Novel conservation strategies are increasingly recommended in the climate adaptation literature. However, we lack direct experience with these approaches, as well as the time needed to study them. While we wait for nascent efforts to be monitored, we can utilize existing data to assess and develop effective climate responses. For example, our study of historic avian translocations provided an empirical test of potential challenges of using conservation translocations as an adaptation response. Similarly, our study of forest inventory data revealed topographic characteristics associated with local refugia from climatic extremes. We encourage further mining of existing, untapped data to inform adaptation.