In October the Regional Hub Leads gathered in Washington D.C. to discuss their successes and challenges over the last year. Tasked with producing science-based, region-specific information and tools for their stakeholders, the USDA Regional Climate Hubs spent 2014 working hard to ensure they understood who their constituents where, building regional partnerships, and identifying regional needs before rolling up their sleeves in 2015 to start producing results.
In 2015 the Climate Hubs accomplished numerous things, here are the top five:
- Completed eight comprehensive regional vulnerability assessments that inform land managers how climate is affecting their operations now and in the future and provides adaptation strategies to help land managers build resilience. Using the Regional Vulnerability Assessments, the Hubs are engaging the USDA program agencies to better connect science to all USDA programs working on risks and vulnerabilities.
- Coordinating with other federal climate networks to organize research and delivery. The Hubs are working closely with their federal partners to ensure stakeholders in the field have the information and tools they need to make climate-informed decisions.
- Building partnerships with Land Grant Universities as the Hubs cement regional networks to improve the delivery of information and tools to land managers through Cooperative Extension, eXtension, and the USDA Service Centers.
- Populating the Climate Hubs Website with region-specific information, tools, references, and links for land managers in the field and beyond.
- Published the Climate Hubs Toolshed, an inventory of tools from across the country that can assist agricultural and forest land managers in adapting to climate variability and change.
Helping land managers building resilience to a changing climate will continue to be a challenge with no easy answers, but the coming year promises to be even more productive as the Hubs continue expand their networks and identify regional needs. To find out more about what the Hubs are doing or find the Hub nearest to you, check out the Hubs factsheet or follow us on Twitter @USDAClimateHubs.