Climate change scenario planning for resource stewardship: Applying a novel approach in Devils Tower National Monument
Schuurman GW, Symstad A, Miller BW, Runyon AN, Ohms R. 2019. Climate change scenario planning for resource stewardship: Applying a novel approach in Devils Tower National Monument. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NRSS/CCRP/NRR—2019/2052. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
This report explains scenario planning as a climate change adaptation tool in general, then describes how it was applied to Devils Tower National Monument in the context of a first-of-its-kind pilot project to dovetail scenario planning with NPS Resource Stewardship Strategy development. Park and regional National Park Service staff, other subject-matter experts, natural and cultural resource planners, and the climate change adaptation core team who led the project identified priority resource management topics and associated climate sensitivities in the orientation phase. Next, we used this information to create a set of four divergent climate futures—summaries of relevant climate data from individual climate projections—to encompass the range of ways climate could change in coming decades in the park. Participants in a scenario planning workshop then developed climate futures into robust climate-resource scenarios that included resource impacts and identified potential management responses. Finally, this scenario-based analysis was operationalized in the form of climate change-informed resource stewardship goals and activities selected and adopted by park staff for the park’s Resource Stewardship Strategy. This process of engaging resource managers in climate change scenario planning ensures that their management and planning decisions are informed by assessments of critical future climate uncertainties.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Schuurman, Gregor; Symstad, Amy; Miller, Brian; Runyon, Amber; Ohms, Rene
- Date of Issue
- 2019-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CCRP , DETO , NRSS