This workbook offers land managers a menu of adaptation strategies, offering flexible, yet tangible, options for considering climate change when managing California's forests. It reflects the context of the state's forests and is informed by a synthesis of California forest adaptation literature. It is intended to be used within the Adaptation Workbook, which presents a five-step framework to incorporate effects of climate change on forests into planning, decision-making, and implementation.

In response to the 2021 Dixie, Tamarack, and Caldor fires, three emergency forest restoration teams (EFRTs) were formed to rapidly assist private landowners in restoring their forests' health. Today, 15 EFRT programs work across the state to provide no-cost post-disturbance technical assistance to landowners, including mechanical site preparation, reforestation, and post-planting maintenance.

This peer-reviewed publication imagines a scenario where by 2040, 26 million hectares of natural and agricultural lands are reforested with 30 billion trees at a cost of $33 billion USD. Through this example, the authors evaluate the ecological and operational challenges today that would stand in the way of acheiving that imagined future.

Climate change threatens the health of forests, but land managers must make decisions today without knowing exactly what the future will look like. This framework helps land managers make the best decisions possible in the face of uncertainty, detailing a varierty of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies that managers could take and emphasizing the importance of reversible and incremental actions.

Trees are experiencing higher mortality and lower growth rates as climate change affects their native ranges. Many land managers are interested in assisted migration as a solution. This decision-support tool helps land managers identify potential seed sources by comparing the current climate of a tree's natural range to the projected future climate (under RCP 8.5) of the user's desired planting site. Users can view data on the potential productivity of six conifer species from now until 2080.

This peer-reviewed publication compares the effects of three soil amendments—an organic amendment, a chemical fertilizer, and a mycorrhizal inoculation—on the establishment of barefoot Jeffrey pine seedlings. The chemical fertilizer increased seedling growth by 78% compared to control conditions, while the mycorrhizal inoculation had no effect on growth. The organic amendment decreased growth compared to control conditions, likely due to impaired water relations.

This case study evaluates the effectiveness of an experimental site preparation practice implemented in South Lake Tahoe, CA: the mastication and spreading of unmerchantable biomass on over 1,000 hectacres of postfire forested land. The practice proved to be effective at preventing erosion, reducing drought stress, and controlling understory shrub regrowth.

The El Dorado Resource Conservation District's Seedling Program fulfills conifer seedling orders for land managers across the state. The program was established through a partnership with the USDA Forest Service's Placerville Nursery, which is able to produce several million seedlings each year with seven available species: Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar, Jeffrey Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Sierra Redwood, Sugar Pine, and White Fir. Land managers can place orders for the following year by December 31st.

This program provides emergency funding to non-industrial private landowners whose forests' health has been impacted by a natural disaster. Up to 75% of the cost of emergency conservation practices can be covered by the program. Land is eligible if, left unmanaged, the damage from the natural disaster would either (1) harm the natural resources on the land or (2) significantly affect future land use.

This compilation of resources, created by the USDA Forest Service, helps forest managers to make adapt their lands to climate change. Resources include: a framework for responding to climate change, a guide to performing climate change vulnerability assessments, adaptation strategies for both forested lands and urban forests, and an adaptation workbook.

This handbook offers a four-step process for small-parcel private landowners (less than 100 acres) in the Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascades to create forest management plans. The handbook's fourth step, "Evaluate your Treatment Options," includes guidance on site preparation, planting, and postplanting maintenance practices.

This manual discusses methods for both natural and artificial forest regeneration, with a focus on regeneration after timber harvest. Land managers are guided through the regeneration process and learn considerations for site preparation, stock selection, and planting.

This peer-reviewed publication investigated the effects of herbicide, fertilizer, and insecticide treatments on the growth response of Ponderosa pine seedlings. At low-quality planting sites, herbicide for vegetation control was the most impactful treatment, while fertilizer was the most impactful treatment at high-quality sites. The two treatments also had synergystic impacts when applied together, especially at low-quality sites.

While tree spatial heterogeneity is known to heighten resistance to fire, the natural process by which spatial heterogeneity develops is not well understood. This study investigates the natural regeneration patterns of trees in a forest with a restored fire regime. The results suggest clumped spatial patterns are positively associated with establishing regenerating conifer trees, and that high shrub cover may be beneficial; common reforestation practices do not reflect these findings.

This peer-reviewed publication compares the degree of competition in current and historical forests through relative stand density index. The authors' analysis shows that historical frequent-fire forests were significantly less dense than contemporary forests, meaning trees competed less for resources. The authors argue that creating significantly lower density stands of trees with minimal competition could increase the resilience of forests to drought and wildfire.