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Climate Adaptation and Implementation Plan for the Norton Bay Watershed

  • Writer: Norton Bay Watershed Council
    Norton Bay Watershed Council
  • Jul 23
  • 2 min read
Braided seal intestines dry in the sun on a rack at a subsistence camp. This is a traditional food that Inupiat people have eaten for a long time. In a cold environment, all parts of a marine mammal like a seal are valuable sources of nutrition and calories to stay warm. (Photo Credit: NPS)
Braided seal intestines dry in the sun on a rack at a subsistence camp. This is a traditional food that Inupiat people have eaten for a long time. In a cold environment, all parts of a marine mammal like a seal are valuable sources of nutrition and calories to stay warm. (Photo Credit: NPS)

Climate Stressor

Native Villages in Alaska are facing challenges due to climate change. The subsistence food sources, as well as the jobs they depend on for income are being affected by climate change and industrialization. Coastal erosion, raising temperatures, altered ice flow, changes in water and river levels, combined with mining and related industrial development, are affecting the subsistence lifestyle many villages depend on.


Action and Outcome

The Village of Elim, teaming up with the Norton Bay Watershed Council, participated in the Climate Solutions University program in 2013 to develop an adaptation plan for the Norton Bay watershed.


The finding and recommendations of that plan will inform adaptation planning for the larger Norton Sound region and throughout Alaska.


The training curriculum included monthly educational webinars, face-to-face meeting in Nome Alaska and interactive conference calls along with a series of tools and resources that included planning worksheets, checklists, analytical matrices and an adaptation plan template.


At the end of the 12-month training the villages were able to develop plans and outline adaptation strategies for future action locally and regionally.


Federal Tool and Services Used

BIA Tribal Climate Resilience Funding was used to develop a training program and plan implementation through an adaptive management process.

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007. Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups 1, 2, and 3 to the fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing team, Pachauri, R.K., and Reisinger, A. (eds)] Geneva, Switzerland.104 pp

  • National Resource Council. 2013. Climate and Social Stress: Implications for security Analysis. Washington, DC: The National Academics Press

  • US Army Corp of Engineers.2013. Alaska Deep-Draft Arctic Port System Study. (Link)

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency.2012 An assessment of Potential Mining Impacts of Salmon Ecosystem of Bristol Bay, Alaska Vol. 1, EPA 910-R-004a


Download NBWC's 'Climate Adaptation and Implementation Plan for the Norton Bay Watershed' by clicking here.

Comments

Support us to protect our water resources

Local traditional knowledge is critical to protecting our water resources.


Your support is vital to the council's efforts to monitor, restore, and advocate for water rights in the Norton Bay watershed. Your donation would go to assist the watershed council to monitor the health of our rivers and the protection of subsistence and traditional resources.

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