Restoration

Prescribed fire, Big Cypress National Preserve
Prescribed fire, Big Cypress National Preserve. Photo: NPS.

Restoration strategies can include:

  • Develop and implement restoration protocols and techniques that promote ecosystem resilience and facilitate adaptation under a range of possible future conditions.
  • Restore or enhance areas that will provide essential habitat and ecosystem services during ecosystem transitions under a changing climate.
  • Restore disturbance regimes as appropriate to emerging conditions, including instituting human-assisted disturbance where necessary (e.g., prescribed fire).
  • Develop programs to encourage resilience through restoration of habitat features that provide natural buffers.
  • Redesign or mitigate existing physical barriers or structures that impede movement and dispersal within and among habitats to increase natural ecosystem resilience to climate change.
  • Consider climate change in post-fire or post-drought restoration/enhancement – emphasize use of plant species that will be robust to climate change.
  • Anticipate increased need for seed sources and propagated plants.
  • Maintain a seed inventory with high-quality seed for a range of species, particularly species that may do well in the future under hotter conditions.