Tribal Profiles, Fact Sheets and Climate Planning Tools

The U.S. Forest Service established the first Tribal Government Program Manager position in the Washington Office in 1988, responding to identified needs and Executive direction. Subsequently, in 2004, the Office of Tribal Relations was formed as a permanent staff within the State and Private Forestry Deputy Area, to facilitate consistency and effectiveness in Forest Service program delivery to Tribes, and to institutionalize long-term consultative and collaborative relationships with tribal governments through new policy and direction. The current Office of Tribal Relations staff consists of six employees who serve as the Headquarters component of the Forest Service’s Tribal Relations Program. Field staffs comprise the other part of the program, and include the Regional Program Managers, Tribal Liaisons at the Forest level, and individuals in each of the Agency’s mission areas.

Categories: facilitation, consultation, collaboration, policy, government to government relationship, communication, tribal trust rights

California is facing a warmer climate over the next century. More frequent and severe heat events will pose considerable health risks that disproportionately impact frontline populations. This tool allows users to explore and understand how extreme heat will impact specific communities across the state. This tool was built for planners, policy-makers, public health practitioners and community members who are committed to mitigating the public health impacts of heat in their communities.

Categories: extreme heat, planning, mitigation, public health impacts, community health

In August 2012, the Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington celebrated Indigenous knowledge systems by hosting the Traditional Knowledge and Healthy Ecosystems Summit. The Summit, held at the Skamania Lodge near Stevenson, WA, brought together Indigenous leaders, tribal members, resource managers, academics and students to discuss and learn about the importance of traditional knowledge in natural resource management and in everyday ways of life. Participants came from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia to partake in the various presentations, roundtables, panels, and workshops that formed part of this event. This profile describes some of the highlights from the event, including talks from keynote speakers Daniel Wildcat and Larry Merculiefff, storytelling by elders, presentations on traditional knowledge in contemporary resource management and indigenous health, and field trips featuring traditional sites and activities.

Categories: event, traditional ecological knowledge, health, Indigenous knowledges

LEO is a network of tribal professionals, community experts and scientists who share information about environmental observations. LEO Network features a real-time map so that observations can be viewed relative to one another. LEO Network works to increase collaboration across communities and increase understandings about climate change in Alaska. The LEO Network website includes information about LEO, a map of observations, and data on types of observations currently trending.

Categories: Environmental Observation, Community-based Observation, Local Environmental Observation, Climate Impacts, Mapping, Partnerships

EPA Tribal-FERST helps tribes progressively evaluate concerns from data acquisition and assessment through environmental issues identification and prioritization. It also assists in exploring potential solutions and mapping results.

Categories: environment, issues, maps, solutions

Before drought perpetuated by climate change hit the northern Great Plains,hydro-power was a major power source. However, now nearly 80% of power generation is produced from lignite coal (dirty coal) combustion. To help address the impacts of dirty-coal, fourteen tribes are presently allied with the I-COUP wind-power cooperative in developing and installing wind turbines on tribal lands. Currently the largest plant is located on Rosebud Sioux reservation and plans are underway to have the tribes supplying 300 mW of wind energy by 2015.

Categories: Energy, Wind Energy, Tribal

The Energy Savings and Impacts Scenario Tool (ESIST) Version 1.1 is a customizable and transparent Excel-based planning tool for analyzing the energy savings and costs from customer-funded energy efficiency programs and their impacts on emissions, public health, and equity. ESIST enables users to develop, explore, and share energy efficiency scenarios between 2010 and 2040. The tool allows users to compare levels of energy efficiency savings, annual costs, and levelized costs of saved energy. ESIST users can then estimate multiple benefits that could result from the user-generated energy efficiency scenario—including avoided emissions, public health benefits, peak demand impacts, and energy burden reductions—and review customer demographic data.

Categories: energy, energy calculator tool, scenario planning

The Regional Resilience Toolkit focuses on the regional scale because disasters happen at a regional scale, and a coordinated process across multiple jurisdictions can result in safer communities. The toolkit is set up to allow multiple jurisdictions and levels of government to work together for regional-scale actions. It is also designed for non-governmental partners and community groups to engage in a more inclusive and holistic process so that resilience actions are guided by core community values.

Categories: emergency preparedness, natural disasters, resilience, toolkit

Since the beginning of O’odham history, the Tohono O'odham of southern Arizona and northern Mexico have adapted to high summer heat and water scarcity. Until a century ago the tribe lived in the mountains, descending to desert lowlands from spring through late summer to capture monsoon rains and practice "flood farming" of corn, squash, beans and melons, and to gather desert foods that include cholla buds, saguaro fruit and tepary beans. In recent years, as climate change disrupts the tribe's traditional and modern ways of living, the O'odham people are examining short- and long-term solutions through the development of a Climate Change Adaptation Plan. The draft plan is under review and scheduled for release in the summer of 2017. Its final details are not yet available, but the plan will address a variety of challenges that impact the tribe's communities and O’odham culture.

Categories: Drought, Water insecurity, Rising Temperatures, Community Health, Adaptation

limate change coupled with inceasing drought conditions over the last 15 years has had aconsiderable effect on the Navajo Nation, including the reactiviation of sand dune migration and sand dune migration. The sand dunes offer tangible evidence of spiking drought conditions and a glimpse into the future of an unstable ecosystem and the effects on sheep herding and other familiar ways of life.

Categories: Drought, Research, Tribal

The Pueblo of Tesuque is located in the desert Southwest, approximately 10 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The traditional Tesuque form of farming has long been hailed as a benchmark for sustainable agriculture in arid environments. Unfortunately, the climate change-induced decline in regional precipitation has made traditional farming more challenging for the Tesuque people. In addition to ongoing concerns about surface water volume and access, the Pueblo of Tesuque Environment Department has to contend with regional fire hazards, which are predicted to intensify with climate change. In light of these climate change-driven environmental concerns, the Pueblo of Tesuque Environment Department has turned its attention toward (1) watershed management and planning and (2) wildland restoration.

Categories: Drought, Management, Tribal

This website serves as a platform for new and existing tribal Exchange Network (EN) users, as well as those interested in EN activities, to connect with one another and access relevant information and resources. The site includes basic information on the EN and the Tribal Governance Group (TGG), links to EN announcements, and tools and resources for website visitors. In addition, this website houses the Tribal Mentors Program - a networking tool designed to offer peer-to-peer mentoring to tribes participating in the Exchange Network.

Categories: data, technology, environmental data, network

Our forests have been shaped by people over millennia. This website tells a story of consumption and conservation, of conflict and collaboration. But most of all, it is a story of regrowth, renewal, and abundance. Through interactive maps and graphs, The State of America’s Forests helps you explore the many benefits forests provide, understand today’s challenges to this renewable resource, and learn about forest management and conservation.

Categories: data, forests, wildfires, benefits, threats

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

Collaboration is something the Pacific Northwest Region is deeply committed to and has engaged in for decades. It can provide agency staff opportunities to address local community priorities, build community capacity, leverage resources, and increase accomplishments and benefits across the board. There are 36 collaborative groups that work either exclusively or partially on national forest lands (see map pgs 6-7). All national forests in the Pacific Northwest Region are linked to at least one forest collaborative group.

Categories: collaboration, community, capacity, resource management, national forest lands

The Isle de Jean Charles is a slender ridge of land between Bayou Terrebonne and Bayou Pointe-aux-Chene in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana-home to the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians. Although once virtually cut off from civilization until the 1950's the island tribe is now dealing with serious changes to the natural environment from anthropogenic interference. This includes impacts from oil and gas that has allowed salt water to inundate wetlands' levees that have cut off Mississippi water flow and sediment needed to replenish the land. These imapcts, in conjuction with rising sea level and an increased storm severity due to climate change, is contributing to the disapearance of the island.

Categories: Coastal, Sea Level Rise, Tribal

Covering the entire extent of the Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative’s area, this analyses provide important baseline information on the distribution and magnitude of landscape changes from erosion and aggradation (deposition) over 41 years. The maps document changes in the shape and extent of land, as well as in coastal features such as spits, barrier islands, estuaries, tidal guts, and lagoons. Western Alaska Native coastal communities may use this mapping tool to summarize changes for various parcels of land or assess the extent of habitat loss or gain over the study period.

Categories: coastal, landscapes, erosion, communities, aggradation, maps

The harvest of salmon has declined by as much as 90 percent over the past several decades and can be attributed to a combination o f climate change and poor land and water management. Overharvesting of timber and land clearing of soil and plants have degraded some of nature's natural filtration systems which help keep toxins out of aquatic sytems. Additionally, as the impacts of climate change are felt from rising sea level to drought and flooding, matters will only grow worse. However with the ongoing tribal environmental work, the use of traditional knowledge ,and the push for better decisions, perhaps there is a chance to retore salmon populations.

Categories: Coastal, Fisheries Management, Tribal

In 2007, the Swinomish Tribe passed a Climate Change proclamation in response to growing concerns about potential impacts of climate change on the Swinomish Indian Reservation. This profile highlights the project climate change impacts for climate change, their planning process for the impact assessment and action plan development, as well as key partners and project successes and challenges.

Categories: Coastal, Adaptation, Tribal

In 2008, the Coquille Indian Tribe established a Climate Change Committee to engage tribal government, tribal members, and natural and cultural resource managers in the development of a Climate Change Action Plan. This profile highlights key concerns and potential climate change impacts to the Coquille Tribe, and initial tribal strategies to address climate change.

Categories: Coastal, Adaptation, Mitigation, Tribal

Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA) integrates information from across the federal government to help people consider their local exposure to climate-related hazards. People working in community organizations or for local, Tribal, state, or Federal governments can use the site to help them develop equitable climate resilience plans to protect people, property, and infrastructure. The site also points users to Federal grant funds for climate resilience projects, including those available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Categories: climate-related hazards, resource tool, climate resilience planning, drought, wildfire, flood

Alaska Native communities rely on easy-to-use multiple SNAP tools, including climate projections, climate science, and data exploration by community name, which rapidly develops a local focus within the broader context of climate change.

Categories: climate projections, community, climate change, tools

this webpage provides information about CRITFC's ongoing efforts to address climate impacts. The site also features links to the Facing Climate Change video series.

Categories: Climate Planning

In response to concerns about the Nooksack River and the glaciers that drain into it, the Nooksack Indian Tribe is undertaking efforts to address climate change and its impacts on Nooksack Usual and Accustomed lands and its people. Specifically, the Tribe is exploring climate impacts facing their lands as a way to address the continued health of salmon: riparian ecosystem health, stream and river temperatures, sediment loading in the watershed, and impacts of climate change on glaciers and the hydrology of the Nooksack River. Salmon in the Nooksack River are already severely stressed by a variety of factors including wide scale-watershed alteration by forest practices, channelization of the river, pollution and human-induced habitat loss. Climate impacts, therefore, have the potential to cause major additional harm to salmonid populations in the Nooksack River. Mitigating the impacts of climate change is therefore an integral part of ensuring that the Nooksack watershed is able to continue supporting salmon at harvestable levels. This profile draws on the work of the Nooksack Indian Tribe to address climate change impacts on the hydrology of the Nooksack River and salmon survival and recovery.

Categories: Climate Impacts, Salmon, Hydrology, Watershed

The categories on this page contain resources which may be relevant to Tribal Public health and climate change including NIHB resources, websites and general external resources, climate change reports, media, and external webinars.

Categories: climate change, public health, tribal health, community well-being, fact sheets, project resources

"Gender shapes Indigenous vulnerability and resilience due to the coupled social and ecological challenges of climate change in Indigenous communities in the United States (Maynard, 1998; Grossman and Parker, 2012; Bennett et al., 2014; Maldonado et al., 2014; Whyte, 2014). Despite its relevance, little research has analyzed the ways in which gender shapes climate change experiences. Even less research has focused on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous masculinity. With this backdrop, we foreground Indigenous men and masculinities with respect to climate change vulnerability and resilience."

Categories: Climate change, Indigenous peoples, feminism, gender, vulnerability, climate justice

NCAI developed this resource center to serve as an online hub where tribal leaders, natural resource managers, climate scientists, and other interested stakeholders can access the latest information, data, and other key resources on climate change, its particular impacts on Indian Country, and how tribal nations are taking action to combat it. This center is designed to serve as a growing resource that tribal nations can use to inform and guide strategic decision making in their crafting of self-governed approaches to climate action.

Categories: climate change, impacts, adaptation, tribes, climate scientists, decision making

In 2012, the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative awarded over $300,000 to seven projects aimed at increasing the use of TEK in climate change adaptation and natural and cultural management. The Swinomish Tribe and Tsleil Waututh First Nation, two peoples of the Salish Sea, collaborated together on one of these projects. By bringing together data on environmental, cultural and human health impacts, the project partners are refining their understanding about what areas within their communities may be most sensitive to climate impacts. In doing so, the Swinomish Tribe and Tsleil Waututh First Nation are gaining a more complete understanding of how climate change may affect their communities. This innovative approach builds upon previous work done by the Swinomish Tribe and has potential as a model for other tribal communities aiming to better understand climate impacts to their people and homelands.
Puget Sound Partnership, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada scientists and land managers have identified a number of environmental indicators applicable throughout the Salish Sea to evaluate the status, or health, of the trans-boundary water body. Evaluating the current status of a set of environmental indicators is a first step toward ranking and prioritizing management and restoration actions in order to improve the health of the Salish Sea as an ecosystem. For this project, Swinomish and Tsleil-Waututh each selected a pair of environmental indicators, inventoried available data relating to those indicators, and created projections of the status of those indicators in relation to climate change. Criteria for indicator use included: 1) applicable to lands within reservation/reserve boundaries (site-specific rather than landscape scale (e.g. orcas or birds); 2) sufficient existing data supporting the indicator; and 3) indicators were culturally appropriate for the Swinomish and Tsleil-Waututh communities.

Categories: climate change, fisheries, shelfish, aquaculture, management, conservation, collaboration, international

In order to understand the potential costs and benefits of developing Arctic resources in a safe and sustainable manner—and to help ensure that residents and ecosystems in the region can adapt as conditions change—federal, state, local, and Native entities in Alaska formed the North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI). The group is authorized to serve as an inter-governmental forum for science collaboration through the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Categories: Climate Change, Development, Biodiversity Conservation

A collection of web tools for visualizing past and projected climate and hydrology of the Pacific Northwest, USA​. To access the Northwest Climate Toolbox Workbook, which offers step by step guidance on how to use the toolbox, go to https://pnwcirc.org/sites/pnwcirc.org/files/nwct.pdf 

Categories: climate change, climate change impacts, tools, decision making, planning, assessment, water management, agriculture, fire, climate monitoring