For the period May 15, 2020 - May 14, 2021, CRITFC staff will continue to collaborate with the tribes, federal agencies university programs, and other regional entities in identifying climate change impacts to the first foods of their member tribes and assisting with the development of adaptation responses to these impacts. These efforts are intended to assist our member tribes in the protection and restoration of their First Foods in the face of climate change. They are also intended to enhance the validity and increase the scientific robustness of ongoing climate change studies under the Columbia River Treaty Review and other Columbia River Basin efforts into the future. This project will continue to evaluate and use the most current climate scenarios available for the region, in order to best inform adaptation planning. See attached Gantt Chart for the project's four-year Accord period for more details and also the attached CRITFC comments to the ISRP's Mainstem Systemwide process findings for the project.

Project objectives are as follows:

1) Continue to assess and develop adaptation strategies for changes to seasonal water quantity, water quality, and native fish populations under future climate change scenarios.  Specific activities to achieve this objective during this period will include (i) Collaboration with regional entities to share climate impact and adaptation information; (ii) The application of hydro-regulation scenario data developed in this project using the CRITFC Information System (CIS) with regional models of water temperature, fish survival, and fish habitat; (iii) The development of sub-model metrics from these regional model simulations; and the (iv) the integration of updated climate change/hydrological data from regional entities into the CRITFC hydro-regulation program for future simulations.

2)  Continue to assess climate change impacts in tributary systems and develop adaptation responses to these impacts. Specific activities to achieve this objective during this period will include (i) Report on our analysis of habitat restoration activities and projected future tributary climate change impacts, with recommendations for future habitat restoration activities and siting; (ii) Evaluate land use/land cover changes over the past 10-20 years on tribal ceded lands, which will be a first step in assessing the relationship between environmental change in the basin.

3)  Continue to provide technical assistance and data to CRITFC tribes for their climate change adaptation efforts. Specific activities to achieve this objective during this period will include (i) Integrate results from mainstem and tributary analyses performed by this project into the updated CRITFC/Tribal fish restoration plan (“Wy-Kan-Ush-Mi-Wa-Kish-Wit”); (ii) Maintain and enhance the CRITFC Climate Change Scientific Resources website; (iii) Provide technical assistance with climate change adaptation efforts as requested by tribal staff and leaders.


4) Continue to communicate and coordinate and provide technical and policy review for regional climate change-focused efforts with CRITFC’s member tribes and other regional stakeholders (federal, state, local, and academic programs). Specific activities to achieve this objective during this period will include (i) Participate in regional climate meetings (Columbia River Forecast Group, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI), PNW Climate Science Conference); (ii) Serve as a board member on regional climate groups (Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, Climate Impacts Research Consortium, ATNI Climate workgroup, ATNI Tribal Climate Leaders summit); and (iii) Provide technical and policy comments on regional climate-focused actions, including the CRSO EIS, the EPA Temperature TMDL, the EPA Columbia River Cold Water Refuges Plan and computer model, and a regional Sediment Management Plan.

6) Continue to monitor and update assessment of regional needs and opportunities for collaborative research and analyses in climate change. Where possible, seek collaboration with the government agencies that are addressing climate change and natural resource impacts (USGS, USFWS, NW Power and Conservation Council, Corps of Engineers, BPA, Bureau of Reclamation, state agencies and academic institutions) to obtain the best updated climate information in order to apply this information to tribal and other regional climate adaptation plans, resiliency actions and research and modeling.