Pacific Northwest tribes are affected by climate change, but are fighting for money to help them

SEATTLE— Pacific Northwest coastal tribes are facing some of the harshest impacts of climate change — from rising sea levels to extreme heat — but face a series of bureaucratic barriers to access government funds to help them adapt, according to a report released Monday.

Tribes are leaders in the fight against climate change in their region, but as they seek money for specific projects to address its impacts, such as relocating a village threatened by rising seas, they often are unable to secure matching funds that many grants require, or the necessary staff, or struggle with rigorous application requirements, according to a report by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. When they do receive funding, it is often a small amount that can be used only for very specific projects, when that work is usually much more holistic, the report found.

“Trying to implement projects by combining grants that have different requirements and stipulations without the ability to hire staff is a challenge,” Robert Knapp, environmental planning manager for the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in northwestern Washington state, said in the report.

The collaborative, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spent two years holding listening sessions with 13 tribes along the Pacific coast of Oregon and Washington, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. These communities face significant challenges from coastal flooding and erosion, rising stream temperatures, diminishing snowpack, extreme heat and the growing risk of wildfires.

In addition to financial challenges, interviewees also described not having enough staff to adequately respond to climate change, and sometimes not being able to work with state and local governments and universities on this work because of their remote locations. They also said it’s difficult to explain the impacts of climate change to people who don’t live in their communities.

However, while efforts are underway to restore salmon habitats that have been affected by warming waters or to relocate their homes, funding shortages and complications are becoming major concerns.

A representative of one of the anonymous tribes in the report said he had failed to hire a grant writer and had to rely on his biology department to navigate the maze of grant applications. Another spoke of relying on 15 separate funders just to build the marina.

“This is a time of historic state and federal investments in climate action, and tribal priorities really need to be considered in making decisions about how we’re going to direct those investments,” said Meade Krosby, senior author of the report. “I hope this helps inform how that work is done, how those funds are directed so that they actually address the barriers that tribes face and help remove some of those barriers so that tribes can do good work.”

Most of the tribes included in the report have prepared publicly available reports on the impacts of climate change, and some have developed detailed relocation plans as rising seas threaten buildings and even entire villages.

The Quinault Indian Nation, on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, has a plan to relocate its largest village. The multimillion-dollar effort has relied on piecemeal federal and state funding and the constraints that come with it, Gary Morishima, Quinault’s natural resources technical adviser, explained in the report.

Other tribes have expressed concerns about competing with other tribes for funding when collaboration is such a critical part of responding to climate change. Tribal lands share common borders and coastlines, and the impacts of climate change on those lands do not end at any border, the report said.

Amelia Marchand, a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and co-author of the report, explained that it all comes down to the federal government fulfilling its fiduciary duty to the tribes.

“The treaty is supposed to support, uplift and ensure that what tribes need to continue to exist is maintained,” she said. “And that’s one of the problems with the lack of a coordinated federal response, because different federal agencies are doing different things.”

Millions of dollars have gone to coastal tribes, and the report says much more is needed. The report references a 2020 Bureau of Indian Affairs report that estimates tribes in the lower 48 states will need $1.9 billion over the next half-century for climate-related infrastructure needs.

Despite all the challenges, Marchand said, Pacific Northwest tribes continue to be leaders in climate change adaptation and have much to offer other communities.

“Finding ways to achieve progress for their nations and communities despite adversity is one of the most inspiring and hopeful stories of perseverance,” she said.