Skip to main content

Investigate Options

Midwest Glacial Lakes Partnership Conservation Planner

This mapping tool provides data for glacial lakes in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The data includes likely suitability for fishes, land cover along the shoreline and in the lake’s watershed, and conservation recommendations to supplement existing information for each lake. The planner can be used to inform single-lake management, establish a framework for conservation strategies in each lake, identify patterns in fish habitat due to climate and land use change, and help prioritize limited resources among lakes. 

Compendium of Adaptation Approaches

This web-based database was created to help natural resource managers and landowners identify actions for responding to climate change, providing a curated list of adaptation actions. The collection is organized by adaptation approach—click on each approach for more information on how the idea links to broader adaptation strategies and more specific management tactics. Users can browse by resource area, region, or climate change impact.

Great Lakes Silviculture Library

According to the USDA Forest Service, silviculture is the "art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society such as wildlife habitat, timber, water resources, restoration, and recreation on a sustainable basis. This is accomplished by applying different types of silvicultural treatments such as thinning, harvesting, planting, pruning, prescribed burning, and site preparation."

Climate Adaptation For DoD Natural Resource Managers

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) owns or manages more than 25 million acres of land, representing a wide array of natural ecosystems that support numerous rare and endangered species. These lands are critical to maintaining the nation’s security by supporting military training and testing that can take place under realistic conditions. Over the coming decades, DoD installations will experience significant impacts from climate change, which could compromise their capacity to support the military mission and undermine DoD’s ability to protect and restore native species and ecosystems.

Building Resilience

This website from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers highlights community resilience and building design and siting. It includes the Corps' Resilience Initiative Roadmap and describes how building codes can be used to increase project and community resilience. The site provides resources and links for site sustainability, site security, community resilience, buildings, and natural hazards and adaptation.

Climate Change Response Framework

The Climate Change Response Framework is a collaborative effort that addresses the major challenges that land managers face when considering how to integrate climate change into their planning and management, bridging the gap between scientific research on climate change impacts and on-the-ground natural resource management. The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) leads the Framework, with support from many partners (see partial list, and a link to the full list, at right).

Climate Change Field Guide for Northern Wisconsin Forests

Climate change is a growing concern for forests across Wisconsin. Foresters, land managers, and landowners are considering how to prepare for future conditions and how to evaluate risks for particular sites.

This guide, a downloadable PDF, highlights key information that can be used during field visits or forest planning. The developers hope that the guide will help foresters consider climate change risks together with local site characteristics, and help people design adaptation actions that meet management goals.

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) Tools Network

The Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) Tools Network, co-coordinated by NatureServe and OCTO (Open Communications for the Ocean), is a source of information and training for planning and management tools for coastal-marine ecosystem-based management, marine protected area and marine spatial planning, and integrated land-sea planning. Its mission is to promote healthy ecosystems and communities by increasing the knowledge and capacity of coastal-marine practitioners to apply tools that help incorporate ecosystem-based thinking into management decisions.

RETScreen

RETScreen is a clean energy management software system for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and co-generation project feasibility analysis, as well as ongoing energy performance analysis. RETScreen Expert, an advanced premium version of the software, is available in viewer mode completely free of charge.

Subscribe to Investigate Options