Tools assist producers, foresters, ranchers, natural resource managers and extension in adapting to climate variability and change while making management decisions for working landscapes. Tools listed are directly relevant to climate variability and change, as well as assisting in managing factors that interact with climate, such as drought, pests, and extreme weather. Only a portion of available tools for climate, weather, and agriculture, range, and forestry sectors are listed.
Tools range from specialized calculators to data visualization maps, to models making future projections, and datasets estimating a variety of outputs (e.g. crop production, greenhouse gas flux, and species distributions). A variety of spatial scales and areas are served by different tools in that some span the globe, whereas others are regionally focused.
Certain tools may be more relevant to land managers to aid in year-to-year decision making, while other tools are more useful for researchers studying climate change and agriculture. The Climate Hubs Tool Shed provides information on tools from across the country that can assist agricultural, range and forest land managers in adapting to climate variability and change. Users can search with a keyword and our simple categories, or use the advanced search. The Climate Change Resource Center lists of various tools aimed to serve forest land managers both within and outside of the Forest Service.
Keep in mind that all tools have limitations and make assumptions that may not be appropriate for an entity’s climate/region/crop/soil/forest/range type. The United State Department of Agriculture does not endorse tools presented below.