Spotlight – Responding to Climate Change in Oregon  – State Wildlife Action Plan

Spotlight – Responding to Climate Change in Oregon 

Adaptation to climate change is occurring across multiple sectors, including natural resource management, but at a pace and scale that is insufficient relative to climate change. While thoughtful planning is essential, the accelerating speed of climate change means that resource managers and decision-makers cannot wait for the perfect plan to guide decisions; rather, they must move forward now with existing tools and information. For example, in 2020, ODFW adopted a Climate and Ocean Change Policy that provides high-level direction to ODFW on responding to a changing climate and ocean conditions through science and proactive leadership. 

The Climate and Ocean Change Policy includes the following key goals, to be implemented through key principles identified in the Policy:

 

  1. Ensuring ODFW understands the risks and opportunities associated with climate and ocean change and incorporates that understanding into ODFW’s actions to maximize the conservation, use, and enjoyment of fish, wildlife and their habitats for present and future generations. 
  2. Providing leadership toward a coordinated statewide and regional response to minimize impacts to natural resources and the communities, culture and economies reliant on them. 
  3. Increasing public awareness regarding the current and future impacts of climate and ocean change on fish, wildlife, and their habitats, and the value of resilient habitats. 
  4. Providing leadership towards achieving reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions through reducing ODFW’s carbon footprint. 

Climate change is forcing natural resource managers to think more creatively and—in many cases—embrace new and different approaches to address the unprecedented challenge and magnitude of climate change impacts. Cultivating an experimental mindset to test new and innovative ideas will be essential to meet the challenges imposed by climate change.  

The Oregon Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (OAH) Council was formed in 2017 to address issues related to ocean acidification and hypoxia. The OAH Council created both a Communication Plan and an Action Plan to help inspire and guide people to act to help reduce the effects of ocean and climate change at multiple levels in our society. The Oregon OAH Action Plan identifies ways that governments and individual Oregonians can make a difference to slow these impacts and adapt to the changes that are already happening. The Action Plan is scheduled to be revised every six years.  

In 2022, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) provided general recommendations for resource managers when incorporating climate adaptation into management plans.

These included:

 

  1. Adopt forward-looking goals
  2. Explicitly link actions to climate vulnerabilities
  3. Manage for change, not just persistence
  4. Consider broader landscapes/seascapes and longer timeframes
  5. Address uncertainty by considering future scenarios and use of adaptive management
  6. Engage diverse partners with climate experience and expertiseÂ