Top Ten Recommended Resources

This section contains the top ten recommended resources curated through a partnership with University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, University of California–Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, American Public Gardens Association, and The Morton Arboretum, highlighted (in order of presentation) during the 2023 and 2025 American Public Gardens Association conference sessions related to climate change adaptation planning. 

1. Example: Melbourne Gardens/Royal Botanic Garden Victoria (Australia) Landscape Succession Strategy
2. Organization: Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens
3. Tool: Climate Assessment Tool (Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens and Botanic Gardens Conservation International)
4. Tool: Landscape Succession Toolkit (Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens)
5. Tool: A Menu of Adaptation Action for Botanic Gardens and Arboreta (University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens)
6. Tool: Climate Change Adaptation Workbook—Climate Change Response Framework (U.S. Dept. Agriculture Climate Hubs, U.S. Dept. Agriculture Forest Service, Northern Institute of Applied Science, American Forests)
7. Tool: Menus of Adaptation Strategies and Approaches (Northern Institute of Applied Science)
8. Example: University of California–Davis Arboretum and Public Garden Living Landscape Adaptation Plan
9. Tool: Disaster Readiness Initiative (American Public Gardens Association)
10. Tool: Plant Collections Network (American Public Gardens Association)

Organizations

Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens (CCABG): The CCABG brings together botanic organizations and friends to take action to protect and enable adaptation of botanic landscapes in a changing climate.

USDA Climate Hubs: The Climate Hubs and their partners support USDA’s Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan, connecting science and practice through place-based resources.

Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS): The NIACS develops synthesis products, fosters communication, pursues applied science, and provides technical assistance for climate adaptation and carbon management. Provides many tools for assessing impacts of climate change and how to adapt to it.

Workbooks and Tool Kits

Climate Change Adaptation Workbook—Climate Change Response Framework 

(U.S. Dept. Agriculture Climate Hubs, U.S. Dept. Agriculture Forest Service, Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, American Forests)

A structured process to consider the potential effects of climate change, and design land management and conservation actions that can help prepare for changing conditions. The process is completely flexible to accommodate a wide variety of geographic locations, ownership types, ecosystems, and land uses, management goals, and project sizes. Useful adaptation menus have been generated for a variety of landscape types.

Who it’s for: A diverse range of people working in forestry, natural resources, and agriculture, including biologists, foresters, planners, soil conservationists, and consultants. The Workbook is designed primarily for professionals, but motivated landowners will also be able to use it. People with clear management goals and knowledge about their local ecosystems can use the Workbook, whether they are making management decisions for individual parcels or across a broad landscape.

Examples using this workbook: 

University of California–Davis Arboretum and Public Garden—Living Landscape Adaptation Plan (USA)

Village of Riverside, IL—Reforestation Project (USA) 

Landscape Succession Toolkit 

(Botanic Gardens of Australia and New Zealand)

Offers botanic gardens and arboreta a framework by which to adapt to the climate crisis, and transition their living landscapes and plant collections to ones that will continue to thrive in the future climate. Contained within are the many benefits of landscape adaptation and succession, how to build your knowledge and understanding of climate, the practical applications of adaptive management, and guidance on how you might structure and draft your own strategy or planning document.

Who it’s for: Botanic gardens and arboreta seeking strategies and actions for developing site-specific landscape adaptation plans. This will help in managing the transition of a cultivated landscape to one that is dominated by plants more likely to be resilient under the projected climate for that landscape, while maintaining high botanic values and the desired landscape character. This toolkit is also relevant to parks and broader landscape management, and can be used by all to support action and change.

Example using this tool kit: 

Melbourne Gardens / Royal Botanic Garden Victoria Landscape Succession Strategy (Australia)

A Menu of Adaptation Action for Botanic Gardens and Arboreta 

(University of British Columbia Botanical Garden’s Sustainable Communities Field School and Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens)

Assessing adaptation actions across the global botanic garden network, this tool aims to showcase gardens taking action, and has been designed as a living document that can be updated and revised over time.

Who it’s for: Botanic gardens and arboreta seeking information to support the integration of climate adaptation into current and future operations.

Climate Adaptation and Risk Management Attribute Workbook 

(Part of the American Public Gardens Association’s Sustainability Index)

Focuses on strategies for adapting to rapidly changing ecosystems and reducing the impacts upon people, valuable infrastructure, and plant collections, including resilience and disaster planning. This document lists the goals and key performance indicators that have been identified as standards for gardens to better address climate adaptation and risk management in their policy and practice.

Who it’s for: Gardens looking to prioritize climate adaptation action items to safeguard plant collections and people from hazards in a way that makes sense for their own specific needs. This toolkit is meant to guide gardens in anticipating, adapting, and flourishing in the face of climate change.

Additional Literature and Tools

Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches for Land Managers (2nd edition Swanston et al., 2016): This U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service general technical review provides a collection of resources designed to help forest managers incorporate climate change considerations into management and devise adaptation tactics. Developed as part of the Climate Change Response Framework.

Conserving and Using Climate-Ready Plant Collections (Volk et al., 2023): This eBook introduces climate change and its impacts on plant collections, agriculture, and the conservation of plant genetic resources. It also includes specific information about breeding strategies to adapt crops to changing climate conditions.

Climate Assessment Tool (Climate Change Alliance of Botanic Gardens and Botanic Gardens Conservation International): This is a tree species selection tool for your garden/location under different climate change scenarios.

• Example using this tool: The Trees of the Pisa Botanic Garden (Italy) evaluated their garden under different climate change scenarios and documented the process in this paper.

Disaster Readiness Training (American Public Gardens Association): This training resource can help gardens plan and prepare for disasters, including weather-related emergencies.

Climate Change Data Portals and Reports

Climate Change Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) (Argonne National Laboratory, USA): Dynamic Downscaling (WRF); 12 km gridded resolution (sub-county); 3 GCMs; mid- and end-of-century. Generates reports for temperature, precipitation, wind, and community resilience.

Climate Data Explorer (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): Statistical downscaling (LOCA algorithm), county-scale summaries, continuous time series, access to download summary figures, historical/projection data as downloads.

IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): Much coarser-scale analyses, but has worldwide data and truly latest results (CMIP6).

IPCC 6th Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023  (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): Report from the Panel’s 58th Session held in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 2023 covering current status and trends, long-term climate and development futures, and near-term responses in a changing climate.

Climate Toolbox (University of California, Merced and partners): This site has a series of U.S. focused tools, including a map of future USDA Cold Hardiness Zones and a Future Climate Dashboard that are useful for assessing the growing conditions for plant collections.

Future Urban Climates (University of Maryland): This tool identifies contemporary climate analogs for late 21st century climate projections. You can see what the climate in your city will feel like in 60 years.
 Climate Risk Viewer (USDA Forest Service): Climate exposure and vulnerability information in the Climate Risk Viewer can help illustrate climate trends and their effects on forest and other ecosystem resources, the current condition of these resources, and future projected climate changes and their effects. (Go to “Explore the Data” to see the interactive map with climate and vulnerability layers.)