Introducing the Landscape Conservation Forecasting Handbook

We are excited to share the publication of the Landscape Conservation Forecasting Handbook by Dr. Louis Provencher, Director of Science at The Nature Conservancy in Nevada and a long-time collaborator of ApexRMS. The handbook is a practical guide to Landscape Conservation Forecasting (LCF), a method Louis and his colleagues developed to help agencies and private land managers propose, fund, and implement cost-effective ecological restoration at large scale.

The handbook walks through the origins and purpose of LCF, outlines team roles and funder needs, and provides guidance across the full project workflow. Its eight chapters cover landscape selection, ecological system description, vegetation mapping with remote sensing, state-and-transition simulation model (STSM) development, basic and advanced modeling features, metrics of ecological success, final report writing, and future directions for the method.

ST-Sim and SyncroSim serve as the core modeling platform throughout the handbook. LCF relies on STSMs built in ST-Sim to simulate how landscapes evolve under alternative management scenarios and climate futures, and to quantify ecological return on investment. The handbook covers both non-spatial and spatial simulation approaches and details how ST-Sim features are applied in real-world projects. As Louis notes, undertaking an LCF project requires training in ST-Sim and SyncroSim, training that ApexRMS is pleased to support.

Drawing on more than two decades of LCF projects completed across the western United States, the handbook is written in an accessible, practitioner-friendly style. It is an invaluable resource for ecologists, spatial analysts, land managers, and funders working at the landscape scale. We congratulate Louis on this accomplishment and applaud his commitment to making Landscape Conservation Forecasting accessible to a wider audience.