Abstract
CREATIVE PROJECT: ENGAGING WITH THE FOREST SERVICE RESPONSE TO
CLIMATE CHANGE: A CREATIVE PROJECT
STUDENT: Andrew James Kennedy
DEGREE: Master of Arts
COLLEGE: Sciences and Humanities
DATE: December, 2012
PAGES: 55
The intent of this creative project was to to engage in climate change response in
a federal government agency, the United States Forest Service. Work on this project
began in May 2012, is ongoing, and is being performed at a Forest Service Unit called
Helena and Lewis & Clark National Forests. As a response to growing concerns over the
impacts of climate change on the nation’s natural resources the Forest Service developed
The National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change and the Climate Change
Performance Scorecard. The Roadmap and Scorecard are companion documents that
together form the official agency response to climate change. The Roadmap provides
vision and rationale and identifies short and long term goals related to climate change.
The Scorecard is a tool for the Forest Service to improve its organizational capacity and
readiness to respond to climate change and provides benchmarks for success. My role is
to aid the Unit in Scorecard compliance through utilization of available resources and
cultivation of needed resources. This includes collection and analysis of data related to
climate change efforts that occurred over the past year and development of strategies to
achieve compliance. Success will be achieved over time and through a team effort.