Operationalizing Forestry Assisted Migration to Safeguard Resiliency and Productivity of National Forests under Changing Climates
Speaker(s): Andy Bower, Office of Sustainability and Climate, USDA Forest Service, Washington D.C.
Description: Maintaining healthy forests in the face of climate change requires use of novel management actions such as assisted migration (AM) to move seed and seedlings to areas where they will be better adapted. The presentation describes U.S. Forest Service efforts to integrate AM into climate-informed reforestation policy and management operations.

Spatial Shifts of Forest Types Outpaced Constituent Tree Species Shifts Across North America
Speaker(s): Akane Abbasi, Purdue University
Description: This study shows the geographic distribution of forest types, an ensemble of tree species, shifted substantially faster than the average of constituent tree species in the past 50 years in North America. This study developed a hypothesis based on Markowitz's portfolio theory and tested it using massive forest inventory data.

How Genetics Can Inform Assisted Migration Strategies
Speaker(s): Jeremy Johnson, Michigan State University
Description: This talk explores the ways that genetics and genomics can inform assisted migration strategies in forestry through a review and synthesis of published studies.

We Need a Set of Principles for Assisted Migration
Speaker(s): David Shaw, Oregon State University
Description: Assisted migration of forest trees is being widely adopted by land managers, planners, and the general public as a climate change adaptation strategy. However, we contend that policy makers and practitioners have not fully considered the potential of assisted migration to negatively influence the sustainability of native forests.

Vegetation-Climate Mismatch in California’s Sierra Nevada and Implications for Long-Term Forest Management
Speaker(s): Avery Hill, California Academy of Sciences
Description: The strong relationship between climate conditions and vegetation distributions is being eroded by recent climate change. We found that up to 20% of modern conifer forests in California's Sierra Nevada are mismatched to the climate, which precipitates difficult moral and practical questions about managing the forests of the future.

SAF CFE: 1.5 Category 1
ESA CEU: 0.375