DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire is 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 U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies, state agencies, and land-grant university partners. The universities involved will provide the region's farmers, foresters, and land managers better access to science-based information and tools for adapting to climate and weather variability.

Based in Durham, the USDA 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.

Jon Wraith, dean of the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and director of the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, and Ken La Valley, interim dean of UNH Cooperative Extension, will serve as UNH's points of contact for the Climate Hub.

"From policymakers to farmers, growers, and producers across the state, UNH research helps the Granite State better adapt to and mitigate the agricultural, environmental and economic impacts of climate extremes," said Wraith.

"UNH Cooperative Extension's statewide network lends itself well to our overall efforts to understand the concerns of New Hampshire citizens in relation to climate and to help deliver information concerning climate to the public," La Valley said.

The Climate Hubs are a USDA multi-agency effort being led by the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Key partners in the networks include land-grant universities (particularly their Agricultural Experiment Stations and Cooperative Extension programs), USDA researchers, producer groups, the private sector, state, local and regional governments, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), regional climate experts, and nonprofits engaged in providing assistance to landowners.

"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 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.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.