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
EPA Directory of Regional Climate Change Adaptation Programs of Federal Agencies EPA

This directory includes contact information for the Climate Science Centers (CSCs), Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs), EPA regional offices, US Army Corps of Engineers regional contact information, NOAA RISA regional program contacts and others.

Categories: Conservation, Adaptation

National Link
Lower Columbia and Outer Coast Landscape Conservation Design Project -- Blueprint for a Climate-Resilient Landscape NPLCC, USFWS, LCC

In response to this need, the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative and US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 has initiated a Landscape Conservation Design initiative for the Lower Columbia River and adjacent coastal shoreline - "Blueprint for a Climate-Resilient Landscape." This partner-driven, multi-stakeholder effort is an integrated, collaborative, and holistic process that is grounded in the interdisciplinary science of landscape ecology, the mission-oriented science of conservation biology, and the art of design. The process results in a science-based, spatially-explicit product that identifies targets of interest to partners, articulates measurable objectives; assesses current and projected landscape patterns and processes; and identifies a desired future condition, conservation and development trade-offs, and implementation strategies.

Categories: Conservation, Adaptation, Landscape-scale Conservation

Northwest Link
Mapping Climate-Resilient Landscapes: Interactive Conservation Planning Atlas for the Northwest LCC, NGO, The Nature Conservancy, NPLCC

The North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NPLCC) teamed up with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to share results of a great effort from TNC to identify climate-resilient landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. The project, led by TNC, identified and mapped the most resilient terrestrial sites in the Northwest U.S. that will collectively and individually best sustain native biodiversity, even as the changing climate alters current distribution patterns. Now – this data is available on the NPLCC Conservation Planning Atlas, a tool that visually showcases data-heavy information on a digital map.

Categories: Conservation, Adaptation, Planning, Mapping, GIS

Northwest Link
Economic Research Service; Environmental Quality USDA

ERS analyzes the use and efficacy of conservation practices and of Federal programs and policies in combating the harmful effects of agriculture as they relate to: Soil quality, as compromised by wind and water erosion; Water quality, as compromised by chemical/pesticide and nutrient runoff; Air quality, as compromised by soil particulates, farm chemicals, and odor from livestock; Wildlife habitat, as compromised by fragmentation, monoculture (which reduces landscape diversity), and diverting water for irrigation; and Wetlands, as compromised by conversion to cropland

Categories: conservation, agriculture, soil quality, wind and water erosion, water quality, air quality, wildlife habitat, wetlands

National Link
National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Tribal Lands Conservation Program NGO

The National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Tribal Lands Conservation Program is working with tribal partners to collaborate on climate change solutions. The NWF’s partnerships with tribes on climate change include meetings and workshops, policy development, natural resource management planning and monitoring, and the formation of an Intertribal Climate Coalition.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resource Management

Rocky Mountain Region, Northwest, Midwest Link
Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC): http://applcc.org/ DOI, LCC

The Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative is a science and management partnership to protect the valued resources and biological diversity of the Appalachian region, sustain the benefits provided by healthy and resilient ecosystems to human communities, and help natural systems adapt to large landscape-level stressors and those stressors that may be magnified by the changing climate.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Southeast Link
California Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The California Landscape Conservation Cooperative (CA LCC) is a management-science partnership created to inform and promote integrated science, natural resource management and conservation to address impacts of climate change and other stressors within and across ecosystems.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Southwest, Northwest Link
Department of Interior (DOI) Landscape Conservation Cooperatives DOI

As part of the larger DOI Climate Change Adaptation Initiatives (CCAI), Land Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) will work interactively with their relevant Regional Climate Science Centers and help coordinate land management adaptation efforts in their regions. LCCs are collaborative organizations that seek holistic approaches to climate and conservation issues.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

National Link
Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The Great Basin LCC helps link and integrate science information providers with resource managers and science users; brings additional federal resources to bear on landscape-scale conservation issues and opportunities; and helps to apply science and facilitate coordination on a wide range of efforts to respond to climate change, invasive species, wildfires, human development and other stressors across the Great Basin. The LCC is not intended to replace existing organizations already accomplishing conservation work in the Great Basin. The aim is to facilitate, enhance and inform that work.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Northwest, Southwest Link
Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GPLCC) is a partnership that provides applied science and decision support tools to assist natural resource managers to conserve plant, fish and wildlife in the mid- and short-grass prairie of the southern Great Plains. It is part of a national network of public-private partnerships—known as Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs)—that work collaboratively across jurisdictions and political boundaries to leverage resources and share science capacity. The Great Plains LCC identifies science priorities for the region and helps foster science that addresses these priorities, thus supporting wildlife conservation efforts throughout the Great Plains. It also assists partners in building their own capacity to address scientific challenges associated with our rapidly changing environment.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Midwest Link
Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The Gulf Coast Prairie LCC consists of partnerships based on science, and brings information to on-the-ground strategic conservation efforts. The Gulf Coast Prairie LCC offers leadership to strengthen the effectiveness of conservation of wildlife populations and their habitats throughout the region by providing the best available scientific information to inform management decisions. It will achieve this collaborative vision through shared access to science, data, expertise, and resources.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Southeast Link
North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative provides a partnership in which the private, state, tribal and federal conservation community works together to address increasing land use pressures and widespread resource threats and uncertainties amplified by a rapidly changing climate. The partners and partnerships in the cooperative address these regional threats and uncertainties by agreeing on common goals for land, water, fish, wildlife, plant and cultural resources and jointly developing the scientific information and tools needed to prioritize and guide more effective conservation actions by partners toward those goals.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Northeast Link
Northwest Boreal Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives bring together conservation and resource managers to identify shared interests and pool resources to address landscape-scale stressors, such as climate change. The NWB LCC boundary closely follows that of the Northwestern Interior Forest Bird Conservation Region. The LCC falls within the boreal forest biome and includes Southcentral and Interior Alaska, most of the Yukon Territory, the northern portion of British Columbia, and a small part of Northwest Territories. The area includes over 330 million acres, and encompasses large portions of the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Susitna, and Copper River Basins.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Alaska, Canada, International Link
Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative DOI, LCC

The PICCC provides a range of services and tools to help managers in Hawai‘i, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and other Pacific Island groups make informed decisions for conservation of natural and cultural resources including climate models at the archipelagic and island scales, ecological response models, and implementation and monitoring strategies for island species, resources, and communities. Our goal is to help managers reach explicit biocultural conservation objectives in the face of climate change and ongoing threats such as fire, land conservation, and invasive species.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Pacific Islands, International Link
South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) DOI, LCC

The South Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (SALCC) is part of a network of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). LCCs are applied conservation science partnerships among federal agencies, regional organizations, states, tribes, NGOs, universities and other entities within a geographic area. They are designed to inform resource management decisions in an integrated fashion across landscapes at a broader scale than any individual partner’s responsibility. The partnership will consider landscape-scale stressors, including climate change, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and water scarcity as it attempts to provide a vision for a landscape capable of sustaining healthy populations of fish, wildlife, plants and cultural resources. The SALCC crosses six states, from southern Virginia to northern Florida.

Categories: Conservation, Natural Resources

Southeast Link
EcoAdapt NGO

EcoAdapt’s mission is to create a robust future in the face of climate change. EcoAdapt brings together diverse players in the conservation, policy, science, and development communities to reshape conservation and resource management in response to rapid climate change.

Categories: Conservation, policy, Science, Development

National Link
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant NOAA

Environmental stewardship, long-term economic development and responsible use of America’s coastal, ocean and Great Lakes resources are at the heart of Sea Grant’s mission. Sea Grant is a nationwide network (administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]), of 32 university-based programs that work with coastal communities. The National Sea Grant College Program engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training, and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources.

Categories: Conservation, Research, Education

National Link
EPA Tribal Contact List EPA

EPA listing of regional and national agency contacts regarding tribes. Page also includes supplemental contact information, e.g. a listing of federally recognized tribes. EPA regional offices and contacts are included in a map on the bottom of the web page.

Categories: Contacts, Listing

National Link
Stream Temperature Monitoring Network, Cook Inletkeeper

Cook Inletkeeper developed the Stream Temperature Monitoring Network to build the science-based knowledge needed to identify thermal impacts in Alaska’s coastal salmon habitat. We are 1) collecting consistent, comparable temperature data for Cook Inlet’s salmon streams; 2) increasing our understanding of the rate of rising stream temperatures and areas of maximum exceedances throughout the basin; and 3) providing the knowledge and data needed to prioritize sites for future research, protection and restoration actions. Click here for site locations and links for site-specific factsheets.

Categories: Cook Inlet Watershed, salmon, climate change, warming temperatures, stream temperatures, adaptation, data collection, restoration

Alaska, Cook Inlet Watershed Link
White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) (Obama Administration Archive) US Executive Office of the President

Through interagency working groups and coordination with other EOP components, CEQ works to advance the President’s agenda. It also balances competing positions, and encourages government-wide coordination, bringing Federal agencies, state and local governments, and other stakeholders together on matters relating to the environment, natural resources and energy. In addition, CEQ oversees the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive. The role of the Federal Environmental Executive is to promote sustainable environmental stewardship throughout the Federal government. In addition, CEQ oversees Federal agency implementation of the environmental impact assessment process and acts as a referee when agencies disagree over the adequacy of such assessments.

Categories: Coordination, Advisory, Regulatory

National Link
National Park Service (NPS) Tribal Historical Preservation Officers Program NPS, DOI

This program is dedicated to working with Indian tribes, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and national organizations, to preserve and protect resources and traditions that are of importance to Native Americans by strengthening their capabilities for operating sustainable preservation programs. The Historic Preservation Fund supports two grants programs: Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPO) and the Tribal Heritage Grants. These two grant programs provide much needed assistance to Native American communities interested in protecting their cultural heritage.

Categories: Cultural Preservation

Northwest, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, National, Alaska Link
Native Cultures and the Maritime Heritage Program NOAA

The Maritime Heritage Program seeks to support research into seafaring traditions and the preservation of maritime folklore and knowledge. Understanding the true human dimensions of our protected marine areas is incomplete without an awareness and recognition of the special cultural ties these areas have to indigenous seafaring cultures. Gaining an awareness of the great variety of human connections to the sea can help us all become better stewards of our ocean resources.

Categories: Cultural Preservation, Coastal

National Link
Sustainable Southeast Partnership

The Sustainable Southeast Partnership is a diverse network of organizations and individuals working together to reach cultural, ecological and economic prosperity for Southeast Alaskan communities and the region.

Categories: culture, economic health, food security, energy independence, fisheries, forestry

Alaska (Southeast) Link
The Washington-British Columbia Transboundary Climate-Connectivity Project NPLCC

The Washington-British Columbia Transboundary Climate-Connectivity Project engaged science-practice partnerships to identify potential climate impacts on wildlife habitat connectivity in the transboundary region of Washington and British Columbia, and adaptation actions for addressing these impacts. This gallery includes data gathered or created as part of this project, as well as accompanying reports describing key findings for 13 case studies (including 11 species, a vegetation system, and a region).

A primary goal of this project was to increase practitioners' capacity to access, interpret, and apply existing climate and connectivity models to their decision-making. For this reason, many of the data layers included in this gallery have been reproduced with slight modification from existing sources; detailed information on original data sources can be found in the metadata provided with each layer.

Categories: Data-set, Climate Modeling, Landscape-level Climate Impacts, Scientific Data

Washington, International (Canada), Northwest Link
Rural Development (RD) American Indian and Alaska Native Local Coordinator Contact Information+A93 USDA

Lsiting of coordinators for RD programs across the country, listed by state.

Categories: Development

National Link
USDA Rural Housing Service USDA

Rural Development (RD) provides funding for single family homes, apartments for low-income persons or the elderly, housing for farm laborers, childcare centers, fire and police stations, hospitals, libraries, nursing homes, schools, and much more.
In partnership with non-profits, Indian tribes, state and federal government agencies, and local communities, HCFP creates packages of technical assistance and loan and grant funds to assist more rural communities and individuals.

Categories: Development, Assistance

National Link
Rural Development (RD) Energy Programs USDA

These programs have funds available to complete energy audits and feasibility studies, complete energy efficiency improvements, install renewable energy systems. Their programs help convert older heating sources to cleaner technologies, produce advanced biofuels, install flexible fuel pumps, install solar panels, build biorefineries, and much more. USDA Rural Development is at the forefront of renewable energy financing, with options including grants, guaranteed loans and payments.

Categories: Development, Assistance

National Link
Rural Development (RD) Business-Cooperative Service USDA

Through its Business Programs, USDA Rural Development provides for business credit needs in under-served rural areas, often in partnership with private-sector lenders, through both grants and loans.

Categories: Development, Business, Assistance

National Link
Developing the Next Generation of Conservationists NFWF, USFS, BLM, BoR

Creating meaningful conservation employment opportunities this project contributes nearly $2,000,000 in funding to support partnerships which create meaningful conservation employment opportunities for young people across the nation. This initiative is led by the NFWF and several secondary supporters. The NFWF has aligned their efforts with the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC) to supply jobs in the field of conservation to underserved youth.

Categories: Development, Education, Conservation

National Link
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Tribal Affairs FEMA

FEMA provides a number of resources for tribal communities. The FEMA Tribal Affairs team has included a list of grants related to disasters, hazards, and non-hazards that tribes are eligible for. FEMA also offers tribal training for increasing preparedness for disasters.

Categories: Disaster Planning

National Link