WVU joins Northeast Climate Hub

September 12th, 2014

West Virginia University will be one of 12 land grant universities in the Northeast to join a coalition of peer institutions in the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, a collaboration of United States Department of Agriculture agencies.

The universities involved will provide the region’s farmers, foresters and land managers better access to information and tools for adapting to climate and weather variability.

Jim Anderson, director of the Environmental Research Center in WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and Davis-Michael Professor Forestry and Natural Resources, will serve as WVU’s point of contact for the Climate Hub.

“WVU will act as a conduit of information between the Climate Hub and the West Virginia community engaged in climate adaptation research and outreach as well as producers and producer groups,” Anderson said. “We will identify key climate vulnerabilities among state producers in both agriculture and natural resources.”

As part of WVU’s effort Anderson will seek producer and stakeholder input regarding climate adaptation solutions and needs.

“Overall our role in the Hub is twofold: first to understand the concerns of West Virginia’s citizens in relation to climate and to develop solutions to these concerns and potential problems, and second to deliver information concerning climate to the public,” Anderson said.

Based in Durham, N.H., the Northeast Climate Hub is one of seven hubs around the country formed to address increasing climate and weather related risks to agriculture such as devastating floods, crippling droughts, extreme storms, fires and invasive pests. Hosted by the USDA Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, the Northeast Climate Hub is a partnership among the Forest Service, Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other federal, state and private organizations within the northeast region.

The overall purpose of the agreements is to create a network for information sharing and exchange. Universities will be active partners in developing, implementing, and evaluating decision support materials for producers that describe how to best cope with and take advantage of increasing variability in weather.

“The heart of the Northeast Climate Hub is serving land owners in the Northeast, from dairy farmers to family forest owners, and providing tools and information that they need,” said Michael T. Rains, director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. “Partnering with land grant universities throughout the Northeast is a significant step in developing a network of resources that will be local, accessible and the best available science.”

The Climate Hub will fund university projects geared toward solutions and adaptation tools that are applicable to farming and forestry practices at regional and local scales. “Our ultimate purpose is to provide science-based, region-specific information and technologies that enable climate-smart decision-making,” said David Hollinger, Director of the Northeast Climate Hub. “The land grant universities have a long and successful history of delivering science in forms that people can use.”

The Northeast Climate Hub stretches from Maine to West Virginia and includes the Northern Forest Sub-Hub focused on forestry. USDA regional Hubs are also located in the Southeast, Midwest, Southern Plains, Northern Plains, Southwest and Pacific Northwest.

-WVU-

jh/dw/09/12/14

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304.293.2394, David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu

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