Pepperwood President & CEO Dr. Lisa Micheli is a contributing author on the San Francisco Bay Area Region Report for California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, which was released August 28th.

California’s Climate Change Assessments provide the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability at the local scale and informing resilience actions. This cutting-edge research initiative is comprised of a wide-ranging body of technical reports, including rigorous, comprehensive climate change scenarios at a scale suitable for illuminating regional vulnerabilities and localized adaptation strategies in California; datasets and tools that improve integration of observed and projected knowledge about climate change into decisionmaking; and recommendations and information to directly inform vulnerability assessments and adaptation strategies for California’s energy sector, water resources and management, oceans and coasts, forests, wildfires, agriculture, biodiversity and habitat, and public health. (http://www.climateassessment.ca.gov/)

The report highlights Climate Ready North Bay, a product of Pepperwood’s Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Collaborative (TBC3) with Sonoma County’s Regional Climate Protection Authority. This public-private initiative defined climate vulnerabilities in the context of local opportunities and constraints in water supply, land use suitability, wildfire risks, ecosystem services, and biodiversity. It provides a valuable case study of a facilitated engagement process that effectively bridges the science-management divide.

We’re excited about the wealth of information the Fourth Climate Change Assessment provides to the public and those tasked with managing our natural resources! It is critically important that we take collective action. For an update on what’s at stake for California in the face of climate change, check out this article by the LA Times.