When national policy stalls, this community takes climate action into its own hands

When national policy stalls, this community takes climate action into its own hands

“Once in a lifetime” storm, wildfireand heat wave Incidents are occurring more frequently, and areas such as Whatcom County in the northwest corner of Washington state are already beginning to feel the effects. 2021, severe flooding 500 county residents displaced by heatwave killed three peoplethick Wildfire smoke blankets the region, winning counties failed Air Quality by the American Lung Association.Between these disasters and others, such as mass death of salmon, The region has been facing a series of climate-related emergencies.

Despite a string of disasters and clear evidence that man-made climate change is taking place, little has been done nationwide to address it. President Biden’s climate plan for 2021, stand still in the Senate.Most major federal environmental policies are 1970s and 1980s or by executive order This can be undone in a later administration. Rather than waiting for action from state policymakers, tribal and county leaders in Whatcom County stepped up to protect their communities, creating advisory committees, action plans, climate policy and water monitoring programs.

Indigenous watershed monitoring and climate planning

Indigenous tribes, especially Nooksack Indian Tribe, has been a leader in climate action in the region. For more than a decade, the tribe’s water program manager, Oliver Grah, has been studying how retreating glaciers and climate change will affect salmon populations in the Nooksack Basin. “The Nooksack people are murlocs — they’re salmon people,” Grah said in an interview with GlacierHub. “They depend on salmon for their livelihoods, cultural heritage and commercial purposes.”

Grah explained that due to the cumulative impact of climate change and legacy land-use impacts, only 8 percent of Salish Sea salmon return today from the late 1800s. The Salish Sea includes Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, and the waters between Vancouver Island and the coast of British Columbia. It borders the traditional homes of Nooksack and Whatcom counties in northwest Washington.

Faced with the loss of these salmon, the Nooksack Indian Tribe established a monitoring program for its watershed “to track glacier loss rates, river flow, turbidity and temperature,” Grah said. This allowed them to understand the changes taking place in the river and see how those changes affected their salmon populations.

The tribe also released its own Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2020 Collaboration with the University of Washington Climate Impact Group and community members. The plan identifies 140 high-priority actions that will improve climate resilience for “priority natural and cultural resources.” Leaders of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, including Grah, have used their experience with the program to assist with other climate adaptation and action plans in the region, including Whatcom County’s recently released Climate Action Plan.

County Climate Action Plan

In 2017, Whatcom County Council passed Regulation 2017-080 and established Climate Impact Advisory Committee (CIAC)The ordinance directs the commission to develop a new climate action plan to replace the old 2007 version, Chris Elder, the county’s senior watershed management planner and key CIAC staff member, told GlacierHub in an interview. In the same ordinance, the council set a goal for Whatcom County to use 100 percent renewable energy and directed the committee to work toward that goal in its climate action plan. There is no timetable or criteria for this target, it is left to CIAC to determine it.

What followed was a four-year community outreach, drafting and editing process. Committee staff and members, such as Elder and CIAC Chair Ellyn Murphy, worked tirelessly on the program. Murphy, a retired U.S. Department of Energy research scientist, joined CIAC in 2019. She leads community research projects, interviewing more than 100 people and organizations in the community to “understand their thoughts and aspirations for climate action.” This opinion was then incorporated into a climate action plan she co-authored.

The committee submitted its climate action plan to Whatcom County Council last November.finalized 202-page plan Detail how climate change is affecting the county, provide goals and steps to reduce emissions, and describe how CIAC and the new Executive Office will implement management strategies to achieve those goals. According to its co-authors, the new executive office, the Office of Climate Action, is “the most important proposal” from the plan. The plan highlights how glaciers will reduce summer meltwater supplied to rivers in counties like Nooksack as they retreat, necessitating other methods of increasing flow. It recommends restoration and demonstration projects to increase river flow and maintain ecosystems and species that depend on these rivers, such as salmon. The Climate Action Plan also sets out specific timetables for emissions reductions that previous decrees failed to achieve. It calls for a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

climate action plan passed the council 4-2 in early November last year. According to Murphy and Elder, the Climate Impact Advisory Committee has continued to play an advisory role on the Council and the Executive Office since then. At an April 14 meeting, the committee provided feedback to Whatcom County Councilman Kaylee Galloway (former CIAC member and co-author of the Climate Action Plan) on a draft resolution for the upcoming Whatcom County population growth and development plan. They also discussed the hiring process requirements for the upcoming Office of Climate Action Senior Climate Advisor/Manager position.

state action

Those who left CIAC are still fighting over climate policy. Washington State Representative Alex Ramel (another former member of the CIAC) worked in the state legislature working on policies for the transition to clean energy, electric vehicles and green hydrogen. In an interview with GlacierHub, he said community-led climate action at the local level is critical to setting the stage for the rest of the state and the country. While it’s still a tough job, his experience as a climate activist, CIAC member, and state representative has taught him that it’s much easier to get local governments to pass climate policies like these that “can serve as guides at the state level. “. He explained that if the local community “can demonstrate that it works, that it’s cost-effective, and that it’s good for the environment, then it’s easier for others to follow suit.”

While national environmental policy has stalled, the work of leaders like the Nooksack Indian Tribe, CIAC, and the Whatcom County Council is paving the way for other communities in the state and country in the fight against climate change.