Water and Climate Resources

Background

The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board aims to fund projects that respond to the impacts of climate change on Oregon’s landscapes by applying climate-smart restoration practices that improve human and ecosystem resilience, increase carbon sequestration, and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions (full Climate Resolution, passed in January 2022). With that goal in mind, OWEB incorporated climate-related evaluation criteria into the agency’s grantmaking.

The three elements of the climate-related evaluation criteria are illustrated in the project planning process as follows. The resources below the diagram correspond to each of the elements (i.e. engagement with local communities), with the top-recommended resources in each area.

Resources to Help Consider Changing Climate Conditions in a Project’s Region:

1. Oregon Seventh Climate Assessment full edition and executive summary
   This resource from the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute provides a statewide analysis of the current and projected impacts of climate change on Oregon’s weather patterns and social systems.
   
2. Regional Climate Factsheets provide a snapshot view of regional climate, habitat, and social impacts.
   

A) PLAN for durable adaptation and resilience in the target ecosystem​​​​​

OWEB has selected the following resources as a starting point for planning climate-informed projects in a particular landscape type. A strong application will consider the local impacts of a changing climate on the landscape where they are working in combination with the unique skills and expertise of the applicant.  

OWEB also encourages applications that are developed by, or in partnership with, Federally Recognized Tribes in Oregon and welcomes projects that understand or respond to climate change through the lens of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK (also referred to as Indigenous Knowledge or IK) can inform both the observations about changing climate conditions and also contribute locally adapted approaches. OSU’s Principles and Best Practices for Working with Indigenous Knowledge and Partnering with Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples is a good primer. When engaging with Tribes in climate-related work, it is important to build on the considerable work on the unique impacts, adaptation approaches, and priorities that many Tribes have already undertaken, such as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s Climate Adaptation Plan, which is available on the Tribal Resilience Action Database.​

​​ ​Ecosystem	​ ​Resource	​Notes
​ Rangelands	Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies for Land Managers on Northwest US Rangelands	This synthesis discusses the ways that climate change exacerbates stressors like invasive annual grasses, drought, and wildfires in Northwest rangelands. It discusses adaptation approaches such as improving hydrologic function, supporting soil health and vegetation, improving grazing practices, and addressing changing fire risk, and provides actionable tools for rangeland managers.
​Forestlands	Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches for Land Managers  ​ ​	​The Forest Adaptation Resources tool outlines ten strategies for designing land management actions that respond to a changing climate. Target users are people working in forestry, natural resources, and conservation, but the strategies are presented alongside examples of actions in easy-to-use sections that would be useful for individual landowners. There are also downloadable worksheets and examples of demonstration projects across the US.
Urban ​Forestlands​	Climate Adaptation Actions for Urban Forests and Human Health	​Like the tool above, the Climate Adaptation Actions for Urban Forests report provides nine strategies with corresponding implementation approaches to support urban forest projects. It discusses the unique challenges that climate change poses to urban forests as well as the human resilience co-benefits of investing in these projects.
​ Blue Carbon	Oregon's Blue Carbon Ecosystems: State of the Science	​This report summarizes the current science related to Oregon’s coastal and marine blue carbon ecosystems, including the evidence of sequestration benefits of blue carbon and potential actions to protect or improve those benefits.
​Agricultural Land	Management Actions for Northwest Agriculture	​Given the breadth of resources for agricultural producers, this library from the USDA Northwest Climate Hub is just one of many tools. It offers a number of regionally specific climate smart examples including cover crops, no-till farming, agroforestry, agrivoltaics, etc.  ​
​Riparian Areas	Climate Change Effects and Adaptation Options for Riparian Areas and Wetlands in the Northwest ​	​This report discusses the specific impacts of climate change on wetlands, small streams with narrow floodplains, and large streams with wide floodplains. On page 21-22, it offers adaptation actions and the corresponding NRCS conservation practice.​

B) ENGAGE communities disproportionately impacted by climate change​​​​​​​

​

OWEB recognizes that the impacts of a changing climate disproportionately affect certain communities, such as Native American Tribes, communities of color, rural communities, coastal communities, lower-income households, and other communities traditionally underrepresented in public processes. As an example, historic disinvestment in low-income urban neighborhoods means that they are less likely to have parks and greenspaces that help cool during heat events. Or invasive plants that spread more readily as a result of climate change may displace the culturally significant species that Native communities rely on. Moreover, ​when climate disasters such as wildfires, floods, or heatwaves happen, certain communities are more vulnerable and less able to recover. OWEB asks applicants to consider those who are disproportionately impacted by climate change with the intention that funding decisions help address historical harms and meaningfully center equity in their proposed solutions.​

1. State of Oregon Climate Equity Blueprint: the guiding questions that start on page 18 are a good place for applicants to start in considering how to conduct meaningful community engagement.


2. Oregon by the Numbers report: from the Ford Family Foundation is a good resource for identifying demographic trends and highlighting those community indicators that might be outliers relative to the rest of the state.


3. Capacity Building Through Effective Community Engagement:​ from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a concise 7-page booklet, a roadmap to building trust within a community, outlined on page 4 is especially useful.


4. Best Practices for Community Engagement: ​should be incorporated for Technical Assistance applications that are doing community engagement plans.​
   

C) DESIGN a project that minimizes emissions and sequesters carbon whenever possible​

With this evaluation criteria, OWEB is looking for applicants to provide narrative descriptions of mitigation decisions and sequestration benefits. It is not required, but if applicants have the capacity to quantify the emissions of their work or the sequestration potential of their project design, they are certainly encouraged to do so. 

How the project design mitigates emissions: Did the applicant consider equipment, travel, or the sourcing of materials in a way that minimizes emissions? Or is the project incorporating low-tech process-based restoration so that natural processes maintain the restoration work over time?

How the project design helps sequester and store carbon: How does the project’s approach protect existing carbon sinks (i.e. protecting intact forests, wetlands, or grasslands), improve land management to increase sequestration potential, or restore degraded cover to sequester carbon where it wasn’t before? And how will project outcomes be sustained over time in a way that contributes to long-term storage potential (i.e. managing for more mature forests, promoting plant diversity to maximize sequestration, etc.)? 

1. ​ Nature Based Solutions (NBS) Benefits Explorer Tool: This tool helps identify, account for, and value the benefits of different nature-based solutions during the design phase. It can be used to either see which benefits would result from a selected activity or to see which activities would lead to a desired benefit across multiple habitat types. The tutorial is especially useful when using the tool for the first time.


2. ​ Naturebase:​ Naturebase allows you to draw a polygon and calculate the carbon mitigation potential of different natural climate solutions. It is less useful for calculating carbon mitigation but more useful for comparing the mitigation potential of different activities side-by-side. The explainer video​ is a good place to start.
   

Contact

Please direct questions or comments to Alexa Schmidt, Water & Climate Coordinator 971-718-4904.