Trees can help mitigate climate change impacts; however, climate change creates risks for urban forests. Urban and community forests, for instance, face health risks in higher temperatures, more drought and rising sea levels. Risks vary from community to community and even site to site.
Rapid change means rethinking planting selection, placement and care.
The resources below can help forward planning and response to a changing climate.
Understanding Global Impacts
By 2050, more than 70 percent of urban trees could be vulnerable to climate-drive changes in mean annual temperature and annual precipitation.
Climate: Past, Present and Future
Explore past, present and projected future climate in easy-to-understand maps and graphs. The site shows climate data from 1950 through 2100 for every county in the United States.
Toolkits and Frameworks: Climate-Ready Tree Species
The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science’s Urban Forestry Framework project addresses tree species and overall urban forest vulnerability for US cities. These ready-made resources help local managers create climate-ready planting lists.
Toolkits and Frameworks: Coastal Resilience
This calculator produces location-specific scenarios for sea level and flooding, as well as information about present-day and past conditions.
This site provides a framework, network and mapping for using nature to reduce coastal flood risk.