Maria Janowiak

Climate change increases uncertainty about future conditions and creates new challenges for those who are interested in sustaining healthy forests over the long term. A suite of Forest Adaptation Resources have been developed to support landowners and practitioners in pursuing climate-adaptive management practices, using diverse silvicultural approaches to meet the unique needs of specific sites and projects. Building upon these resources, the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project is a collaborative effort that has established a series of experimental silvicultural trials across a network of different forest ecosystem types throughout the United States and Canada. This presentation will describe broad options for forest adaptation, the ASCC Network experimental design, and how innovative silvicultural practices are being applied across ASCC sites to showcase a gradient of climate-adaptive management approaches.

Speaker Biography

Maria Janowiak is the acting director of the USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub and of the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, two collaborative efforts led by the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. Maria has 15 years of experience in helping natural resource professionals understand and adapt to climate change, with particular emphasis on forest ecosystems in the Midwest and Northeast US. She has led multiple ecoregional vulnerability assessments, created decision-support tools, taught courses, supported the development of real-world adaptation projects, and provided direct outreach to thousands of people. Maria is also a co-founder and co-leader of the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change Network, which has established a series of experimental silvicultural trials for climate change adaptation across different forest ecosystem types in the United States and Canada. Maria has a B.S. in Forestry and an M.S. in Forest Ecology from Michigan Technological University.