The Forest Identification and Restoration Selection Tool (FIRST) was developed by the Natural Areas Conservancy in New York City as part of a bigger project to create climate-adaptive planting palettes for urban forest restoration projects. The tool leads the user through a dichotomous key to identify species that are appropriate for ecological restoration and resilient to future climate conditions.
In a nutshell, this resource offers:
- Planting palettes, community types, and species lists for ecological restoration projects in the New York City metro area.
- Climate-resilient options for planting projects, using suitable tree habitat projects from the US Forest Service Climate Change Tree Atlas.
How to use this resource:
- As a handy way to identify forest types while in the field, according to the New York Natural Heritage Program.
- As a reference to help identify species that are appropriate to the current habitat and projected to be resilient in future climate scenarios.
Author: Natural Areas Conservancy
Date published: 2019
Point of contact: Helen Forgione, Senior Ecologist, Natural Areas Conservancy, helen.forgione@naturalareasnyc.org
Resource is available online here.
A screen capture of the Natural Area Conservancy's Forest Identification and Restoration Selection Tool (FIRST). Click on the image, or the link above, to use the tool.