6th Annual PINEMAP Meeting Held in Athens, GA
On May 24-26, 2016, PINEMAP, a collaborative initiative that was formed to aid southern pine plantation owners as they adjust to an increasingly variable climate, held its last annual meeting in Athens, GA.
The PINEMAP Team 2016
On May 24-26, 2016, PINEMAP, a collaborative initiative that was formed in 2010 to aid southern pine plantation owners as they adjust to an increasingly variable climate, held its 6th and final meeting.
The PINEMAP team focused primarily on compiling and analyzing the vast amount of data that the project had gathered over its six year span and deciding how to construct a coherent narrative to communicate what they had learned. The data collected will be used for growth and yield models, the improvement of our understanding of genetics, as well as to aid further study on drought’s effect on pine plantations.
Team members have already used project data to construct the PINEMAP Decision Support System, which allows users to select their location and observe area-specific climate projections for future summer temperatures, precipitation changes, yearly minimum temperature and more. This tool, which is still improving and expanding as it undergoes development, is intended to provide help with making decisions whose outcome will be affected by changing climatic conditions.
All in all, the meeting provided the PINEMAP team an opportunity to reflect on the project's many successes, especially the immense amount of useful data generated. This data will help provide pine plantation owners with better tools and information for managing their land under greater climate variability and more intense risks.About PINEMAP
PINEMAP, or the Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation project, started in 2010 and involves 12 southern universities, 8 forest research cooperatives and more than 80 scientists, graduate students and a few small teams of Extension personnel. PINEMAP integrates research, extension, and education to enable southern pine landowners to manage forests to increase carbon sequestration; increase efficiency of nitrogen and other fertilizer inputs; and adapt forest management approaches to increase forest resilience and sustainability under variable climates. Visit PINEMAP.org for further resources and information.
