1854 Ceded Territory Including the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage Reservations: Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan

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.