As landowners grapple with the daunting complexity of climate change adaptation, infrastructure issues – such as access roads and water crossings – provide a direct intersection between climate change impacts and private land management decisions.

 

This was one of the lessons that Manomet Senior Program Leader Eric Walberg shared with the Gulf of Maine Council’s Climate Network during a conference earlier this month.

 

Walberg talked about lessons learned from Manomet’s climate change adaptation planning at the Allen Whitney Memorial Forest in Maine and at Tidmarsh Farms in Massachusetts.

 

The conference featured speakers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and many other organizations.

 

Walberg also told conference participants that extreme weather events present obvious problems but also opportunities for adaptation.

 

Walberg is scheduled to speak next at the Massachusetts Green Career Conference in Marlborough, MA, on Oct. 3 and at the Southern New England Planning Conference on Oct. 17 in Worcester, MA. At the planning conference, Walberg will appear on the “Planning for Tomorrow’s Climate Today” panel.

 

– Dave McGlinchey