Photo credit: John Prince Research Forest team

Greetings ASCC Network,

Wow, what a year it’s been. 2025 brought a fair share of challenges and change, but also marked one of our most expansive and productive years as a Network team. Despite the challenges of this year, ASCC has continued to grow in size and impact, demonstrating that adaptation in the face of uncertainty is more than just a phrase. It’s also an important characteristic of our ASCC Community of Practice.  

At the ASCC Network leadership level, we experienced several transitions. Linda Nagel accepted a position as Department Head and Professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota over the summer. Chris Swanston recently accepted a new role as Director of Science at Save the Redwoods League. We also welcomed multiple new members to our team, including ASCC intern Rylee McMillan, and ORISE fellows Aly Ennis and Lucy Rea. 

2025 brought exciting Network endeavors: published and ongoing research efforts, a revamped ASCC website, and new outreach efforts, which we will dive into in more detail later in the Network Impact section below. From virtual workshops and conference panels, to topical work group meetings and field visits, our Network found ways to stay connected and collaborative over the past twelve months.

As we look ahead toward 2026, we’re in the midst of revisiting our Network Roles and Responsibilities to align with our strategic vision and goals. We’re also continuing to reflect and align our future work based on the three major themes we identified in 2024. These three themes are:

• Sustainable and Vibrant Network: Maintain a highly engaged community of managers and scientists who are working collaboratively to develop, evaluate, and promote climate-informed silvicultural practices.

• Generate Applied Science: Generate science that is contributing to a growing body of knowledge addressing climate change challenges and developing best practices for implementing climate adaptation strategies in real-world scenarios.

• Advance Implementation of Climate-Adaptive Silviculture: Apply ASCC lessons learned in on-the-ground implementation of climate-adaptive silviculture practices in forest ecosystems through training with decision-makers.

We look forward to continuing to use these goals as a guidepost heading into the new year. Each site lead, collaborator, partner, and member of this Network has played a critical role in helping us continue to grow in the face of uncertainty, and we are so grateful for the commitment all of you have poured into this shared work. See you in the new year!

-The ASCC Network Leadership Team

New ASCC Team Member Spotlight

Our team grew in the past year! Rylee, Aly, and Lucy hit the ground running, increasing our team capacity, spearheading new research and outreach efforts, and making invaluable contributions to our collective body of work.

The Ohio Hills’ team, composed of USFS Northern Research Station, Wayne National Forest, Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Division of Forestry, and Ohio University researchers and managers, planted 8,700 seedlings as part of an assisted migration experiment at the site. A total of 10 tree species were selected for their potential climate adaptation traits using the USFS Climate Change Tree Atlas. The seedlings were sourced from Arkansas where current climate conditions resemble the future climate of southern Ohio. The Ohio Hills team is excited to monitor the success of the plantings into the future.

Photo Caption: Ohio Hills’ planting team, composed of USFS Northern Research Station, Wayne National Forest, Ohio Department of Natural Resources-Division of Forestry, and Ohio University researchers and managers

Photo credit: Dave Apsley

Our highlights for the year include:

1) Hosting our first post-treatment field tour for the Driftless Area community (led by Brad Hutnick, WI DNR),

2) planting seedlings in the resilience and transition treatments across five blocks, and

3) completing the first season of post-treatment vegetation sampling across five blocks. The three blocks in Minnesota are on a delayed schedule, one year behind the Iowa and Wisconsin blocks. One of those blocks was harvested last month and the other two are under contract and should be harvested this winter.

Photo caption: A site visit to the Driftless ASCC block located at the Hallock Demonstration Forest in Millville, Wisconsin, showing attendees of the October 10 tour: staff with the Ho Chunk Nation Department of Natural Resources, members of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board, a local reporter from the Independent Scout, and area foresters and wildlife biologists.

Photo credit: Devesh Bahuguna, Wisconsin DNR

In July 2025, Crosby Farm ASCC hosted a tour of the plots for volunteers to celebrate the start of the 6th year of the experiment and to share 5-year results. Some of the tour attendees were part of the original planting and watering crews. Catherine Glenn-Stone (pictured) and Nick Parrott presented their graduate research that they successfully defended in the spring/summer of 2025.

Photo caption: Catherine Glenn-Stone sharing results on physiology to volunteer tour group

Photo credit: Marielle Mateo

Second College Grant marked eight years of planted seedling measurements with a visit from NIACS/ASCC colleagues Samantha Myers and Maria Vicini to help with field work.

Seedling survival remains high in the Transition treatment, with standout performance from white pine, red oak, red spruce, and American chestnut.

Photo Caption: Field crew measuring seedlings in the fall

Photo credit: Pete Clark

Site-lead Josh Puhlick presented approaches for adapting longleaf pine ecosystems to climate change at the Biennial Southern Silviculture Research Conference in Greenville, SC. The presentation highlighted approaches used at the Ichauway ASCC site.

Avery Holbrook and Josh Puhlick published an article in Forests about forestry assisted migration with a focus on survival and density of turkey oaks six years after planting at Ichauway. You can read the publication here.

There were also field tours of the Ichauway ASCC site during the Longleaf Pine Management Course and the Ecological Forestry Workshop hosted by The Jones Center at Ichauway. Graduate students from the University of Georgia and University of Florida attended the week-long course, and managers from various public and private organizations attended the week-long workshop. One of the transition stands was featured during field tours for the International Conference on Forest Carbon and Resilience. Josh Puhlick was also part of a panel session with other ASCC site leads and leadership at the Society of American Foresters National Convention.

Photo caption: A photo of turkey oak

Photo credit: Josh Puhlick

2025 brought some personnel changes to Red Pine Cutfoot ASCC with Brian Palik retiring and the addition of Catherine Glenn-Stone and Lucy Rea. In 2025 we resampled hemispherical photographs and LAI (last in 2016), along with collection of micro-site variability in soil moisture and above and below ground temperatures (annually since 2016).

We also have a manuscript in preparation evaluating 8 years of forest assisted migration in the Transition treatment, and began investigation of planted seedling performance and growth related to artificially created drought conditions. 

Photo Caption: Hemispherical photograph taken in 2025 at Red Pine ASCC Cutfoot Experimental Forest, transition gap

Photo Credit: Doug Kastendick

Across the Network, we’ve made strides in communication and outreach, launched work groups, pursued research, and presented on various site initiatives. Here are some of the major highlights from 2025, and some of what’s coming next in the new year.

Topical Working Groups

Adaptation Planting Group: We convened a cross-site ASCC Adaptation Planting working group to advance practical guidance on tree planting for adaptation, including forest assisted migration. The group, led by Pete Clark and our ASCC leadership team, is developing shared best practices via research and outreach products from across the Network.

Student and Early Career Group: We launched an ASCC student and early career working group, with a kick-off meeting in late October. The group is designed to foster meaningful connections across people involved in the ASCC Network by linking current, past, and future students and early career professionals, and to encourage collaboration across members. The group will also aim to support professional and academic growth opportunities.

The working group will meet bi-weekly beginning in January 2026, and is open to members of our broader ASCC adaptation community. If you know of someone who might be interested in joining, contact maria.vicini@colostate.edu for more information!

Conceptual diagram of the resistance–resilience–transition framework applied to the ASCC Network, positioned vertically along a spectrum of ecological persistence to change (i.e., adaptation). The y-axis presents the degree of alignment with current conditions relative to the future range of acceptable outcomes (i.e., desired future conditions). Graphic: Kailey Marcinkowski.

Indigenous Fire Research: University of Minnesota researchers Joshua Friedlein, Rebecca Montgomery, and Mike Dockry have been pursuing an Indigenous fire research project. The goal is to advance understanding of the barriers and approaches to Tribal co-production of climate-adaptive silviculture knowledge at research sites across North America. In the fall, their team led a tour at the Cutfoot with community members, including elders, knowledge holders, youth, and other interested community members, facilitating a conversation around their experiences and possibilities for future engagement with ASCC.

Carbon Management and Climate Adaptation: For her ORISE fellowship, Lucy Rea is developing a research project to examine trade-offs in carbon storage with climate-adaptive silvicultural approaches. She will examine carbon storage across treatments in different sites, and compare trade-offs with resistence, resilience, and transition treatment goals. She also plans to project the future implications of climate adaptive silviculture on forest carbon. 

Network Metadata: Thank you all for providing information earlier this year about the data variables being collected at your sites. Aly Ennis is currently working on organizing and summarizing this network metadata in order to identify opportunities for cross-site synthesis and collaboration. She may be reaching out to folks for more information about the research going on at your sites, so look out for those emails in the new year. 

Forest Assisted Migration at the Colorado ASCC Sites: During Rylee McMillan's internship with us, Rylee designed a StoryMap that describes forest assisted migration as an adaptation strategy and its application at the Colorado ASCC Sites. The goal is for this product to be updated as additional treatments are performed at the sites. Check out the StoryMap on our website.

Updated ASCC Website: Over the summer, Rylee McMillan and our team updated the ASCC website to incorporate the latest site updates and modernize the site layout. Thank you to everyone who provided site updates throughout early 2025. We’ve recently created updated news and publications pages, where we plan to share regular content, events, and research updates beginning in 2026. Check out the updated website here.

Capturing Network Impact

Reporting Form: To streamline efforts related to quantifying our network impact, we will launch an updated reporting form in January. This will allow us to more effectively communicate the story of our Network, stay up-to-date on all the great work sites are doing, and share this impact with our broader community.

Convening In-Person & Virtually

ASCC at SAF: In October, we hosted an ASCC Network Panel at the Society of American Foresters National Convention (SAF) in Hartford, CT, titled: Creating Forests for the Future through Climate-Adaptive Management. The panel was moderated by Maria Vicini, with speakers including Joshua Puhlick, Kristen Waring, Pete Clark, and Christopher Riely. The panel discussion provided lessons learned from implementing climate-adaptive forest management practices utilizing the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change framework. Speakers highlighted examples of regionally-specific management strategies intended to promote long-term forest adaptation while balancing multiple-use objectives. 

Fall 2025 Virtual Workshop: Our Network also convened in September, where we brought sites together virtually to share updates on progress since fall 2024, articulated our goals for the coming year, and continued to explore opportunities for cross-site research and sharing of lessons learned. Ideas for collaboration were wide-ranging, encompassing everything from collating ASCC lessons learned into a playbook for others in the adaptive silviculture space, to working through funding challenges together, pursuing cross-site research related to fuels, economic trade-offs, wildlife, and assisted migration.

In 2026, we will continue to build upon these initiatives and expand our Network impact and outreach efforts. Keep an eye on our website in the new year for periodic updates on our progress. Have a wonderful holiday season, and see you in the new year.