Developing a Tribal Resilience Action Database for the Columbia River Basin Tribes

Many tribes are leaders in climate adaptation efforts, using intricate knowledge of their lands to develop and implement sophisticated adaptation strategies combatting a wide variety of climate impacts. In this tradition, Columbia Basin tribes, in partnership with three intertribal consortia, have created an internal database listing tribal resources and strategies to address different climate risks, from wildfire risk to decreasing snowpack. Yet there is currently no easy way for these tribes to share this continuously expanding body of knowledge with other groups.

In this project, researchers will expand this existing resource to create the Tribal Resilience Action Database, an easily accessible web portal that can be used by tribes and other communities in the region to inform climate adaptation and resilience projects. The Database will catalogue climate adaptation actions used by tribes across the Columbia Basin (Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and western Montana). Researchers will build upon the existing database infrastructure to make the portal publicly available. They will also seek to expand the contents through conversations with the tribal climate adaptation community in the region, including representatives from federally recognized tribes, intertribal consortia, the Pacific Northwest Tribal Climate Change Network, and other federal, state, and tribal partners.