Forests mitigate climate change as they sequester a substantial amount of our carbon emissions. However, forests face threats from drought and disturbances. Predicting how and why forests will respond over the next century is challenging because abrupt change can emerge from small-scale processes. Dr. Hansen will discuss their work to determine how and why forests and fire regimes in North America are changing, the consequences for critical ecosystem services, and our efforts to ensure the best available ecosystem science informs coordinated local efforts that can scale to a national strategy.