Pepperwood's Adaptive Management Plan is a comprehensive strategy for managing vegetation to mitigate the risks of catastrophic wildfire that is applicable well beyond Pepperwood’s borders. With its foundation in the scientific research conducted on the reserve, this plan incorporates an ongoing cycle of feedback for adapting management practices based on outcomes monitored onsite.

This document is a post-wildfire, climate adaptation supplement to the 2017 Pepperwood Adaptive Management Plan (AMP). California has recently entered an era of unprecedented wildfire risk, having experienced year-after-year of record-setting fires since 2015. Continuing climate change is exacerbating the susceptibility of California's landscapes to wildfire, exposing regions to extreme wildfire-prone weather conditions and drought.

Pepperwood's forest monitoring project was initiated in 2020 with financial support from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and was designed to assess the long-term trends and range of vegetation and wildlife responses to our forest management practices.

Starting in 2010, Pepperwood has been building a Sentinel Site to systematically measure climate, hydrology, and ecosystem health in order to improve our understanding of how changes in climate affect our natural resources and communities. Our results have broad applicability to understanding how climate variability drives processes in Mediterranean ecosystems world-wide, and in turn, how to best manage land, water and wildlife in these highly biodiverse natural, working, and rural residential landscapes. 

In order to improve fire readiness and resilience throughout our region, we need to understand the patterns that have led to this moment. To that purpose, the goal of this project and report, was to better characterize long-term fire and vegetation patterns to inform hazard reduction and forest resilience strategies, and to advance public awareness.