Climate change atlas offers a glimpse into forest futures

For 20 years, the USDA Forest Service's Climate Change Atlas has been giving foresters in the Eastern United States insight into how future habitat conditions may affect tree species, from dramatic change (a big increase of cedar elm, for example, and a big loss in balsam poplar) to the fairly neutral (red maple). The Forest Service scientists who designed the Climate Change Atlas recently completed a major overhaul of the online tool, including new predictor variables, an updated modeling framework, updated data, information on potential migration, and a revised series of four tutorials on how to use the Atlas.