Species Potential Habitat Tool

Species Potential Habitat Tool (SPHT) allows managers to identify suitable species for specific sites under current climates and a range of future climate change scenarios. The tool allows forest managers to select species to plant or to promote using other silvicultural activities such as natural regeneration or thinning. Thus, the SPHT can help promote the transition of forest to species compositions that are better adapted to future climates. The SPHT may be used in conjunction with the Seedlot Selection Tool (SST) to allow users to explore options for both species-level and within-species assisted migration. Currently the tool has data for five key species (e.g., Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Sitka spruce, and Engelmann spruce) in western North America, and this will eventually be expanded to 42 tree species.