The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative has launched a Request for Collaborators in Idaho

Register for our upcoming webinar on Tribal coastal resilience

Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes: Key Findings from Tribal Listening Sessions
Wednesday, October 16 | 11 a.m. PT

The coasts of Oregon and Washington are home to over two dozen Tribal nations, each contending with climate impacts including sea level rise, ocean acidification, extreme heat events, increasing wildfire risk and declining snowpack.

A team of researchers with the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative held a series of listening sessions with government staff, citizens, and elected officials from Northwest coastal Tribes to better understand the barriers and unmet needs they experience in responding to these and other climate risks. 

New Grants Expand Gonzaga’s Climate Efforts Through Regional Partnerships

The Gonzaga Climate Institute and the Coeur d’Alene (CDA) Tribe were awarded a $29,944 grant from the University of Washington’s Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative to build community knowledge and resilience to climate change impacts. 

Pacific Northwest tribes are battered by climate change but fight to get money meant to help them

A report led by the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and Washington Sea Grant compiles the experiences of Washington and Oregon coastal Tribes as they prepare for climate change. This report was funded by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, a NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnership program. 

Report describes the barriers Pacific Northwest coastal Tribes face in adapting to climate change

Among the many effects of human-driven climate change is rising seas. Warmer water takes up more space, and melting or receding polar ice sheets add water to the oceans. Meanwhile, a warmer atmosphere also leads to more destructive coastal storms. Communities worldwide are adapting by moving away from vulnerable shores.

Many Tribes in Washington and Oregon call coastal areas home, meaning they are especially affected by climate change. They also face changes in wildfire risk and in changes to fisheries that are economically and culturally important.

A report led by the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and Washington Sea Grant compiles the experiences of Washington and Oregon coastal Tribes as they prepare for climate change. 

New report from Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative shares both barriers and paths to climate resilience for Northwest Coastal Tribes

Along the Washington and Oregon coasts, rising sea levels and changes in ocean chemistry are combining with increasing river floods and other land-based impacts of climate change. These changes hold serious consequences for coastal communities, aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and infrastructure. 

The Tribal Coastal Resilience Portfolio of the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative conducted an assessment over two years to better understand the state of climate adaptation among Northwest coastal Tribes, and to elevate Tribes’ experience of key barriers and needs which, if addressed, could help advance Tribal resilience.

The assessment was informed by a review of Tribal climate documents and other relevant reports, as well as a series of listening sessions with Tribal staff, citizens and elected officials. 

Join our team and support climate justice research & outreach!

Do you have a background in the social sciences and a passion for climate or environmental justice? Apply to join the Climate Impacts Group team!

The Climate Impacts Group is hiring a research scientist to support climate justice research and outreach through the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. This position will contribute to a body of work that focuses on moving climate adaptation and climate justice into an implementation space. The research scientist will help create case studies and synthesis reports related to climate justice, community-based research and projects within the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. Additionally, this position will support the development and logistics of a climate justice summer institute and other projects. 

Apply Today! Science Justice Summer School

Update | February 22, 2024: The application deadline has been extended to Monday, March 11.

Update | February 15, 2024: This post has been updated to clarify that only graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle University and Seattle Pacific University are eligible to apply for the Science Justice Summer School. We apologize for any confusion. 

Are you a grad student or postdoc at the University of Washington, Seattle University or Seattle Pacific University who is interested in applying climate and environmental justice frameworks in your work? Consider applying to the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative’s first-ever Science Justice Summer School! 

New funding for the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative supports work in flooding, wildfire smoke

The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative is starting two exciting new projects this year that will support adaptation to flooding and wildfire smoke, thanks to funding from NOAA and the Department of Commerce. These projects are: 

Stories as science: Integrating lived experience and community knowledge into actionable adaptation science in Pacific Northwest and Pacific Islands regions. This project brings together researchers and storytellers from the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative, the Pacific Research on Island Solutions for Adaptation program and Tikkun Olam Productions. A recent story from the Resilience Collaborative highlights how this project aims to elevate the experiences of frontline communities while testing the oral history process as a novel method for co-producing science and guiding adaptation. 

NCRC and partners to pilot groundbreaking co-production method

Building resilience to climate change requires many diverse areas of expertise, experiences and knowledge. Though they have historically been marginalized from climate preparedness efforts, people of color, Indigenous peoples, people with lower incomes and people whose lives depend on natural resources — known collectively as “frontline communities” — have innovative solutions for building resilience to climate change impacts. 

The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative and partners are piloting a groundbreaking method for elevating first-hand experiences and visions of climate resilience and solutions, with the goal of incorporating community knowledge into efforts to prepare for climate impacts. Partnering with the documentary storytelling organization Tikkun Olam Productions and the Pacific Research on Island Solutions for Adaptation program, a trans-disciplinary research team will record the oral histories of frontline communities facing flooding and other climate change impacts.