Overview

The Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service manages 20 million acres of National Forest land in California and assists the State and Private forest landowners in California, Hawaii and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands. Eighteen national forests are located in this region. The Pacific Southwest Region is commonly referred to as Region 5 (R5).

Engaging Partners in an All Lands Approach

Climate change is re-shaping how the Forest Service provides ecosystem services and sustains the health, diversity and productivity of our national forests. In California, water will be the most pivotal resource affected by climate change. The Agency has created a Strategic Framework for responding to climate change and accomplishing the Forest Service mission in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

Region 5 will focus our needs and work. Three paramount influences are climate change and shifting hydrologic patterns, overly dense forests and California's rapidly increasing population. Although the Region is already successfully implementing ecological restoration activities, increasing demands for ecosystem services is growing faster than our current treatments and restoration work, and the scale of work is not adequate to influence the trend of growing impacts.