In this webinar from the Forest Stewards Guild and Southwest Fire Science Consortium, attendees learn insights from the recent paper “Building Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptive Capacity: a Systematic Review of Aspen Ecology and Management in the Southwest” (https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxad004). The speaker highlights the threat to aspen ecosystems posed by climate change, chronic ungulate browse, and outbreaks of the invasive insect oystershell scale. He makes the case for three aspen management objectives to address these threats and increase aspen resilience and adaptive capacity: (1) promote diversity in age structure by enhancing regeneration and recruitment, (2) mitigate impacts of ungulate browse on recruitment, and (3) enhance structural, adaptive, and functional complexity. The webinar details how various management strategies could meet these objectives.

Speaker: Dr. Connor Crouch, Forester with the USDA Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest.