Climate Programs

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

The 1994 Land-Grants often serve as the primary institution of scientific inquiry, knowledge and learning for reservation communities. This funding allows them to address the questions that matter to these communities such as protecting reservation forests or monitoring water quality. Projects may help a tribe improve bison herd productivity, discover whether traditional plants can play a role in managing diabetes or control invasive species. The grant's partnership requirement ensures that other federal and Land-Grant research entities can share resources and knowledge with these, the newest Land-Grants. In addition, this grant places an emphasis on training students in science.

Categories: reservation communities, science, research, tribal education, tribal colleges

The Tribal Communities page contains links to EPA resources as well as sites outside of EPA with information that can help tribes reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency, land use planning, renewable energy, transportation, water/wastewater, and waste management. This page also provides information on collaborating with state and local governments, organizations, and Tribal Colleges and Universities for funding and partnering opportunities.

Categories: Education

The U.S. Forest Service released Tribal Connections, a new online interactive mapping tool that shows how lands managed by the agency connect or overlap with current tribal trust lands and lands tribes exchanged with the federal government prior to 1900. This reference tool will help Forest Service employees and the public better understand historical treaties and the role they play in making current land management decisions. Tribal Connections contains multiple layers that include information on forests and grasslands managed by the agency, lands owned by tribes and historical data on lands ceded by treaties. Nearly 4,000 miles of shared boundaries between tribal lands and Forest Service-administered/owned land are identified.

Categories: Forest Service, GIS, mapping, tribal trust lands, treaties

Applications accepted continuously. EPA conducts research in partnership with tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). Selected professors from eight different TCUs will receive funding and technical support from EPA to work with a group of students to solve environmental and public health issues most important to their tribal communities, ranging from sustainable building materials to monitoring of local drinking water wells.

Categories: Health, Research, Water, Natural Resources

Deadline is Ongoing. The 1994 Land-Grants use Equity to support faculty who develop classes and degree programs that teach science and math to Native Americans. The programs focus on agriculture, natural resources and human sciences. The faculty strive to graduate students who can achieve their life goals. Since many 1994 Land-Grants are two-year schools, some students aspire to advanced degrees. Other students seek training to begin a vocational career in agriculture. Still other students want to earn certifications just to improve their daily lives. Faculty have used Equity funding to help build laboratories, conduct remedial courses, create new degree programs in forestry and provide students stipends so they can complete their education. The goal is to graduate empowered students who can embrace their future with new skills and knowledge.

Categories: math, science, agriculture, natural resources, human sciences, vocational training, education

Deadline is Ongoing. The Tribal College Extension grant program allows the 1994 Land-Grants to create extension offices for their reservation communities. Each extension office works with reservation communities to build programs that target local needs. The result is a diversified and targeted outreach. Reservation youth participate in fun activities in a safe environment. Farmers and ranchers gain science-based insights to improve their productivity. Financial literacy training enhances rural reservation economies. The 1994 Land-Grants also provide culture-centered family activities to restore Native languages, traditions and agriculture. Within this grant program are two types of funds: Capacity grants and Special Emphasis. Capacity grants fund an entire Extension office which can have many mission areas and clients. Special Emphasis are targeted, short-term pilot projects that allow Extension educators to explore new ways to better serve their community.

Categories: reservation communities, financial literacy training, education, culture, native languages, traditions, agrculture

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

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

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit provides scientific tools, information, and expertise to help people manage their climate-related risks and opportunities, and improve their resilience to extreme events. The site is designed to serve interested citizens, communities, businesses, resource managers, planners, and policy leaders at all levels of government.

Categories: Climate change, tribal programs, Adaptation, Mitigation

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit provides scientific tools, information, and expertise to help people manage their climate-related risks and opportunities, and improve their resilience to extreme events. The site is designed to serve interested citizens, communities, businesses, resource managers, planners, and policy leaders at all levels of government.

Categories: Climate change, tribal programs, Adaptation, Mitigation

The University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (CIG) studies the impacts of natural climate variability and global climate change, focusing mostly on the Pacific Northwest. The CIG has partnerships with tribes in the Pacific Northwest, engages in outreach efforts that include meetings, workshops, and webinars, presentations, consultations, and technical assistance, and is a source of scientific projections, impacts assessments, and tools and resources for climate change adaptation planning and vulnerability assessment.

Categories: Adaptation, Vulnerability Assessment

The Urban Adaptation Assessment (UAA) is an interactive database funded by the Kresge Foundation and led by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) that collates a rich dataset within a visual platform to give leaders the data they need to make decisions on how best to adapt and prepare. Encompassing data from over 270 cities within the United States, including all 50 states and Puerto Rico, whose populations are above 100,000, the UAA allows you to explore the connection between vulnerabilities to climate disasters, adaptive capacities, and how these are distributed within a city. Our easy-to-use tool gives you metrics to see your city’s risk and readiness in seconds. It also enables you to download extensive datasets, and examine which neighborhoods to focus your efforts. 

Categories: adaptation, disaster preparedness, climate change, vulnerability assessment, capacity building

This national analysis, by the Union of Concerned Scientists, identifies the number of US homes at risk from chronic flooding over the coming decades due to sea level rise. It also shows the current property value, estimated population, and portion of the property tax base at risk. Information is available by state, community, and zip code. For this analysis, chronic flooding is defined to be flooding that occurs 26 times or more per year, a level of disruption also referred to as chronic inundation. Two time frames are featured. The first falls within the lifespan of a 30-year mortgage issued today. The second extends out to 2100, when more than 2.4 million of today's homes could be at risk. The challenges and choices that come with rising seas are profound and have significant implications for coastal residents, communities, and the broader economy. We explore these implications in the closing section.

Categories: chronic flooding, rising sea level, coastal communities, relocation, infrastructure,

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Climate Change Strategy establishes a basic framework within which the Service will work as part of the larger conservation community to help ensure the sustainability of fish, wildlife, plants and habitats in the face of accelerating climate change.

Categories: Conservation

The Office of the Native American Liaison offers tribal grants for the development and implementation of programs that benefit wildlife and their habitat, including species of Native American cultural or traditional importance and that are not hunted or fished.

Categories: Conservation

The Office of the Native American Liaison offers tribal grants for the development and implementation of programs that benefit wildlife and their habitat, including species of Native American cultural or traditional importance and that are not hunted or fished.

Categories: Conservation

Combining traditional ecological knowledge with empirical studies allows the USGS and Native American governments, organizations, and people to increase their mutual understanding and respect for this land. USGS provides information to tribes as part of our basic mission of providing unbiased scientific information to the Nation, and as part of the Federal Trust Responsibility to tribes.

Categories: policy

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. Thirteen federal government Departments and Agencies participate in the USGCRP, which was known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program from 2002 through 2008. The mission of the USCRP is to build a knowledge base that informs human responses to climate and global change through coordinated and integrated federal programs of research, education, communication, and decision support.

Categories: Research, Education

The USACE has worked with tribes on many projects, and its guiding principles for working with tribes are accessible at this link.

Categories: policy

The Climate Change Program Office (CCPO) coordinates USDA’s responses to climate change, focusing on implications of climate change on agriculture, forests, grazing lands, and rural communities. CCPO ensures that USDA is a source of objective, analytical assessments of the effects of climate change and proposed response strategies both within USDA and for our partners.

Categories: Natural Resources, Coordination

USDA/ERS is a primary source of economic information and research that conducts applied social science research, analyzes food and commodity markets, produces policy studies, and develops economic and statistical indicators involving food, farming, natural resources, and rural development.

Categories: research, economic analysis, social science, food and commodity, statistics, natural resources, rural development, mitigation

The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) is a web-based, national resource that connects land managers and decisionmakers with useable science to address climate change in planning and application. Current and expected climate changes have serious implications for ecosystems and the benefits they provide.

Categories: climate change, forest, wildfire, management

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station is one of seven research centers that are part of the USDA Forest Service. The PNW Reserach Station is engaged in a variety of climate-change related research activities, including co-partnering with the University of Oregon’s Environmental Studies Program on this website.

USDA’s regional hubs will deliver information to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to help them adapt to climate change and weather variability. The Hubs will build capacity within USDA to provide information and guidance on technologies and risk management practices at regional and local scales.

Categories: Adaptation

The USDA Resource Guide for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) was developed to provide tribal leaders and tribal citizens, 1994 Land-Grant Tribal Colleges and Universities, AI/AN businesses, and non-governmental organizations serving AI/AN communities with a tool for navigating USDA resources. The USDA programs and services available to members of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes are described in the following pages. This guide provides readers with a comprehensive summary of USDA Programs, separated into four categories: 1. Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Traditional Foods 2. Business and Community Development 3. Conservation and Forestry 4. Research, Extension, and Outreach 

Categories: resources, agriculture, food sovereignty, traditional foods, business and community development, conservation, forestry

The Rural Data Gateway strengthens USDA Rural Development partnerships with rural people, entrepreneurs, government officials and Congress by making RD’s data more available and easier to access. It features Rural Investments Dashboards that significantly expand access to RD financial data through an easy-to-use interface that allows data from more than 65 RD programs to be viewed and downloaded. The Gateway and dashboards will help USDA get more resources to the people who need them in rural places.

Categories: energy, water, infrastructure, health

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

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

The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) has been developed as a reference for US Forest Service resource managers and decision makers who need information and tools to address climate change in planning and project implementation on national forests.

Categories: Education