Climate change is poised to alter natural systems, the frequency of extreme weather, and human health and livelihoods. In order to effectively prepare for and respond to these challenges in the north-central region of the U.S., people must have the knowledge and tools to develop plans and adaptation strategies. This project was a continuation of an effort begun in 2013 to build stakeholders’ capacity to respond to climate change in the north-central U.S. During the course of this project, researchers focused on two major activities:   Tribal Capacity Building: Researchers provided tribal colleges and universities with mini-grants to develop student projects to document climate-related changes in weather and culturally or traditionally significant plants. Data collected by students were made available for use in climate change impact assessments. The activity contributed to the expansion of the Indigenous Geography Phenology Network, a locally grounded, national network for documenting the impacts of climate change. Additionally, researchers collaborated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Conservation Training Center to offer a climate training course in Rapid City, South Dakota, directed at tribal environmental professionals.   PhenoCam Analysis: Researchers provided ongoing technical support to maintain and begin to analyze the data from PhenoCams (streaming cameras) located across the north-central region. Observations collected by the PhenoCams were expected to help scientists track seasonal changes across the region and better understand how climate impacts living things.

UNL scientists are part of a coalition helping two American Indian tribes prepare for drought and other climate fluctuations. The tribes — the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, both located on the Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming — have worked with climate and social scientists in the past year to prepare regular climate and drought summaries for use in making water and resource decisions. A second phase, launched this summer, includes UNL's Cody Knutson and will generate a vulnerability assessment designed to help the tribes reduce the likelihood of future drought-related impacts. Read More:   http://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/unltoday/article/researchers-help-tribes-enhance-drought-and-climate-resilience/

The NC CSC has collaborated with the USGS AmericaView program to deploy cameras that will record phenology throughout the region.  Although, not all cameras were deployed throught AmericaView, they were deployed at the following sites: Ashland Bottoms, Kansas Bangtail Study Area in Bozeman, Montana Central Plains Experimental Range, Colorado Grand River Grasslands, Iowa Grand Teton National Park National Elk Refuge, Wyoming Nine Mile Prairie, University of Nebraska, Nebraska Oakville Prairie, North Dakota Poudre Learning Center, Colorado Sagebrush Steppe, Wyoming Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, South Dakota  

In addition to the major projects funded by the North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC), selected through its solicitation process or the directed funds going to the foundational Science Areas, there remains a need within the north central domain to support work that builds capacity among stakeholders that have been otherwise left out of the major projects funded by the NC CSC. During the course of this project, we focused on stakeholder capacity building by providing regional offerings of climate-related courses for resource managers, supporting tribal college students and deploying technology to better understand how climate impacts living things, and supporting strategic scientific study of the climate/energy/environment nexus in the Missouri River Basin. First, the NC CSC provided climate education opportunities in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center (NCTC). We offered the NCTC Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment class to managers and students from April 22 - 24, 2014 in Jackson, WY, and from September 30 - October 2, 2014 in La Crosse, WI. Future courses will include Climate Smart Conservation. The NC CSC has also worked with the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change working group to establish an Indigenous Geography Phenology Network by providing support to tribal college students to collect observations of plant and animal life-cycle stages (known as phenology) for culturally significant plants and animals, and uploading these observations to a citizen-science database ( USANPN). In addition, the NC CSC has collaborated with the USGS AmericaView program to deploy cameras that will record phenology throughout the region. Finally, we supported the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (ICOUP) to formulate a strategic scientific study to understand and demonstrate how climate science can be integrated into resource management decisions, particularly with regard to the climate/energy/environment nexus in the Missouri River Basin.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming are preparing for drought and other climate fluctuations with help from a broad coalition of scientists, including groups at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read More:   http://drought.unl.edu/NewsOutreach/NDMCNews.aspx?id=204

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming are preparing for drought and other climate fluctuations with help from a broad coalition of scientists.  Read More:  https://www.drought.gov/drought/sites/drought.gov.drought/files/media/whatisnidis/Newsletter/October%202015%20v4.pdf  

The HPRCC has an established partnership with the North Central Climate Science Center (NC CSC) and has enjoyed collaborating on regional projects since its inception. Housed at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the NC CSC is one of eight such centers that were established in 2010 within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The mission of the Climate Science Centers is to help meet the changing needs of land and resource managers across the U.S. (For more information on the Climate Science Centers, please visit: https://www.doi.gov/csc/about.) The NC CSC collaborates with a consortium of nine institutions that provide expertise in climate science and sectors impacted by climate. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where HPRCC is housed, is a member of this consortium. Read More:   http://hprcc.unl.edu/hprccquarterly/HPRCCQuarterly-Fall2015.pdf

Members of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes have been working with an interdisciplinary team of social, ecological, and climate scientists from the North Central CSC, the High Plains Regional Climate Center, and the National Drought Mitigation Center along with other university and agency partners to prepare regular climate and drought summaries to aid in managing water resources on the Wind River Reservation and in surrounding areas. 

The NC CSC project "Wind River Indian Reservation’s (WRIR) Vulnerability to the Impacts of Drought and the Development of Decision Tools to Support Drought Preparedness" supports tribal resource managers working with university and government partners to co-develop science, decision support tools, and a management plan for drought.

This project conducts an interdisciplinary, technical assessment of key social-ecological vulnerabilities, risks, and response capacities of the Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR) to inform development of decision tools to support drought preparedness. It also provides opportunities for 1) development of tribal technical capacity for drought preparedness, and 2) educational programming guided by tribal needs, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and indigenous observations of drought for tribal members, with a longer-term goal of transferring lessons learned to other tribes and non-tribal entities. This project has foundational partnerships between the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of the WRIR, the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the North Central Climate Science Center (NCCSC) at Colorado State University, University of Wyoming EPSCoR, and multiple government agencies and university partners to develop decision tools to support drought preparedness. Other partners include the USDA Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub and NRCS, the Western Water Assessment at CU Boulder, NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), the High Plains Regional Climate Center, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USGS, BIA, Great Northern LCC, and other North Central University Consortium scientists. The project’s decision target is a WRIR Drought Management Plan that integrates state-of-the art climate science with hydrologic, social, and ecological vulnerabilities and risks, and identifies response capacities and strategies to support the Tribal Water Code and related resources management.