Adaptation Plans

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.

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.

Plan for these natural hazards : flooding, erosion, severe weather, and earthquake. Includes information to assist the city government and residents with planning to avoid potential future disaster losses. 2009

Adaption plan for the Norton Bay Watershed is the result of a year of community team effort, bringing in an array of stakeholders and expertise, building partnerships, extensive information gathering, critical thinking, and engaged planning. Norton Bay Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, 2013.

Adaptation plan for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York. Structured around the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. 2013

Assessment of climate change related health effects in Kiana, Alaska. Kiana is an Inupiat community of approximately 361 residents, located on the Kobuk River, about 60 miles east of Kotzebue. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, 2011

Rural Arctic communities are vulnerable to climate change and seek adaptation strategies that will protect health and health infrastructure. This report describes climate change impacts on Kivalina, a small Inupiat Eskimo community located on the coast of the Chukchi Sea. Data sources included the observations of local residents, reports from local and regional government officials and health professionals, and scientific evidence gathered from published sources.

Climate change refers to change over time due to natural variability
or as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2008). Alaska is experiencing a wide range of impacts
from climate change and communities seek adaptive strategies that encourage wellness and
sustainability. This report documents climate change impacts as described by community
residents and climate change effects or potential effects as interpreted through the lens of
public health. It is the seventh report in a series describing climate change in communities
across Alaska, and the third report to focus on the Bristol Bay region.

This report documents climate change impacts as described by the local people and interpreted
through the lens of public health. It is the third report in a series describing climate change
in Northwestern Alaska. The first two reports focused on the coastal whaling communities of
Point Hope and Kivalina. This is the first to look at an upriver community characterized by a
different climate, environment, and cultural practices. It was prepared by the Alaska Native
Tribal Health Consortium, Center for Climate and Health in partnership with the Maniilaq
Association, the Northwest Arctic Borough and the Noatak Traditional Council. Funding was
provided by the United States Indian Health Service.

Climate change refers to change over time due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2008). Alaska is experiencing a wide range of impacts from climate change and communities seek adaptive strategies that encourage wellness and sustainability. This report documents climate change impacts as described by local people and climate change effects or potential effects as interpreted through the lens of public health. It is the seventh report in a series describing climate change across Alaska, and the second report to focus on the Bristol Bay region, the first being in the community of Pilot Point.

Aassessment of climate change related health effects in Pilot Point, Alaska. Pilot Point is mostly Alaska Native People of Alutiiq and Yup'ik Eskimo decent, averaging about 64 to 100 residents. Pilot Point is located on the Northern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, on the east shore of Ugashik Bay. 2013

Today with the added pressure of climate change, Point Hope continues its struggle with increased urgency; against erosion and against other new emerging challenges to the community, the culture, and to public health.

Assessment of climate change related health effects in Wainwright a traditional Inupiat community located on the Chukchi Sea coast. Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, June 2014.

It is increasingly apparent that the global climate is rapidly changing and that these changes will affect the people, ecosystems, economy, and culture of the North Olympic Peninsula. The most noticeable impacts will likely include:
• A diminishing snowpack lowering the region’s summer river flow and extending the summer drought season;
• Shifts in the timing and type of precipitation, creating rain on snow events and unseasonably high stream flows that scour river bottoms and flood low-land areas;
• Ongoing sea level rise driving coastal flooding, saltwater inundation, and enhanced shoreline erosion;
• Extended warm temperatures which result in increased river water temperatures, enhanced wildfire risk, decreased soil moisture, and stressed forests through disease and insect outbreaks; and
• Increasingly corrosive ocean waters (i.e. ocean acidification) from the ongoing absorption of human emissions of CO2.
This project synthesized the best available climate change projections with local stakeholder expertise of vulnerable sectors to ultimately develop climate change preparation strategies for the North Olympic Peninsula. The outputs of this effort are compiled in this Preparedness Plan and include a regional Vulnerability Assessment (Section I & II) and Adaptation Plan (Section II). With this project and other similar efforts, the region has a unique opportunity to promote collaboration on climate change adaptation between federal, state, local, and tribal governments, non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and private businesses.