Climate Programs

There are a growing number of tribal programs, government and non-government agencies and programs addressing climate change across the United States. This page includes tribal, federal and NGO climate change programs.

Title Organization Description Geography Website
Fire Science Exchange Network

The goal of the Fire Science Exchange Network is to accelerate the awareness, understanding, adoption, and implementation of readily available wildland fire science information.

Categories: wildfire, wildland, fire science, education, outreach, information, data, prevention

National, Untied States Link
Advanced Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer The Oregon Department of Forestry

The Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer is designed to increase wildfire awareness, give a comprehensive view of wildfire risk and local fire history, and educate users about wildfire prevention and mitigation resources. The site provides decision support for homeowners, communities, and professionals to identify and prioritize local fire prevention and mitigation efforts.

Categories: wildfire, prevention, planning, mitigation, natural hazard

Oregon Link
FuelCalc USDA Forest Service

FuelCalc is a desktop software application for determining changes in surface and crown fuel loading after thinning, pruning, piling and/or prescribed fire.

Categories: wildfire, prescribed burns, planned fires, fuels, prevention, mitigation, adaptation, climate change, extreme weather

National, United States Link
Washington Smoke Information

This site is an effort by county, state, and Federal agencies and Indian Tribes to coordinate and aggregate information for Washington communities affected by smoke from wildland fires. The information is posted here by the agencies themselves while volunteers built and maintain the page.

Categories: wildfire, air quality, human health, policy, planning, information, outreach, education, data, curriculum, collaboration, climate change, risk, hazard,

Washington state, North America Link
Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW) U.S. Forest Service, St. Cloud University

The Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW) was designed to help users determine which days are more likely to have adverse atmospheric conditions that make it more difficult to manage a wildland fire. It combines weather data from the surface and low levels of the atmosphere into a first-look product.

Categories: wildfire management, weather conditions, prevention

National Link
Village Safe Water Program/Alaska Native Village and Rural Communities Program EPA, State-funded

The Village Safe Water Program provides technical and financial support to communities to design and construct water and wastewater systems. It is meant to assist Alaska Native Villages and Alaska rural communities with the construction of new or improved drinking water and wastewater systems. This funding can also be used to provide training and technical assistance in the operations and maintenance of these systems.

Categories: Water, Natural Resources, Education

Northwest, Alaska Link
Bureau of Reclamation (BR) Basin Studies Program BR, DOI

Basin Studies addresses basin-wide efforts to evaluate and address the impacts of climate change. Funding is available for comprehensive water studies that define options for meeting future water demands in river basins in the western United States where imbalances in water supply and demand exist or are projected.

Categories: Water Resources

National, Southwest, Southeast, Western US Link
EPA Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) EPA

EPA's CRWU initiative provides drinking water, wastewater and storm water utilities with practical tools, training and technical assistance needed to increase resilience to extreme weather events. Through a comprehensive planning process, CRWU assists water utilities by promoting a clear understanding of potential long-term adaptation options for decision-making related to water utility infrastructure financing. This site includes resources to plan for extreme weather and tools to assess risks of extreme weather.

Categories: water management, training, technical assistance, extreme weather events, resilience

National Link
USDA Service Center Locator USDA

USDA Service Centers are designed to be a single location where customers can access the services provided by the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Rural Development agencies. This web site will provide the address of a USDA Service Center and other Agency offices serving your area along with information on how to contact them.

Categories: USDA, service centers

National Link
Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) Climate Change Program Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC)

The Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission is commonly known by its acronym, GLIFWC. Formed in 1984, GLIFWC represents eleven Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan who reserved hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the 1837, 1842, and 1854 Treaties with the United States government. GLIFWC provides natural resource management expertise, conservation enforcement, legal and policy analysis, and public information services in support of the exercise of treaty rights during well-regulated, off-reservation seasons throughout the treaty ceded territories. GLIFWC is guided by its Board of Commissioners along with two standing committees, the Voigt Intertribal Task Force and the Great Lakes Fisheries Committee, which advise the Board on policy.

Categories: tribe, climate change, treaty, off-reservation

Great Lakes Link
Climate Change and Human Health Program National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is a member of the Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health (IWCGGH). The IWCGGH is an effort to develop a strategic plan for basic and applied research on the human health of effects of climate change for use by federal agencies and institutes with a human and environmental health mission. The aim of this project is to look at all aspects of the health implications of climate change.

Categories: Tribal Health, research

National, International Link
Safe Water Program Improvement e-Learning Series (SWPI) CDC

SWPI helps health department programs strengthen services to people that use wells, cisterns, springs, and other private drinking water systems not covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Oversight for these systems vary, but core elements of successful, sustainable programs are similar. SWPI walks through the 10 Essential Environmental Public Health Services and the Environmental Public Health Performance Standards, and provides examples of using them to identify and fill program gaps in these types of drinking water programs.

Categories: Tribal Health, public health, sustainability, well water, safe drinking water

National Link
Tribal Healthy Homes Network THHN

The Tribal Healthy Homes Network is a tribally-led coalition that strives to find and share solutions for healthy, sustainable, and safe housing. We search for and help develop effective programs, and share our results with tribes. We also serve as a clearinghouse for technical support, program guidance, resources, and funding.

Categories: Tribal Health, healthy housing, technical support, funding

National Link
Climate Change: Native Voices from the Pacific Northwest Coast Swinomish Indian Tribal Community

This short film depicts Indigenous Pacific Northwest Coast views on impacts from projected changes due to sea level rise and storm surge.

Categories: Tribal Health, health, climate change impacts, environmental healht, food safety, natural resources, cultural resources

Washington Link
Center for Disease Control (CDC) Climate and Health Program CDC

The Center for Disease Control’s Climate Change Program leads efforts to prevent and adapt to the anticipated health impacts associated with climate change. The Program seeks to identify populations most vulnerable to these impacts, anticipate future trends, assures that systems are in place to detect and respond to emerging health threats, and takes steps to assure that these health risks can be managed now and in the future. The program has 3 core functions: 1) To translate climate change science to inform states, local health departments and communities; 2) To create decision support tools to build capacity to prepare for climate change; and 3) To serve as a credible leader in planning for the public health impacts of climate change.

Categories: Tribal Health, education, adaptation, public health

National Link
Tribal Public Health and Environmental Think Tank American Public Health Association

Many American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes across the United States are finding their traditional ways of life disrupted by poor housing conditions, barriers to educational achievement, poverty, historical trauma, and racism. All of these factors – compounded by environmental hazards, geospatial challenges and limited access or proximity to health care or medical services – lead to poor health outcomes. The Think Tank is focused on increasing education and awareness of the unique public and environmental health challenges faced by tribal communities, and achieving improvements to these issues.

Categories: Tribal Health, community health, natural resources, climate change, health assessment, food health

National Link
Climate Resilience Planning Toolkit Oregon Health Authority

This toolkit provides local health jurisdictions guidance on how to integrate climate change work into local public health practice. Health departments of all capacities can incorporate climate change considerations into existing planning and programming.​ For those with higher capacity, this toolkit can serve as a resource for developing a Climate and Health Resilience Plan (also called an "adaptation plan" or a "climate change preparedness plan.") This toolkit is adapted from CDC's Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework and modified based on the experience of five local health jurisdictions in Oregon. This toolkit builds on their lessons learned​​ through planning for climate change at the local level.

Categories: Tribal Health, Climate Change, resilience, planning

Northwest Link
Climate Ready Tribes National Indian Health Board

Climate Ready Tribes is a part of NIHB’s nationally-focused public health program that will serve as a resource for information and collaboration in the interest of increasing knowledge of the health effects of climate change.

Categories: Tribal Health, climate change, capacity building, assessment, data sharing

National Link
Oregon Climate and Health Network Oregon Health Authority

The Oregon Climate and Health Network will provide a forum for local public health practitioners and partners to stay connected and apprised of current climate science, health implications, and opportunities for action. It will serve as a forum for sharing information and best practices across various programmatic areas of public health. 

The network will include a list serve for e-mail communications and a quarterly conference call that will feature member updates and guest speakers. Oregon's Climate and Health program will manage the list serve and facilitate the conference calls. 
The network is open to all those who are interested and will include members in local health departments, other local agencies, state and non-profit partners. We expect members to work in various fields (including environmental health, emergency preparedness, chronic disease prevention, land use, transportation and natural resource planning, social services, etc.) and we also expect members to have different levels of experience and expertise.

Categories: Tribal Health, Climate Adaptation, Environmental Health, Emergency Preparedness, Chronic Disease, Social Services

Pacific Northwest, Oregon Link
Tribal Climate Health Pala Band of Mission Indians

In 2016, Pala Band of Mission Indians was awarded a grant from the U.S. EPA under a solicitation called “Building the Capacity of Tribes to Address the Health Impacts of Climate Change.” The grant funds the development and distribution of online trainings, a resource clearinghouse, and other capacity-building tools that will help tribal health and environmental professionals across the nation prepare their communities for the public health impacts of climate change.

Categories: Tribal Health, capacity building, environmental health, public health, community

National Link
Climate Change and Health - Training Modules World Health Organization

The training package consists of 17 standalone modules covering a range of topics that will prove very useful to build capacity of public health professionals who are involved in management of public health programmes impacted by climate change. The modules are also designed for ease of use by professionals from other sectors such as the environment, transport, disaster preparedness, etc., enabling them to understand the intersectoral nature of the issue and to address health impacts jointly with other sectors. One or more modules can be used as advocacy material as well as to orient different target audiences such as policymakers.

Categories: Tribal Health, capacity building, disaster preparedness, training

National, International Link
BIA Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience BIA

Deadline Passed 2016. Deadline for 2019 Unknown. The BIA Tribal Resilience Program (TRP) provides federal-wide resources to Tribes to build capacity and resilience through leadership engagement, delivery of data and tools, training and tribal capacity building. Direct funding supports tribes, tribal consortia, and authorized tribal organizations to build resilience through competitive awards for tribally designed resilience training, adaptation planning, vulnerability assessments, supplemental monitoring, capacity building, and youth engagement. The resilient ocean and coastal management effort supports planning, science and tools, and capacity for coastal tribe's ocean management, including the Great Lakes.

Categories: training, tribal capacity building, resilience, adaptation planning, vulnerability assessments, youth engagement

National Link
Understanding Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources EPA

This training module is designed to increase your understanding of the causes of climate change, its potential impacts on water resources, and the challenges water resource managers are facing. The course contains three parts which will take about 45 minutes to complete. Optional supplementary information on climate change impacts in the United States is included at the end of the course if you are interested in more details.

Categories: Training Module, Climate Education, Water Resources Impacts

National Link
Mohawk Seedkeepers

Mohawk Seedkeepers is carrying on the tradition of Indigenous gardening and seed saving. Terrylynn Brant a Mohawk of Six Nations supports gardening initiatives and shares traditional seedkeeping knowledge.

Categories: traditional seedkeeping, sustainable living, traditional knowledge

Six Nations Indian Reserve, Canada Link
Native Food Systems Resource Center First Nations Development Institute

The Native Food Systems Resource Center is an initiative of First Nations Development Institute, under our Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative. Funding for development of this website (and several of our food-related projects) was generously provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. We recognize that accessing healthy food is a challenge for many Native American children and families. Without access to healthy food, a nutritious diet and good health are out of reach. To increase access to healthy food, First Nations supports tribes and Native communities as they build sustainable food systems that improve health, strengthen food security and increase the control over Native agriculture and food systems. First Nations provides this assistance in the form of financial and technical support, including training materials, to projects that address agriculture and food sectors in Native communities.
We also undertake research projects that build the knowledge and understanding of Native agriculture and food-systems issues, and inform Native communities about innovative ideas and best practices. We also participate in policy forums that help develop legislative and regulatory initiatives within this sector.

Categories: traditional foods, family health, community health, cultural practices, native economies

Colorado, Virginia Link
National Park Service Traditional Ecological Knowledge Program NPS

"This site is for anyone interested in working with Indigenous peoples and long-term (hundreds of years) local residents for stewardship of ecosystems. It provides information, resources and discussion for those interested in considering both traditional knowledge and western science. please contact us to submit information for the website for consideration. We honor and respect Mother Earth's caretakers and desire to learn time-tested ways of stewardship."

Categories: Traditional Ecological Knowledge, National Parks Management

National Link
NASA GISS: Record Global Temperatures in 2015. NASA

NOAA Scientists confirmed 2015 to be the warmest year on record, according to this press release:"During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62°F (0.90°C) above the 20th century average. This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record set last year by 0.29°F (0.16°C). This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken. Ten months had record high temperatures for their respective months during the year. The five highest monthly departures from average
for any month on record all occurred during 2015. Since 1997, which at the time was the warmest year on record, 16 of the subsequent 18 years have been warmer than that year."

Categories: Temperature, Global Climate Change, Temperature Increases

National, International Link
The Roots of Wisdom Exhibition: Native Knowledge Shared Science

This exhibition explores four inspiring stories of environmental and cultural restoration, and is a 5-year cross-cultural collaboration involving OMSI, IEI, Smithsonian NMAI and four Native Community partners.

Categories: TEK, cultural revitalization, sovereignty, self determination, social justice, restoration

National Link
Village Power Technical Assistance Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs

The Office of Indian Energy has created a hotline to provide Alaska Native villages with access to quick-response solutions for minor PCE filing challenges. This number is intended for questions that can be addressed relatively quickly; requestors who require more in-depth or longer-term assistance will be directed to complete the online technical assistance request form linked above.

To access the PCE assistance hotline, call 907-707-7234. Hotline hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Alaska Time.

Categories: technical assistance, evaluation, efficiency

Alaska Link
"Grassroots" Source Water Protection Program USDA, FSA

The Source Water Protection Program (SWPP) is a joint project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), a non-profit water and wastewater utility membership organization. The SWPP is designed to help prevent pollution of surface and ground water used as the primary source of drinking water by rural residents. Through NRWA, full-time rural source water technicians with practical experience are hired. The technicians work with specialists from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and state and county FSA staff, to identify areas where pollution prevention is most needed. Once areas for pollution prevention are identified, technicians work with state rural water associations to create local teams made up of citizens and individuals from federal, state, local, and private organizations. These teams collaborate to create a Rural Source Water Protection plan to promote clean source water. The plan identifies voluntary actions that farmers and ranchers can install to prevent source water pollution.

Categories: source water, water protection, water quality, pollution prevention, agricultural runoff

National Link