The climate of the Nooksack River watershed is changing, and is projected to continue to change throughout the 21st century. In addition to rising temperatures and declining summer precipitation precipitation, the watershed is likely to experience greater wildfire risk, more severe winter flooding, rising sea levels and increasing ocean acidification. These changes will have profound impacts on the watershed’s plants, animals and ecosystems, including changes in species distributions, abundances and productivity; shifts in the timing of life cycle events such as flowering, breeding and migration; and changes in the distribution and composition of ecological communities.

Understanding which species and habitats are expected to be vulnerable to climate change, and why, is a critical first step toward identifying strategies and actions for maintaining priority species and habitats in the face of change.

The Nooksack Indian Tribe’s Natural and Cultural Resource Department worked together with Tribal members, other Tribal departments, and the Climate Impacts Group to collaboratively develop a list of priority species and habitats of importance to the Tribe for inclusion in the vulnerability assessment. For species with sufficient natural history information and geographic range data, we assessed climate change vulnerability quantitatively using NatureServe’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index. For species with insufficient natural history information or range data, and for all priority habitat types, we assessed climate change vulnerability qualitatively.

In this assessment, we evaluated sensitivity and adaptive capacity using the primary literature as well as existing databases of species natural history characteristics and other relevant information. We also incorporated the local knowledge and expertise of the Tribe’s Natural Resources and Cultural Resources staff. A detailed description of methodology and data sources is provided in the report.

The Nooksack Indian Tribe Climate Adaptation Plan builds off the climate change vulnerability assessment to identify actions to guide the Tribe’s efforts to increase the climate resilience of priority natural and cultural resources.