Climate Action Resource Library

The below resource library is a collection of resources developed by others and compiled by the Climate Action Committee, in large part from the Climate Action Symposium (held 2025) to assist individuals and firms in their climate action efforts. This library is a ‘living document’. If you have any resource suggestions, please send them to contact@asla-sierra.org.

ASLA Oregon Chapter's Climate Resource Guide

ASLA Oregon Chapter has compiled a resource library similar to ASLA Sierra's. They are a great resource for climate related topics in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
Climate Resource Guide

Resilient by Design: Bay Area Challenge

Resilient by Design was a design challenge that focused on creating climate-resilient landscapes in the Bay Area. A free book can be downloaded that showcases the work of the 10 design teams that were selected to participate in this challenge.
Design Book

30 x 30 California

The State of California has a goal, established by executive order in Oct. 2020, of conserving 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030 – known as the 30x30 initiative. This is part of an international movement to conserve natural areas across our planet. Within the 30 x 30 initiative are a number of resources, including 30 x 30 pathways and CA Nature. 30 x 30 pathways is an outline of the State's approach to the 30 x 30 initiative. CA Nature, is a GIS based compilation of statewide biodiversity, access, climate, and conservation information.
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Living Future

Living Future is an organization that provides a vision of the future where we have reconciled humanity's relationship with the natural world. They are best known for the Living Building Challenge, a certification program for regenerative, self-sufficient buildings.
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Urban Tree Foundation

The Urban Tree Foundation based in Visalia, CA has compiled numerous resources to guide practitioners in tree selection, tree pruning, street tree management, and identification of healthy v.s. unhealthy trees. These resources include written information, visuals, as well as cue cards for the field. On this site they have also provided free Planting Details and Specifications in both CAD and PDF form.
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Red List Chemicals

Red List Chemicals are a list of chemicals developed by the Living Building Challenge that represents the "worst in class" substances prevalent in the building industry that pose serious risks to human health and environment.

Collaborating with Industry Partners on Climate Action and Biodiversity

Collaborating with Industry Partners on Climate Action and Biodiversity is a document developed by ASLA to guide conversations among landscape architects, vendors, and product manufacturers

Decarbonizing Specifications

Decarbonizing Specifications is a document developed by ASLA with guidelines for landscape architects, specifiers, and contractors to help them decarbonize.

Cutting Green Tape

The California Natural Resources Agency's 'Cutting the Green Tape' is their signature initiative to increase the pace and scale of ecological restoration and stewardship by amending and streamlining various government processes.
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Sacramento Park City

Sacramento Park City is an organization within Sacramento pushing our City to become the first National Park City in North America and one of 25 cities by 2025. This is an organization ASLA Sierra Chapter supports as a partner.
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ECOS Campaign for Protecting Natural Areas in the City of Sacramento

The Environmental Council of Sacramento and the Coalition for Habitat developed the "Campaign for Protecting Natural Areas in the City of Sacramento" document, which profiles nine at-risk landscapes in City parks.

Rewild Sacramento

Rewild Sacramento is an all-volunteer organization with the mission, "to empower and support their community in transforming urban neighborhoods into thriving green ecosystems that enhance the well-being of people and nature". In their founding year, they planted nearly 50 trees in Sacramento and are working to educate and train additional volunteers to continue planting projects throughout their community.
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Pollinator Partnership Regional Planting Lists

Pollinator Partnership promotes the health of pollinators through conservation, education, and research. This organization's website has free resources including planting guides for different regions and a tool for creating pollinator-friendly native plant lists for habitat projects.
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Seedlot Selection Tool

Seedlot Selection Tool is a GIS mapping program designed to help forest managers match seedlots with planting sites based on climatic information. Can be used to evaluate assisted migration.
Seedlot Selection Tool

Network of Nature Mini Forest

Network of Nature - Mini Forest is a program working with communities to successfully plant, maintain, and monitor mini forests from coast-to-coast-to-coast. Includes a map of completed projects, tracking information, and guides for both implementation and curriculum.
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Green Communities Canada Mini Forest Training

A training curriculum to build an understanding of how to coordinate a Mini Forest project and to support new coordinators through their first Mini Forest event.

SUGi

SUGi is an organization that works with Forest Makers to increase biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and reestablish connection to nature. This is a global network with case studies, ongoing logs, and training for mini forests.
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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)

Article in The Dirt discussing embodied carbon and introducing the life cycle assessment and environmental product declarations as tools to measure it.
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Climate Positive Design

Climate Positive Design is a resource that brings people, particularly landscape architects, together to reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere through the exterior built environment. They offer tools, guidance, and resources to facilitate this. Most well known is their Pathfinder tool, which designers can use to measure both the embodied carbon, maintenance carbon, and carbon sequestration of their project over time.

COMET-Planner

COMET-Planner is a tool that provides land owners and conservation planners, including CalTrans, with the ability to evaluate potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Practices.
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California Wildfire and Landscape Interagency Treatment Dashboard

The California Wildfire and Landscape Interagency Treatment Dashboard is a single source for displaying recently completed forest and wildland projects from over a dozen different federal and state agencies.

Calfire Grants

CAL FIRE grant programs provide funding for fire prevention activities, to improve forest health, and to enhance community resilience. Additional benefits to communities include workforce development in rural and tribal communities, business innovation, and new recreation opportunities.
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IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home program

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety has a program for certificate designation for "Wildfire Prepared Homes" for residential properties. This website outlines the requirements and process for the "Wildfire Prepared Home" certificate designation.
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Calfire Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reporting Dashboard

The Fuels Treatment Effectiveness Reports (FTER) evaluate the impacts vegetation management treatments have on fire behavior. This highlights how fuel reduction activities not only assist in suppression efforts but also protect life, property, and the natural resources of California. This site has two dashboards to display the effects of involved treatments. The Treatment Reporting Overview page provides a sense of how many fires have impacted fuels treatments and how effective they've been. To explore more in depth, use the Impact Details page to explore the map, look at individual incidents, the treatments they impacted, and read about what happened.

Playbook for the Pyrocene

Playbook for the Pyrocene is a practical guide to wildfire-adaptive design for landscape architects, planners, and urban designers.

EPA's WaterSense

WaterSense is a voluntary partnership program sponsored by the EPA to label water-efficient products and provide resources for water savings.
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Disclaimer: Resources provided above do not necessarily represent the opinions of ASLA Sierra Chapter.