Coastal Tribes and communities in Washington are on the front lines of climate change. Many are already grappling with associated coastal hazards, including sea level rise and flooding. However, all too often, these communities lack the capacity to adequately address the increasing climate risks that they face.

Washington Sea Grant (WSG) and the Climate Impacts Group (CIG) — both based at the University of Washington College of the Environment — collectively received $8.1 million in federal funding to strengthen local capacity in responding to climate hazards on the Washington coast. The partners will do this through implementing a new Resilience Fellowship and training programs, a small grants program for coastal Tribes in Washington, and coordinating partnerships to ensure that lessons learned translate into actionable knowledge.

This funding is from subawards of a major new grant of $73.6 million to the Washington Department of Ecology Coastal Zone Management Program from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Climate Resilience Regional Challenge, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, the overall grant will also support “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects to build climate resilience across diverse, underserved coastal areas in the state.

“This small grants program will aim to support a number of different Tribal adaptation priorities across Washington,” said Ryan Hasert, CIG research scientist. “While those priorities will ultimately be determined by the Tribes, small grants from this program could support activities such as data collection and monitoring, community outreach and engagement programs, technical training for Tribal staff, and gap funding to advance larger, ongoing Tribally-led adaptation efforts.”

Read more here from Washington Sea Grant