Adaptation Plans

Ongoing and future ecological outcomes of climate change in the Mid Klamath region of California include changes in precipitation patterns, increasing droughts, increasing frequency and severity of wildfires, and more significant disease and pest outbreaks (Butz et al. 2015, Garfin et al. 2014, Mote et al. 2014). Among the most pressing of the local dimensions of climate change taking place within Karuk ancestral territory is the increased risk of high severity fire (Lenihan et al. 2008). For the last thousand years, forested areas have become adapted to frequent occurrence of relatively low intensity fire from human and natural ignitions (Perry et al. 2011). These fire adapted forests burned in smaller overall areas in mosaic patterns that contained patches of high intensity fire (Mohr et al. 2000, Skinner et al. 2006, Perry et al. 2011).To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: adaption plan, Klamath, droughts, wildfire

In response to growing concerns about the impacts of climate change on tribal members and on their homelands, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have developed a Climate Change Strategic Plan. The Tribes worked with several partners, including Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee, Kootenai Culture Committee, Next Seven Group LLC, the Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC), the Kresge Foundation, and the Roundtable of the Crown Continent Adaptive Management Initiative, to develop a plan to inform the tribal policy and actions moving forward. This plan brings together the knowledge of elders with scientific observations to document existing impacts and prepare for future changes. The original 2013 Strategic Plan was updated in 2016. To download a PDF of the most recent version, click here.

Categories: Tribal, Adaptation Plan

From 2015 to 2016, the Puyallup Tribe worked with Cascadia Consulting Group to conduct a Climate Change Impact Assessment and identify options for adaptation. The assessment aimed to help Tribal staff and members better understand and prepare to proactively manage climate risks to ensure that Tribal customs and the Tribal community can thrive for many generations to come, despite a changing climate. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change adaptation plan

This report describes an assessment of the climate change vulnerability of priority species and habitats for the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians. In addition to describing our approach and resulting sensitivity scores and vulnerability rankings, we provide an appendix of quick reference fact sheets for each of the assessed species and habitat types, highlighting their primary climate sensitivities and research needs. These estimates of climate vulnerability, underlying climate sensitivities, and key information gaps should help lay the foundation for the Tribe’s future climate adaptation and research efforts. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: Adaptation Plan, natural resources, climate change

To the Ojibwe, natural resources are cultural resources. There is no separation between how the bands manage and interact with a resource and how their culture endures: one is dependent on the other. Climate change, however, is threatening the very viability of many natural resources important to the Ojibwe. Warmer winters, increasing fall precipitation, increasing extreme precipitation events, more occurrences of drought, and earlier ice out dates across the 1854 Ceded Territory already are affecting flora and fauna that are imperative to the culture, history, well-being, and life-ways of the Ojibwe people. Through this project, the Bois Forte Band, Fond du Lac Band, Grand Portage Band, and 1854 Treaty Authority partnered with Adaptation International, and the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessment Center at the University of Michigan. The purpose of the project was to investigate how changing climate conditions already are and could continue to affect the landscape and species within the 1854 Ceded Territory and the respective reservations. In addition to assessing changes, the partners also identified climate-related vulnerabilities and identified actions that could be taken to create more climate resilient systems.To download the PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change adaptation plan

"The purpose of the Lummi Nation Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Plan: 2016-2026 (CCMAP) is to evaluate the potential impacts of anthropogenic climate change on the Lummi Indian Reservation (Reservation), Lummi Usual and Accustomed Grounds and Stations (U&A), and Lummi Traditional Territories and to present both mitigation strategies that may reduce the causes of climate change and adaptation strategies that may minimize climate change impacts that cannot be avoided." To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, adaptation, mitigation

Michigan Tribes are currently experiencing the impacts of climate change: warmer average annual air and surface water temperatures, more volatile weather characterized by extreme precipiation events, decreases in duration and extremity of winter temperatures, and increases in duration of summer temperatures. These changes impact Michigan Tribes in numerous ways both directly and indirectly. Tribes are concerned with climate change and how to plan for potential and undefined impacts on natural features, traditional ways, public health, and infrastructure. This planning document is the result of a cooperative effort among the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, Inc., and nine federally recognized Tribes in Michigan (participating Tribes): Bay Mills Indian Community, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Ottawa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi (Gun Lake Tribe), Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: Public health, climate adaptation planning, traditional knowledge, tribal resources

This Seventh Generation Climate Monitoring Plan (the Plan) was developed by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians (the Tribe) to detect potential climate change impacts to the ecosystems and natural resources found on the Bad River Indian Reservation (the Reservation). The purpose of the Plan is to monitor for what can sometimes be subtle changes associated with climate change that can occur over many years. To download the Project Summary, click here. To download a copy of the Climate Moderating Plan, click here.

Categories: adaptation, development, climate change impacts, natural resources, cultural resources

This assessment was completed by The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute for the Treaty of Olympia Tribes, which consists of the Quinault Indian Nation, Hoh Tribe, and Quileute Tribe. It focuses on the terrestrial environment, freshwater aquatic environment, coastal hazards, and marine environment. This assessment will also serve as the basis for creating climate adaptation plans for the ecosystem and communities in the Olympic Peninsula.To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, vulnerability assessment

This climate change vulnerability assessment documents climate change impacts and trends that have been observed along the Kuskokwim River. It was commissioned by the Georgetown Tribal Council to help inform their efforts to re-settle the Native Village of Georgetown, and to provide a starting place for working with neighboring communities to plan for climate change. Information was collected through a variety of methods, including interviews with elders and the collection of Traditional Knowledge, mapping and graphing of environmental data, review of published literature, and interviews with local scientists and natural resource managers. This climate change vulnerability assessment was created to inform future development of the Native Village of Georgetown. Much of the information contained in this report, as well as the companion Climate Science Primer 1 specific to the area, can be used to inform efforts to prepare for climate impacts in neighboring villages and throughout the region. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change vulnerability assessment, adaptation

The Metlakatla Indian Community Climate Change Adaptation Plan was composed to provide support to the Metlakatla Indian Community as they are impacted by a changing climate on the Annette Islands Reserve (AIR). Throughout this document the Metlakatla Indian Community will be referred to as “the Tribe”, this term will be used to describe the entire Metlakatla Indian Community. The Tribe acknowledges the changing climate and advocates addressing the potential effects through the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and scientific evidence. This document will include the background on the AIR, local interviews on TEK, resource analysis, vulnerability assessment, and potential adaptation strategies to assist the Tribe in preparation for a changing climate. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: Tribal Adaptation Plan, climate change, TEK, vulnerability assessment, adaptation

The climate of the Nooksack River watershed is changing, and is projected to continue to change throughout the 21st century. In addition to rising temperatures and exaggerated patterns of seasonal precipitation, the watershed is likely to experience greater wildfire risk, more severe winter flooding, rising sea levels, and increasing ocean acidification. These changes will have profound impacts on the watershed’s plants, animals, and ecosystems, including changes in species distributions, abundances, and productivity; shifts in the timing of life cycle events such as flowering, breeding, and migration; and changes in the distribution and composition of ecological communities. Understanding which species and habitats are expected to be vulnerable to climate change, and why, is a critical first step toward identifying strategies and actions for maintaining priority species and habitats in the face of change. The University of Washington Climate Impacts Group worked collaboratively with the Nooksack Indian Tribe’s Natural Resource Department to evaluate the climate change vulnerability of priority species and habitats for the Tribe. This report describes the approach taken to assess vulnerability and summarizes key findings from the assessment’s results. The report also includes an appendix of fact sheets describing individual assessment details for each of the species and habitat types evaluated; these fact sheets highlight each species’ key climate sensitivities as well as data gaps of importance for understanding their vulnerability. Together, the information provided in this assessment offers a rigorous foundation for future climate adaptation efforts aimed at addressing climate risks to the Nooksack Tribe’s priority species and habitats.To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: tribal adaptation plan, assessment, climate change, flooding, rising sea levels, rising temperatures, ecosystems

The Upper Snake River Watershed has been home to humans for more than 10,000 years. Many of their ancestors still reside on the landscape and are members of the Burns Paiute Tribe, Fort McDermitt PaiuteShoshone Tribe, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, and Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation. Together, these four member tribes comprise the Upper Snake River Tribes (USRT) Foundation. 1 The climate around the Upper Snake River is changing. USRT member tribes have already noticed shifts in species and habitats driven by increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns. Such changes in temperature and precipitation have resulted in drying sagebrush steppe habitat, extended wildfire seasons, less winter precipitation falling as snow, earlier spring run-off, low summer river flows, higher water temperatures, reduced flow from springs/seeps, proliferation of invasive weeds, and the decreasing productivity of rangelands. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: Tribal Vulnerability Assessment, planning, adaptation, climate change, increasing temperatures, precipitation

This report captures the key outcomes from the Menominee Reservation Resilience Dialogues process, which took place between May 15 and May 26, 2017. The resilience Dialogues partners with communities to explore their risks from climate variability and change. Using a professionally facilitated, online process to connect community leaders to a network of vetted national experts, the Resilience Dialogues helps them work together to understand risks and lay the groundwork for long-term resilience. The service connects communities with the most appropriate resources, whether from federal agencies, regional networks, or the private sector. To download a PDF of the report, click here.

Categories: climate change impacts, cultural resources, forest management, adaptation, development

This is the next major step in preparing for climate change after the completion of the 2016 Climate Vulnerability Assessment. The plan lists 190 actions that will help protect and adapt the habitat and species important to the Stillaguamish Tribe. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, adaptation plan, natural resources

The Nome Eskimo Community (NEC), in collaboration with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP), developed a climate adaptation plan with the Nome-based tribes. This includes tribal members of NEC, Village of Solomon, Native Village of Council, and King Island Native Community. The project goals were to familiarize tribal members with climate science and local knowledge, provide an opportunity to identify and discuss climate impacts and adaptation strategies, develop a plan, and share information with other rural Alaska and Native communities. This project was funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Community values for the Nome-based tribes, which provided a basis for the climate adaptation strategies, centered on maintaining cultural activities, fostering community and relationships, and ensuring healthy people and ecosystems. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change adaptation plan

Through climate adaptation planning the Blackfeet Nation leadership is actively seeking to protect our communities and diverse ecosystems from the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. This plan is the result of the unique holistic Blackfeet Nation planning process that includes all parts of tribal government, while respectfully considering traditional values and a collective community vision for our future. Underlying the plan is the Blackfeet understanding that people and nature are one and that people can only be healthy if we ensure the health of the environment we are part of. The process and production of this climate plan has been a timely effort that is informing the Blackfeet Agricultural Resource Management Plan which is being developed concurrently. Both plans will then inform the Integrated Resource Management Plan which will be carried out over the next two years. To download a copy of the Adaptation Plan, click here.

Categories: Tribal Adaptation Plan, climate change, adaptation, TEK, community health, ecosystem health

Recently the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) Climate Change Program published Version 1 of our Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for the Ceded Territories in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. This assessment integrates scientific knowledge from climate models and species vulnerability data with traditional ecological knowledge in an attempt to make climate change information more accessible and culturally relevant for our member tribes and partner agencies. Version 1 contains detailed pages for eleven different beings (species) identified as culturally important by tribal knowledge holders. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, vulnerability, assessment, species, traditional knowledge, tribal

To look at slides from the 2017 Makah Tribe’s Climate Resilience, Adaptation, and Mitigation Planning presentation, click here.To look at slides from the 2018 Makah Tribe’s Climate Adaptation & Outreach Efforts presentation, click here.

Categories: adaptation, resilience, mitigation, assessment, funding, climate change

The Bear River stretches 73 miles long and is in need to stewardship and restoration planning. The Sierra Streams Institute put forth its final restoration plan in 2018. To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, mitigation, adaptation, action, plan, vulnerabilities

The purpose of the Fond Du Lac Band's Integrated Resource Management Plan is to manage the Band's resources effectively for future generations. The Integrated Resource Management Plan will be used to address current and future management options of the Band. The Integrated Resource Management Plan has been developed by a group of people dedicated to the protection, enhancement, and management of Fond Du Lac's resources. To download a PDF of the most recent Intigrated Resource Management Plan, click here.

Categories: climate change impacts, natural resources, adaptation, management

The Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife created the Climate Change Program to spread awareness to the Navajo people including the impacts and adaptive solutions for climate change. After a series of workshops, the Climate Adaptation Plan was drafted to summarize the most pressing natural resources concerns and vulnerabilities. More information on specific natural resource adaptation plans, reports, and strategies can be found here.To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, adaptation plan, natural resources

"What are the vulnerabilities of our forests to climate change?"- It is crucial for the future of forest management on the Navajo Nation that this question be addressed. This report derives from a collaborative, multi-faceted effort to identify and describe the vulnerabilities of Navajo forests to climate change. By providing place-based ecological data, this report can aid in developing priorities for forest management. Through the implementation of adaptive, science-based management, the Navajo forests can become more resilient to the effects of climate change.

Categories: vulnerability assessment, BIA TRP, forest management, place-based, implementation, climate change impacts

Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Climate Change Adaptation Plan. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) is a federally recognized Indian Tribe that serves 20 villages and communities stretching over 43,000 square miles within the Alaska Panhandle. The Tlingit and Haida membership is among the largest, most isolated, and most geographically dispersed of Native or Tribal populations nationwide. The region encompasses a 525-mile strip of coastline and interior waterways, bordered by Canada on the north, south, and east, with the Gulf of Alaska on the west. To download a copy of the Adaptation Plan, click here.

Categories: adaptation plan

"The National Inuit Climate Change Strategy identifiesthe coordinated actionsthat are necessary within five priority areas to meet our adaptation, mitigation and resilience-building needs in the face of rapid climate change, and a quickly evolving climate policy environment. The Strategy lays out practical objectives to advance Inuit-driven climate actions, and guidance on how to work with us to protect our way of life and support the sustainability of our communities in the face of our changing climate reality. Case studies illustrating the kinds of Inuit-led climate initiatives and partnerships we are seeking are highlighted throughout the Strategy." To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: climate change adaptation, mitigation, resilience, sustainability, community

"Within Karuk Aboriginal Territory on the mid Klamath, the effects of climate change including changes in precipitation patterns, decreased snowpack increasing droughts, increasing frequency and severity of wildfires, and disease and pest outbreaks are immediate and occuring now." To download a PDF of the plan, click here.

Categories: tribal adaptation plan, climate change, management, restoration, traditional knowledges

The Samish Indian Nation Climate Change Resources link contains many reports and information on climate change issues. To download a PDF of the Samish Indian Nation Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, click here. To download a PDF of the Samish Indian Nation Sea Level Rise Vulnberability Assessment, click here.

Categories: climate change, vulnerability assessment, sea level rise

This final report analyzes the sensitivity, exposure, impact, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability of Makah National Fish Hatchery. Some of the fish broodstock programs include Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and winter steelhead trout. The US Fish and Wildlife Service conducted these surveys to assess the vulnerability of these hatcheries in response to the changing climate. To download a PDF of the report, click here.

Categories: vulnerability assessment, natural resources, climate change

The Shinnecock Environmental Department and the Natural Resource Committee had begun researching climate change, and particularly the impacts on surface water and ocean acidification, because of tribal shellfish cultivation. The next large concern was the increasing shoreline erosion, which is contributing to the loss of trees. The staff began researching other climate change issues that were impacting the region as well. Climate change is included in the Shinnecock Nation’s strategic plan.To download a PDF of the most recent, 2019, Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Action Plan, click here.To download a PDF of the 2013 Shinnecock Indian Nation Climate Change Adaptation Plan, click here.

Categories: climate change, adaptation, mitigation, TEK, tradition, resources, marine resources, conservation, management, planning, policy, vulnerability assessment, action plan

The Disaster Mitigation Act (DMA; Public Law 106-390) is the latest federal legislation enacted to encourage and promote proactive, pre-disaster planning as a condition of receiving financial assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Act. The DMA emphasizes planning for disasters before they occur. Under the DMA, a pre-disaster hazard mitigation program and new requirements for the national post-disaster hazard mitigation grant program were established.

Categories: adaption, management, mitigation