Climate project screening tool: An aid for climate change adaptation

To address the impacts of climate change, land managers need techniques for incorporating adaptation into ongoing or impending projects. We present a new tool, the Climate Project Screening Tool (CPST), for integrating climate change considerations into project planning as well as for developing concrete adaptation options for land managers. We designed CPST as part of the Westwide Climate Initiative project, which seeks to develop adaptation options for addressing climate change through science/management partnerships. The CPST lists projected climate trends for the target region and questions to be considered when designing projects in different resource areas. The objective is to explore options for ameliorating the effects of climate on resource management projects. To pilot the CPST, we interviewed 13 staff members and line officers of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in the Sierra Nevada region of California. We found that a major value of the CPST was the process—with the activity of conducting the questionnaire being as important as the answers received from the staff. The CPST also serves as a priority-setting tool, allowing managers to consider effects of different actions. Finally, the CPST helps to reduce uncertainty by identifying the range of impacts that both climatic changes and management actions may have on resources. The CPST could also be modified to devise mitigation options for resource managers.