are engaged with adaptation plantings like forest assisted migration (FAM). This knowledge gap is most pronounced in regions like New England and the North Central US (hereafter, the Northeastern US) where tree planting is less common but expected to be an important forest management tool for adaptation. To address this, we surveyed 33 natural resource managers in this region actively engaged in climate change adaptation to assess how tree planting for adaptation is currently being pursued against the perceived barriers, opportunities, and potential future engagement with the strategy. Survey respondents overwhelmingly forecast increases in the future use of adaptation plantings in their work in the region, attributed to increased awareness, acceptance, and interest in the practice. Respondents expressed notable interest in strategies related to diversification and most types of FAM, but hesitancy to engage with more contentious planting types like afforestation or long-distance translocation of exotic species. Although examples of local enrichment plantings proliferate, nineteen of the top twenty most common tree genera planted contain at least one example of FAM in the study region. The most notable barriers reported were biotic and abiotic factors, information and material limitations, and policy, social, and economic constraints. Together, these results suggest a growing need for resources that support adaptation planning and refine policy, financing, and management practices to support forest adaptation strategies in the Northeastern United States and beyond.