Partners, People

Faces of Adaptation: Meet Harriet Morgan

Harriet Morgan is the climate change coordinator for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). In close collaboration with internal and external partners, Harriet is working to facilitate the development and implementation of a coordinated agency response to the impacts of climate change at WDFW. Before joining the agency, Harriet worked as a research scientist at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group (CIG) for seven years, where she was involved in many facets of climate resiliency across the region — from planning to implementation.

What led you to work in the field of climate adaptation?

In graduate school, I studied the impacts of disease on the reproductive success of a high-elevation mountain sparrow. While the fieldwork was jaw-droppingly beautiful, my work was disconnected and irrelevant for science-informed decision-making — the classic yellowing academic report on a dusty shelf. After graduate school, I was interested in more applied science and started working at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, which taught me the importance and relevance of co-producing climate science to ensure it is useful to and actually used by the decision-making community. My time at CIG also exposed me to the world of climate science and climate change adaptation — I worked on climate change vulnerability assessments, climate change adaptation plans, and downscaling climate datasets for use in the Pacific Northwest and Washington state. In 2022, after seven years with CIG, I joined the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as the agency’s climate change coordinator, where I collaborate with internal and external partners to facilitate the development and implementation of a coordinated agency response to the impacts of climate change.

What does your day-to-day work look like?

My day-to-day work is often a balancing act between longer-term strategic planning and shorter-term, project-based work. On longer timelines, I am working on identifying where WDFW has embedded climate assumptions in how we make management decisions to preserve, protect, and perpetuate the fish, wildlife, and ecosystems of our state. As an agency, we are working towards identifying where these climate assumptions exist, what these assumptions are, and identifying options to alter our management strategies to help ensure they are valid as the climate continues to change. A second component of my work is on shorter-term projects, such as developing climate change vulnerability assessments for our hatchery facilities and identifying generalized climate refugia across Washington state that could serve as areas where species can persist as the climate continues to change.

How does your work support climate resilience in the Northwest?

We know that a changing climate is already affecting WDFW’s operations and facilities. Increasing stream temperatures and low summer flows have resulted in fish die-offs and fishing closures along rivers. Declines in snowpack and wildfires have damaged critical habitat and pose significant management challenges for many threatened or endangered species. Continuing climate change trends are expected to exacerbate these and other climate-related impacts, further challenging our ability to fulfill our mission to “preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.”

In 2021, we released the report Preparing WDFW for a Changing Climate: Assessing Risks and Opportunities for Action, which identified four aspects of WDFW’s mission considered most vulnerable to climate-related impacts: (1) Risks to Species Conservation and Recovery; (2) Risks to Harvest and Recreation; (3) Risks to Providing Effective Technical Assistance, Permitting, Research and Planning; and (4) Risks to WDFW Lands and Infrastructure.

WDFW’s approach to climate resilience is designed to address these four vulnerabilities through investments in integrated research, capacity building, engagement, evaluation, and monitoring across WDFW’s projects, programs, and activities. Specifically, the agency is working to fulfill the following objectives:

  • Meet species conservation and recovery goals in the face of climate change.
  • Provide harvest and recreation opportunities to Washingtonians under a changing climate.
  • Provide effective technical assistance, permitting, research, and planning that account for projected changes in climate.
  • Increase the resilience of WDFW’s lands and infrastructure to the observed and projected impacts of climate change.

What is your favorite thing about your work?

The people. Every day I am floored by the passion, creativity, ingenuity, and humility that my colleagues bring to work. I also deeply appreciate how my position enables me to meld two of my passions — climate change adaptation and natural resource management and conservation.