August 22, 2024
Coastal communities in Washington grapple with hazards such as flooding and erosion, which are exacerbated by climate change. North Cove, pictured, is the fastest eroding beach on the West Coast.
Coastal Tribes and communities in Washington are on the front lines of climate change. Many are already grappling with associated coastal hazards, including sea level rise and flooding. However, all too often, these communities lack the capacity to adequately address the increasing climate risks that they face.
Washington Sea Grant (WSG) and the Climate Impacts Group (CIG) — both based at the University of Washington College of the Environment — collectively received $8.1 million in federal funding to strengthen local capacity in responding to climate hazards on the Washington coast. The partners will do this through implementing a new Resilience Fellowship and training programs, a small grants program for coastal Tribes in Washington, and coordinating partnerships to ensure that lessons learned translate into actionable knowledge.
This funding is from subawards of a major new grant of $73.6 million to the Washington Department of Ecology Coastal Zone Management Program from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, the overall grant will also support “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects to build climate resilience across diverse, underserved coastal areas in the state.
“This federal award recognizes years of hard work and planning by many partners in Washington to address the climate-related hazards that threaten our state,” said Ecology Director Laura Watson. “This funding gives us the ability to act quickly so that we can move these climate resiliency projects off the shelf and onto the shore to address the threats climate change poses to homes, businesses, marine ecosystems and Washington’s economy.”
With over 44 years of experience in administering fellowships, WSG will lead the development of a new Resilience Fellowship program. The funding will be used to fully support professionally competitive salaries for fifteen fellows in Tribal and coastal communities between 2025 and 2029, with each fellow working for two-year terms to support coastal resilience planning and implementation. In addition to directly supporting community coastal resilience actions, the WSG Resilience Fellowship will provide critical workforce development to increase professional capacity across the state to tackle current and emerging challenges facing coastal communities due to climate change.
“The Resilience Fellowship represents a vital opportunity to build the capacity of coastal Tribes and communities to respond to the urgent threats of climate change,” said Deborah Purce, WSG fellowships and research lead. “By supporting early career fellows embedded in these communities, we are not only advancing coastal resilience but also investing in the next generation of leaders equipped to tackle these challenges head-on.”
To support the WSG Resilience Fellow preparation and career training, WSG will partner with CIG, a member of EarthLab at the UW, to host a three-week summer training program focused on transdisciplinary climate justice and resilience education. This training will be modeled after CIG’s 2024 Pilot Science Justice Summer Program.
Together with partners from WSG and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI), CIG will lead the implementation of a small grants program for coastal Tribes throughout Washington. While some Washington coastal Tribes have been successful in applying for federal grants that build capacity or support on-the-ground adaptation actions, significant funding gaps remain. This project was born out of consistent feedback from Tribal partners that short timelines and other restrictions associated with many funding opportunities are a central barrier to equitably supporting climate resilience goals.
“This small grants program is, in part, a direct response to what our Climate Team learned through the research and publication process of the newly released report Climate Adaptation Barriers and Needs Experienced by Northwest Coastal Tribes,” said Amelia Marchand, ATNI Interim Senior Tribal Climate Resilience Liaison. “Specifically, one need identified during the Tribal listening sessions was that more generalized and flexible funding sources with fewer match and stringent qualification requirements would help Tribal autonomy and responsiveness to meet localized climate needs.”
This small grants program will allow coastal Tribes in Washington state to center community-identified adaptation needs and strengthen Tribal self-determination and sovereignty in pursuit of coastal resilience efforts. A total of about 24 grants of approximately $64,750 each will be awarded to Tribal entities. Finding ways for this type of opportunity to be experienced throughout remaining coastal Tribal Nations and Indian Country is an important priority that ATNI and partners are exploring.
“This small grants program will aim to support a number of different Tribal adaptation priorities across Washington,” said Ryan Hasert, CIG research scientist. “While those priorities will ultimately be determined by the Tribes, small grants from this program could support activities such as data collection and monitoring, community outreach and engagement programs, technical training for Tribal staff, and gap funding to advance larger, ongoing Tribally-led adaptation efforts.”
In addition, CIG will coordinate a research effort to ensure that the successes and challenges of implementing these coastal resilience projects provides ongoing benefits to other coastal communities in Washington state and beyond, as well as actionable knowledge for local municipalities, state agencies, tribal governments, interagency and intergovernmental coordinating bodies, and state and federal funding entities.
For more information, contact Kate Litle, WSG deputy director at kalitle@uw.edu and Jason Vogel, CIG interim director and deputy director at jmvogel@uw.edu.
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Washington Sea Grant, based at the University of Washington, helps people and marine life thrive through research, technical expertise and education supporting the responsible use and conservation of coastal ecosystems. Washington Sea Grant is one of 34 Sea Grant programs supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in coastal and Great Lakes states that encourage the wise stewardship of our marine resources through research, education, outreach and technology transfer.
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AUG
2024