This handout/these slides were presented at the 30th Annual Carolina Farm Stewardship Association by the Author. Please do not reproduce without the express consent of the authors.

1. Agricultural Solutions: adapting to and mitigating
climate change on farms and forests in the southeastern US
When: January 20-21 2016
Where: Virtual; register at
serch.us/workshop
Who: NRCS extension, FSA, RD, FS
Field Staff, state and private
forestry, Land managers, land
owners, general public
How: Register at
serch.us/workshop. Email Sarah
Wiener with any questions
(sswiener@ncsu.edu).
About the Workshop:
• USDA Regional Climate Hubs focus on adaptation to and mitigation of climate
change on agricultural and forest lands
• This virtual Southeast workshop will focus on adaptive strategies that make
working lands more resilient to an increasingly variable climate, while at the same
time mitigating greenhouse gas emissions
• State and federal programs that support these efforts will be highlighted, along
with tools for improving resilience and communication methods
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Workshop
Hosted by the USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub

2. Pam Knox - Climate Vulnerabilities & Forecasting in the Southeast
Laura Lengnick - Increasing Mitigation through Adaptive Management
Steve McNulty - Climate Communication
Bill Hohenstein - Overview of USDA’s Mitigation Strategy
Richard Straight - Building Carbon and Resilience through Agroforestry
Sarah Wiener - Climate Hubs Tool Shed Demo
David Lamm - Soil Health
Adam Chambers - Resources for Estimating and Maintaining Carbon;
COMET
Steve Musser - USDA Programs for Agricultural Producers
Mark Risse - Mitigation in Livestock and Poultry Systems
John King - Forest Stewardship
Richard Birdsey - Current Resources for Estimating and Maintaining
Forest Carbon
Bill Hubbard - Overview of Forestry Extension & Climate Science Learning
Network
Speakers and Topics
(subject to change)

3. Tool Shed:
tools.taccimo.info
TACCIMO: taccimo.info
SERCH LIGHTS:
serch.us/lights/subscribe
Newsletter: globalchange.ncsu.edu/serch
Website:
climatehubs.oce.usda.gov/southeast
FIND
US!
SERCH delivers science-based
information on climate change to
farmers, ranchers, and forest land
managers to maintain and improve
sustainability of working lands under
increasing climate variability.
SERCH LIGHTS is a location-based
drought alert system. Subscribers
receive an email alert when the drought
condition for their location is expected
to change, according to NOAA’s Monthly
Drought Outlook.
The right information
in the right place
at the right time
SERCH
LIGHTS
SERCH is headquartered in
Raleigh, NC and serves AL,
AR, GA, FL, KY, LA, MS, NC,
SC, TN, and VA.
AgroClimate is a suite of climate
adaptation tools for land managers in
the Southeast. SERCH is working with
AgroClimate to expand the geography
of these tools.
The Forestry Toolkit App is a field
guide for foresters, and SERCH is
updating this app to reflect recent
climate science.
Extending existing tools to
create new opportunities
CREATING
VALUE
Southeast Regional Climate Hub
(SERCH)

4. Addressing Climate
Variability
and Change
Steve McNulty, SERCH Director – smcnulty@fs.fed.us, 919-515-9489
Sarah Wiener, SERCH Coordinator – sswiener@ncsu.edu, 919-515-9490
The Climate Hubs Tool Shed is the go-
to database for land management
professionals to find decision support
tools that help adapt to climate change
and variability. With 150 tools and
simple and advanced search functions,
users can locate the best tool for the
job. Visit tools.serch.us.
TOOL
SHED Tools and data
at your fingertips
TACCIMO (Template for Assessing
Climate Change Impacts and
Management Options) is a web-based
knowledge management system that
meets the climate change science needs
of resource managers. Explore at
taccimo.info.
TACCIMOProviding the best
available science
Increasing frequency of
extreme events, such as
drought and precipitation
(right) has lead to increases in the cost
of disasters (lower left) and crop losses
(lower right). Visit serch.us/viz.
CLIMATE
VARIABILITY
Extreme Event Return Interval (months)
10.70 40.34
Leading Crop
Loss Cause –
2000-2009

5. Tools Prospectus
Decision support tools for working lands are proliferating, particularly in the form of mobile applications
and websites. These tools can improve ease of delivery for science-based information to working land
managers. Where tools are individually limited in some way – such as geographic scope or regarding up-
to-date science on climate variability and change – SERCH plans to employ a four-facet approach (fig. 1)
to take full advantage of existing tools by:
• Extending existing climate variability and change tools across sectors and scales (both
geographic and temporal)
• Amending existing tools that do not currently address climate variability and change with relevant
scientific information enabling them to address climate variability and change
• Creating new tools that integrate existing tools of all types to realize complementary and
synergistic opportunities
• Maintaining tool delivery systems that ensure effective and efficient dissemination along with
needs assessments to guide future tool development
Figure 1—SERCH approach to tool development, integration, and delivery with 2015-2016 proposed projects.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

6. SERCH Projects 2015-2016
Available Projects
• SERCH LIGHTS (Lately Identified Geo-specific Heightened Threat System) is a location-based
email alert system that notifies users when climate conditions may threaten resources within their
geo-specific area, coupled with timely adaptive management information. The initial prototype
version of SERCH LIGHTS will notify subscribers with the NOAA Climate Prediction Center
forecasted changes in drought conditions in their geo-specific location and couple that forecast with
adaptive management information from TACCIMO, AgroClimate, NRCS Conservation Planning
Process, and the Service Foresters’ Handbook. Visit serch.us/lights/subscribe.
• The Climate Hubs Tool Shed is a national Hub effort led by SERCH to provide a framework for
inventorying tools and assessing their attributes for working land managers. The Tool Shed enables
SERCH to identify candidate tools most appropriate for land manager use to maximize their short-
and long-term working land productivity, sustainability, and economic gain. Visit tools.serch.us.
In-Progress Projects
• The Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO)
is a web-based knowledge management system containing an adaptive information infrastructure
supporting the development and delivery of scientific information for land management decision
support. TACCIMO was originally developed and parameterized for forests and ecosystems but
could be expanded to address other sectors, including the core working land sectors of SERCH
(i.e., croplands, livestock, and grazing lands). After TACCIMO is populated for a new sector, it can
serve as the basis for amending other tools (e.g., Service Foresters’ Handbook and the NRCS
Conservation Planning Process) with the information needed to help them address climate change.
• The NRCS Conservation Planning Process is the method that NRCS uses to deliver technical
assistance and incentives to producers. The process includes 163 practices that address 44
general resource concerns commonly encountered among producers. SERCH is working with
NRCS to assess the 44 resource concerns in the context of climate change and variability. The
potential vulnerabilities of each concern will be aggregated across specific resource types (e.g.,
crops, agroforestry, etc.).
• The Forestry Toolkit is a staple of forest management decision making for decades and was
recently developed into a mobile application through SREF. Neither the Handbook nor the app
considers the impact of changing climate variability in their guidance. As increasing climate
variability creates new challenges for forest managers, and SERCH is working with the developers
to include climate change science in the app.
• AgroClimate is a web platform containing a suite of tools lead by the University of Florida
researchers to assist farmers in the southeastern US in making climate-informed decisions.
AgroClimate integrates real-time climate into its decision support tools and translates that science
into locally-scaled, user-specific information. However, its geographic scope is limited, with most
tools only covering five states in the Southeast, and some tools covering even less area. SERCH is
working with AgroClimate to extend those tools across all 11 SERCH states.
SERCH was established in 2014 to assist working lands managers in adapting to climate
variability and change. SERCH priorities include modifying existing decision support tools to
include climate variability science into their design and expanding tools geographically or by
sector. SERCH is partnering to expand the scope and improve the functionality of these tools in
the face of changing climate variability. By modifying tools, rather than creating new ones,
information will reach land managers while efficiently using existing resources.
Contact the SERCH Director Steve McNulty at smcnulty@fs.fed.us or 919-515-9489. Visit
SERCH at http://globalchange.ncsu.edu/serch/
and http://www.climatehubs.oce.usda.gov/southeast-hub.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.