Register for the Inaugural, Virtual International Invasive Species and Climate Change Conference!

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There’s still time to register for the inaugural International Invasive Species and Climate Change Conference on January 30 and 31, 2024! This conference, organized by the Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) Management Network and the North American Invasive Species Management Association, is virtual and free to attend. Topics will include new arrivals and emerging invasion pathways, managing invasive species in a changing climate, practitioner success stories and lessons learned from island ecosystems.

Because biological invasions and climate change are global issues that know no boundaries, this conference strives to create space to share research and management practices, expand networks and promote translational experiences.

Learn More & Register

Funding Opportunity! NW CASC is Now Accepting Proposals for our 2024-25 Research Fellowship Program!

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We’re now accepting proposals for our 2024-2025 Research Fellowship Program! This is a 1-year program that enables graduate students and postdocs from across our Consortium to develop decision-relevant science in collaboration with regional natural and cultural resource managers, while providing training in the principles of actionable science.

Join an Upcoming Input Session to Learn About NW CASC’s New Faculty Fellowship Program & Provide Feedback

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We’re launching a new Faculty Fellowship Program, supporting faculty across our Consortium to take research beyond peer-reviewed publications to formats more easily applied to the decision-making of Northwest resource managers. To ensure that this new program meets the needs of faculty in the NW CASC Consortium, we are hosting info sessions on January 30 at 3pm PT and February 1 at 11am PT to share our vision for the program and to seek feedback that will inform a Request for Proposals later this spring. If you’re interested in decision-relevant science that helps advance climate resilience in the Northwest, please join us and share your thoughts! bit.ly/NWCASCfaculty

Registration Now Open for the 2024 National Tribal Leaders Climate Summit

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Registration is now open for the 2024 National Tribal Leaders Climate Summit, which will convene leaders from Tribes and First Nations to advance Tribal climate change policy and action. This year’s Summit will be held April 15 – 17 at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort.

Faces of Adaptation: Meet Sarah Fesenmyer

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Sarah Fesenmyer, a member of the NW CASC Advisory Committee, is a Fish & Wildlife Supervisor at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Columbia-Pacific Northwest regional office in Boise, Idaho. Prior to this position, Sarah worked for the National Marine Fisheries Service for 15 years on salmon recovery in the Columbia River Basin. She received a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University, prior to which, she was a copyeditor at a book publishing house in New York City.

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

Water is a key resource for the West – for people and for ecosystems. Climate change is bringing increased hydrologic variability to the Northwest, and this complicates our ability to manage water resources for multiple purposes such as agriculture, hydropower and resilient aquatic ecosystems. Working for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in the Environmental Services Office has given me a great opportunity to contribute to teams addressing these challenges.

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

Well, I participate in a lot of video meetings! One thing I do is coordinate Endangered Species Act policy for Reclamation in the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest. This means ensuring that Reclamation is protecting threatened aquatic species (e.g., salmon, steelhead, bull trout) while delivering water to our water users and generating hydropower.

How does your organization/work support climate resilience in the Northwest?

Reclamation supports climate resilience in the Northwest in several ways, including through our WaterSMART grant program and our Basin Studies. Our WaterSMART grant program provides financial assistance to states, Tribes and local entities for projects that seek to conserve and use water more efficiently. Our Basin Studies are collaborative studies with non-Federal partners to evaluate water supply and demand in a local watershed and identify strategies to address imbalances in water supply and demand.

What is your favorite thing about your work?

The people! I am honored to work with many dedicated problem solvers who are committed to economically and environmentally sound water management in a changing climate.

New NW CASC-Supported Brochure Soon to be Available for Visitors at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

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On the Southern tip of Washington’s Puget Sound, where the freshwater of the Nisqually River meets the saltwater of the Sound, lies the Nisqually River Delta. Situated within the traditional homeland of the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the site of the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge), this estuary and its surrounding lands are full of diverse and unique habitats like freshwater and saltwater marshes, riparian woodlands, and grasslands, which are home to hundreds of fish and wildlife species. The Refuge is a sanctuary and stopover site for migratory birds of the Pacific Flyway and also provides important migration and rearing habitat for salmon. Established in 1974, the Refuge was renamed in 2015 to honor Nisqually Tribal member Billy Frank Jr., who fought for Tribal fishing rights and helped preserve the area as a refuge. Today, the Nisqually River Delta is co-managed by the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Located just off of Interstate 5 between Tacoma and Olympia, the Refuge not only provides critically important wildlife habitat, but also offers a place for people to connect with nature in one of the most densely populated areas of the Northwest. Over 350,000 people visit the Refuge each year to birdwatch, explore its many trails, and learn about the natural world. A new brochure about the Nisqually River Delta, co-developed by the Nisqually Indian Tribe, USFWS, NW CASC researcher Kristin Byrd, USGS biologist Isa Woo and USGS information specialist Shonté Jenkins, will help visitors learn about the area’s cultural history and the benefits the delta provides to wildlife and people. The brochure also reflects upon the challenges posed by climate impacts like sea level rise and what can be done to help protect this special place into the future — topics that Kristin has been exploring through a larger NW CASC study. We talked with NW CASC researcher Kristin Byrd to learn more about the project and the collaboration that made this brochure a reality: 

This brochure is part of a larger NW CASC study on ecosystem services in the Nisqually River Delta. What were the goals of this larger project?


Kristin: The goals of the project were to quantify a set of ecosystem services  — benefits that wildlife or ecosystems provide to people — that are priorities for the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the surrounding communities. The Nisqually River Delta, located in South Puget Sound, contains a rich mosaic of different coastal habitat types. We modeled how change in these habitats from sea level rise or management activities like restoration could affect ecosystem services in the future. We focused on changes to soil carbon accumulation, birdwatching visitation, and juvenile Chinook salmon growth rates, which served a proxy for fishery production. 

In conversation with managers from USFWS, we identified practical ways in which ecosystem services may be incorporated into adaptive management frameworks such as Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) that support climate adaptation decision making. Our study illustrated how accounting for ecosystem services can help managers using RAD make decisions that have greater benefit for wildlife and people, communicate the societal value of decisions, and increase local engagement and participation. 

Which project partners did you engage with in developing the brochure? What did this look like at different stages of its development?


Kristin: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologist Isa Woo has been working with the Nisqually Indian Tribe (Tribe) and the Refuge for over 10 years, so a mature working relationship and research on juvenile Chinook had already been developed with our partners. A couple of years ago, we proposed an idea to the Tribe and the Refuge, to co-develop a brochure for visitors to the Refuge. We then worked together to figure out our shared goals for the brochure.

We wanted to highlight the benefits that the Nisqually River Delta provides to people, especially the importance of the Nisqually River Watershed as the ancestral homeland of the Nisqually Indian Tribe.  

We wanted to highlight the benefits that the Nisqually River Delta provides to people, especially the importance of the Nisqually River Watershed as the ancestral homeland of the Nisqually Indian Tribe. We also wanted to emphasize the importance of the salmon, which forms the Nisqually people’s culture, heritage, and way of life. The brochure was written with Tribe, Refuge, and USGS staff. Debbie Preston, Director of Communications and Media Services for the Nisqually Tribe, wrote the section on the history of the Nisqually people and provided the photos. The Tribe’s salmon recovery manager Chris Ellings provided information on the fishery, and the Refuge manager Glynnis Nakai provided text on Refuge activities and photos. We also brought on Shonté Jenkins, Information Specialist for the USGS Science and Decisions Center, to design the layout for the brochure. Isa and I wrote the remaining sections, and together, we went through many iterations of the brochure before we arrived at the final version. 

What do you hope people will take away from reading this brochure?

Kristin: We hope that people learn about the many ways people can value the Nisqually River Delta and its fish and wildlife, and form a relationship with this special place. We also hope people learn about some of the challenges it faces and ways that we can build resilience to support the future of the Nisqually River Delta. 

The brochures will be available at the visitor’s center within the next couple of months, so be sure to pick one up next time you visit! In the meantime, you can explore an online version of the brochure here! 

NW CASC University Director Meade Krosby Joins Secretary Haaland’s New Advisory Council for Climate Adaptation Science

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Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s University Director, Dr. Meade Krosby, has been chosen to serve on Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s new Advisory Council for Climate Adaptation Science (ACCAS). Dr. Krosby will join 18 other Council members, including representatives from state agencies, Tribal governments, universities, nonprofits and the private sector, in advising the Secretary on the operations and priorities of the Climate Adaptation Science Centers.

The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) is one of nine regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) across the Nation. Like the NW CASC, each regional CASC is based out of a host university in its region and is composed of a consortium that includes university and non-university partners. The national network is managed by the U.S. Geological Survey National Climate Adaptation Science Center. Through close collaboration with managers and scientists inside and outside of government, the National and regional CASCs deliver science to address the priority science needs of regional resource stewards. Projects led by the National CASC often examine climate change impacts at a multi-region or national level. 

“It’s an honor to support DOI’s efforts to provide the science natural and cultural resource managers need to respond to climate change.”  

As a member of the Advisory Council, Meade will provide recommendations on the CASCs’ national science priorities, key partnerships and science delivery to natural and cultural resource managers. The Council will also advise the CASCs on how to integrate equity for historically underserved communities into their operations.

Meade brings to the Council deep expertise in the provision of science, tools and guidance to inform resource management in a changing climate, and a demonstrated commitment to equitable adaptation partnerships and capacity building. In addition to her role as the NW CASC University Director, which she stepped into last year after having served as the NW CASC Deputy University Director for over five years, Meade is a Senior Scientist with the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. Meade works closely with land and wildlife managers, policy makers and communities to understand and address climate impacts on natural systems and the people who depend on them. She is excited to join the Council, saying “It’s an honor to support DOI’s efforts to provide the science natural and cultural resource managers need to respond to climate change.”

Tribal Climate Resilience Liaisons Connect Regional Tribes with Resources Across the CASC Network

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The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience (TCR), the USGS Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs), Tribal Nations and regional Tribal organizations collaborate to support a national network of Tribal Climate Resilience Liaisons (Tribal Liaisons) who connect Tribes with resources to support their climate adaptation efforts. Liaisons connect Tribal agencies, organizations, and Nations in addition to other Indigenous communities to information, data, resources, and expertise that facilitate culturally appropriate research and planning.

CASC Tribal Liaisons have worked with over 100 Tribal Nations on adaptation plans and vulnerability assessments and have supported nearly 200 Tribal climate camps, summits, trainings, workshops, retreats, and presentations. Learn more about the network and meet each region’s Liaison(s).

In the Northwest, our Tribal Liaisons are employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience (TCR) and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI).

The Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience partners with Tribal Nations and other BIA agencies to incorporate climate considerations into their programs and policies through funding, training, technical assistance and organizational support. Some of these include TCR’s Annual Awards Program and various Tribal Climate Youth programs.

 

ATNI supports climate resilience by connecting Tribes to grant opportunities, offering free workshops on various topics and hosting regional and national meetings and events. Some of these opportunities include the National Tribal Leadership Climate Change Summit, the Northwest Tribal Clean Energy Summit and the Tribal Climate Camp.

 

Meet our Northwest Tribal Liaisons!

Amelia Marchand

Interim Senior Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison | Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians
Contact: amarchand@atnitribes.org

Amelia Marchand (she/her) is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and is the NW CASC Interim Senior Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison through ATNI. Amelia has over 24 years working in the cultural and natural resource fields. Her professional work and personal experiences have increased her dedication to Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and the implementation of socially equitable solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation that not only honor values of community and reciprocity, but also heal wounds from intergenerational trauma and institutional colonialism.

You can contact Amelia for support with climate adaptation and resilience events and trainings, bringing together Tribal government leaders and technical staff to incorporate their values and priorities into projects, and educating others about the importance of Indigenous Science and Tribal Sovereignty.

Kylie Avery

Assistant Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison | Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians
Contact: kavery@atnitribes.org

Kylie Avery (she/her) is an enrolled citizen of the Shawnee Tribe and is the NW CASC’s Assistant Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison through ATNI. In her role, she engages with Tribal governments and NGOs on Tribal issues as they pertain to climate change, resource vulnerability, and climate adaptation actions.

You can contact Kylie for support with finding funding opportunities, information related to Tribal adaptation plans and hazard mitigation, as well as other resources on Tribal resilience to climate impacts. Kylie manages the distribution of ATNI’s monthly Tribal Climate Resilience newsletter and also assists in facilitating relationships between Tribal and non-Tribal partners.

Coral Avery

Natural Resource Specialist | Bureau of Indian Affairs Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience
Tribal Youth & Climate Liaison | Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Contact: coral.avery@bia.gov

Coral Avery (they/them) is a citizen of the Shawnee Tribe and works from home near Portland, OR where they split their time as a Natural Resource Specialist for the BIA Branch of Tribal Climate Resilience and as a Tribal Youth & Climate Liaison at the NW CASC. In these roles, Coral engages with Tribes, NGOs, federal agencies, and other partners across the nation on Tribal climate resilience, natural resource management, and Native youth programs.

You can contact Coral for support with TCR Annual Awards, building interagency and cross-regional partnerships, funding for youth climate programs, and resources including scholarships, internships, and career building opportunities for Native youth pursuing environmental fields. Coral also facilitates Tribal success stories, Liaison success stories, Native student experiences, and TCR lessons learned. 

Help Share the Young Tribal Leaders Art Contest!

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Calling all young Tribal artists! The BIA Division of Environmental Services and Cultural Resources Management is hosting a Young Tribal Leaders Art Contest to highlight the perspectives and creativity of Native youth and young professionals across the nation with themes of culture, environment and climate — submissions are due by Saturday January 6, 2024 and winners will be announced in February 2024. Winning submissions will be featured in Washington, D.C. as well as online. Eligibility guidelines and additional information can be found at https://www.bia.gov/service/art-contest.

UW Climate Impacts Group & Partners Mark Release of Fifth National Climate Assessment

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UW Climate Impacts Group scientists were among hundreds of authors of the newly-released Fifth National Climate Assessment. The assessment, released roughly every four years by the The US Global Change Research Program, assesses the effects of climate change on a wide range of sectors and for 10 geographic regions across the country.