its continuation Award-winning work For Tools Training, the USDA California Climate Hub designed and conducted a series of workshops focused on applications for the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. Regional resource kit. The latest workshop, led by Hub Program Manager Jennifer Smith and Science Applications Specialist Jess Delarossa, brought together forest managers from state and federal agencies at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Redding.
The task force's regional resource kits provide web-based management tools and geospatial data tailored to four regions: the Sierra Nevada, Southern California, Central Coast, and North Coast to reduce wildfire risk and improve forest management. We aim to increase resilience. Data, the task force's core metrics, and Planscape, a decision support tool that allows users to visualize core metrics, were the main focus of the workshop.
Participants worked in small groups to explore Planscape's metrics and completed two hands-on exercises that helped them imagine possible applications for the tool. Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions about the metrics and provide feedback on their usefulness to Peter Stine, a scientist on the metrics development team.
On the second day of the workshop, participants learned how metrics can be used outside of Planscape to inform forest decision-making through modeling. Research ecologist Patricia Manley details the use of metrics in her ForSys model for USFS, and model developer Alan Ager explains topics discussed in Manley's presentation. The case study was explained to the participants.
“We specifically curated the workshop content to effectively communicate complex topics and provide time for participants to practice using data in real-world scenarios,” said DellaRossa. “Given the positive feedback we received from workshop participants, it was well worth the effort.”