Climate funding supports tribal resiliency projects

For years, tribes in western Washington have been gathering data on how climate change affects their tribal members, but there hasn’t been much funding available to support implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies.

That changed with federal Inflation Reduction Act and Washington state’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) in 2021, when funding became available to support western Washington tribes’ climate resiliency work.

“This funding supports a tribe’s ability to exercise their own self-determination and decide what is best for their community,” said Jennie Harlan, the Suquamish Tribe’s climate education and outreach coordinator.

That resource is being threatened with I-2117, an initiative on the ballot this fall that proposes repealing the act. The CCA created a funding source from auctioning emission allowances to businesses that produce greenhouse gases. More than $3 billion was generated in the 2023-2025 budget; $153 million of it was distributed to salmon recovery projects.

Tribes also have been using CCA funding to hire staff to gather data and implement climate action plans for tribal communities.

The Suquamish Tribe developed a priority climate action plan, which came from evaluating the tribe’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Hannah Ljunggren, the tribe’s climate resiliency program manager.

The tribe determined five priorities to address, including installing ductless heat pumps into tribal members’ homes, making energy efficiency improvements to tribal buildings, electrifying the tribe’s fleet, providing an electric car sharing program for tribal members, and installing solar panels on tribal buildings. The tribe also is creating job opportunities for tribal members and educating the tribal community about the importance of reducing emissions in their homes and becoming more climate resilient.

The biggest thing that CCA funding has provided for tribes is staff capacity to develop and implement climate resiliency plans.

“Without the CCA funds, we’ll have all this information on the work we could do, but nobody to execute it,” said Annie Smaus, the Suquamish Tribe’s climate resilience specialist.

Other tribes, including Port Gamble S’Klallam, also have been putting CCA funding toward climate action planning, including assessing the tribe’s carbon footprint and determining key opportunities to reduce emissions, said Ben Harrison, the tribe’s environmental scientist.

“We are also working to evaluate the tribe’s forest and wetland areas for carbon storage potential through active management, including but not limited to understory planting and constructed wetlands,” he said. This work will complement efforts outside the tribe’s natural resources department to investigate renewable energy and microgrid opportunities, plus key ecosystem and water resource vulnerabilities to climate impacts.

One of the new electric car charging stations installed on the Jamestown S’Klallam government campus. Photo: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is similarly building its staff capacity to address climate impacts, as well as working with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim to assess local clean energy sources including solar, wind, geothermal and marine energy.

With its current funding, the tribe has several projects planned over the next year, said Robert Knapp, Jamestown S’Klallam environmental planning manager. These include purchasing electric vehicle charging equipment, constructing a bike shelter for employees who bike to work, and implementing energy efficiency projects for tribal government buildings and low-income tribal housing. The tribe already has installed solar panels on two tribal buildings, purchased two electric vehicles, and installed electric vehicle charging equipment at tribal facilities.

“CCA funding is helping tribes to build and expand their capacity to address the impacts and causes of climate change,” Knapp said. “CCA funding is helping tribe’s protect treaty rights.”

This forest on the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s reservation shows a characteristically dense, high-stocked Douglas fir stand that could be made more resilient and diverse through managed thinning and planting. Photo: Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe; Story: Tiffany Royal