Northern Forest Futures Project

Where are “Northern Forests”?

“Northern Forests” span public and private ownership in both rural and urban landscapes across the 20-state region bounded by Maine, Maryland, Missouri, and Minnesota. Information used in the Northern Forest Futures Project includes both regional and global trends, but results will be scaled to the northern region

Why care about forests?

Forests ecosystems provide many public benefits from clean air and water to timber and scenic places.  The mix of benefits constantly changes in response to natural forces and human activities.  

Northern Forest Futures Project

The Northern Forest Futures Project is a multi-year research effort, chartered by the USDA Forest Service, the Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters, and the University of Missouri. It is using leading-edge scientific talent and analysis to

• Start with existing assessments and inventories and a scoping of trends and public issues
  • Current Conditions overview
  • Data about current conditions
  • Analysis of current conditions
  • Trends and public issues overview
  • Summary of public issues found in scoping (pdf)
  • Summary of state issues and goals (pdf)
• Build alternative futures based on those trends and the latest ecological and social science

  • Overview of process being used to build futures

• Analyze what those futures mean for people and forests

  • Analysis of future conditions (publication available 2013)

• Deliver an educational outreach that allows individuals, organizations, and resource managers to directly assess what difference possible lifestyle, policy and management choices make to the well-being of their communities and forests

Goal

The goal of the project is to forecast how known and emerging natural resource and societal trends will alter the character of tomorrow’s forests and how the resulting changes will alter the ability of forests to contribute to the wellbeing of people and communities.

 

Some links on this page point to documents in portable document format (pdf). You may download free pdf reader software from the Adobe website.