OUTCOME: Climate Action

Problem

Climate change is already impacting human and natural communities with an increase in extreme events, such as extreme heat, wildfire, drought, flooding, and sea level rise. Vulnerability is not evenly distributed: some communities experience greater impacts and have fewer resources to address them.

Solution

Adaptation - Develop and implement a regional plan for climate adaptation and resilience to extreme events consistent with the state's climate policies and plans.

Background and Context

Much of this plan focuses on healthy forest ecosystems. Beyond forests, healthy coastlines, wetlands, and riparian areas can provide multiple benefits to natural and human communities, including improved water quality and supply, resilience to both drought and floods, stabilized shorelines, and habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species. Humboldt Bay in the North Coast region is one of California’s bay/estuary systems most at risk from sea level rise, which threatens critical habitat at risk of inundation, as well as human communities that will be increasingly affected by sea level rise, storms, and floods from changing weather conditions.

Green infrastructure techniques in the built environment, such as rain gardens, permeable soil cover or pavements, and green roofs, mimic natural processes to capture stormwater, slow it down, absorb some of it into the ground, and filter out pollutants before releasing the remaining runoff to storm sewers or waterways. Other elements such as rain barrels and cisterns can store runoff for non-potable uses such as irrigation, which helps conserve drinking water. In addition to protecting water quality, these green infrastructure practices can make streets and buildings more attractive and reduce ambient air temperatures. Other green infrastructure solutions include cool roofs/cool surfaces, parking lot solar panels for shade and energy production, and urban trees and parks, edible landscaping, and bioswales. Multi-benefit fuel breaks (see Community Health & Safety – Fuel Break Solution) are another example of green infrastructure that helps to protect communities from wildfire while providing multiple benefits.

Urban forests include all the trees found in parks, streets, landscaped areas, public gardens, paths, greenways, shelter belts, and open spaces within cities and towns. Trees in these areas provide ecosystem services such as cleaner air and water, reduce temperatures through shading and evapotranspiration, and add beauty and recreational spaces to cities and towns. They can reduce heat-related mortality due to extreme heat events (Sinha et al 2022). They can also provide locations for communities to gather to grow food, recreate, celebrate, and connect. Among the many inequities suffered by economically disadvantaged communities are fewer trees and less access to fresh and healthy food. Urban and community forests and gardens can increase the health, sustainability, and resilience of local communities. Urban forests and community gardens provide multiple benefits when incorporated into shelterbelts and shaded fuel break areas around communities to separate the built infrastructure from high fire risk zones in the WUI. In addition to providing locally grown healthy food, they can sequester carbon, include native species and habitat for pollinators, and provide sites for bioretention and stormwater management and groundwater recharge.

Recommendations

NCRP’s role in implementing state climate plans in the North Coast region is to support, facilitate, coordinate, and fund the implementation of region-specific strategies to achieve these priorities. This includes conserving established and potential climate change refugia, considering migration, range shifts, and the connectivity to support biodiversity. NCRP will build on its ongoing planning, conduct regional assessments and evaluations of risks associated with climate change, and develop plans to increase resilience of communities and ecosystems. NCRP will partner with Tribal governments to support their climate adaptation efforts and work with state, regional, and local partners to align state and federal plans and develop regional plans to restore and expand coastal habitats and ecosystems and to protect communities from the effects of sea level rise. This includes planned retreat and nature- based solutions.

California Indian Tribes have always stewarded and lived interdependently with the lands, waters, and natural resources that now make up the state of California. In recognition of this truth and the critical importance of partnership with California’s many Tribes in advancing a climate-resilient California for all, NCRP will continue its commitment to Tribal leadership by assuring that Tribal expertise and Indigenous knowledge and practice and TEK inform every element of this work. Habitats, species, and natural and working lands hold cultural importance to Tribes and are critical to their lives and well-being. Certain lands and waters are significant to identity, culture, and belief systems. Threats to these species, lands, and waters will not only have an ecological impact, but a cultural impact to many Tribes. Traditional knowledge and land stewardship hold keys to adaptation and resilience. NCRP will collaborate with Tribal leaders and support Tribal priorities for their own lands and communities. NCRP will provide technical assistance and funding to expand the capacity and planning capabilities of under-resourced communities, including Tribes, to implement green infrastructure solutions to improve climate adaptation and resilience. Tribes will continue to work with federal, state, and local entities to gain respect for Tribal sovereignty, increase co-management of public lands, and will lead in stewarding, restoring, and revitalizing natural and cultural resources, traditional foods, and cultural landscapes.

NCRP will support regional implementation of the California Forest Carbon Plan’s goal of increasing total urban tree canopy by 10% above current levels by mapping existing tree canopy in urban areas in the region, and identifying where trees are lacking and could be added in urban settings. NCRP will identify communities with low urban canopy levels and communities with less access to fresh food, and support community groups that create urban and community forests that are accessible to all community members and welcoming to traditionally marginalized groups (i.e. non-English speakers, Tribal communities, elders, residents with disabilities, etc.).

Actions

  • Assess and evaluate which communities in the North Coast are climate vulnerable communities, and to which effects (i.e. drought, flood, extreme heat, sea level rise, wildfire, etc.). See Communities at Risk Assessment Story Map.
  • Conduct avoided cost studies of climate adaptation and resilience actions to facilitate funding to address vulnerabilities.
  • Support Tribes in developing climate change and health equity resilience planning tools and capacity.
    • Enhance the understanding of climate change impacts on Tribal communities and their ecosystems by funding Tribes to document, as part of the Indicators of Climate Change in California Report, their perspectives on climate change-related stressors.
    • Engage and partner with Tribes to coordinate and align with them on climate adaptation and resilience.
    • Support Tribal efforts to protect their heritage and cultural resources from climate impacts.
  • Provide technical assistance and funding to expand the capacity and planning capabilities of under-resourced communities to implement climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience projects.
    • Hold community meetings in climate-vulnerable communities to create plans that address community concerns as well as environmental and social justice issues.
    • Ensure that educational and community outreach materials on adaptation and resilience planning are available in languages spoken in the community and accessible to all, including those without computer access and/or with visual or auditory impairments.
  • Assist North Coast communities with developing Multijurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plans (LHMP) to create eligibility for FEMA funding, if they do not already have them.
  • Assist affected communities in creating and implementing integrated watershed management plans to reduce the risks of both drought and floods in the human and natural landscape and to reduce contamination from agricultural runoff.
    • Plan for a continued water supply for humans and landscapes, including water use efficiency/conservation, off stream storage, filtration ponds and basins, riparian floodplain and wetland restoration.
    • Support adoption of new standards for outdoor residential water use, water loss through leaks, and outdoor commercial, industrial, and institutional water use on landscapes with dedicated irrigation meters.
    • Support implementation of urban water use efficiency and water loss standards for urban retail water suppliers.
    • Protect groundwater as an important water source for future generations and implement actions that support sustained groundwater recharge and protect groundwater recharge areas consistent with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
    • Support communities in developing multi-benefit projects and plans based on the state’s Storm Water Program planning model that fosters collaborative prioritization of multi-benefit projects featuring green infrastructure for drought, flood, and ecosystem resilience.
    • Design and assist with permitting of projects to improve groundwater recharge, including Flood-Managed Aquifer Recharge (Flood-MAR).
    • Assist affected communities with creating and implementing stormwater management plans and low-impact development that incorporate green infrastructure practices, including bioretention elements in parking lots, along streets, etc. to reduce impervious surfaces in urban areas.
    • Assist affected communities in identifying necessary upgrades to water and wastewater systems to accommodate projected changes in water quality and availability.
  • Develop and implement a regional plan to treat water through nature-based solutions such as constructed wetlands and treatment channels, which can often store recycled and/or treated potable water, provide habitat for wildlife, and increase access to nature, educational opportunities, and recreation.
  • Assist communities in creating Green Infrastructure plans for urban enhancements, including technical components, management plans, and potential funding sources.
  • Support plans to increase regional urban tree canopy, particularly in disadvantaged and low-income communities and low-canopy areas.
    • Evaluate existing maps and determine where in region urban forests can be expanded.
    • Develop an urban agroforestry/food forest project toolkit for community groups.
    • Develop and implement urban forestry and agroforestry pilot projects in North Coast communities.
  • Provide technical assistance and funding to expand the capacity and planning capabilities of under-resourced communities to implement urban and community forest projects that provide culturally appropriate food and forage materials close to communities.
  • Provide technical assistance and funding for local communities to create Extreme Heat Action Plans, downscaling the State plan (draft released February 2022) to local communities.

  • Review and integrate existing data and reports (i.e. Northern California Climate Adaptation Project vulnerability assessments) conduct gap analysis, and fill gaps in data needed to do effective adaptation planning in the region.
  • Develop and implement a regional plan to restore rivers and floodplains, and facilitate their natural function (See Ecosystem Conservation & Restoration – Planning Solution).
    • Map and evaluate existing geomorphic and biophysical function in streams, rivers, and riparian corridors
    • Downscale and integrate modelled data about increased volatility, flooding risk due to extreme events such as atmospheric rivers.
    • Develop detailed plans for nature-based solutions to protect human communities and biological diversity in stream corridors – easements, etc.
    • Support and/or fund the siting, installation, maintenance, and use of additional stream gauges and rain gauges to assist in monitoring and assessment of hydrological conditions.
  • Develop and implement a regional plan to restore wetlands and facilitate their natural functions.
    • Identify and prioritize wetland restoration near climate vulnerable communities where climate smart land management can improve groundwater quality and provide public recreational green space.
    • Identify opportunities to reconstruct wetlands and saltmarshes where possible, for example during construction projects in areas where these nature-based solutions could deliver climate and other beneficial outcomes to communities.
  • Develop and implement a plan to adapt to sea level rise.
    • Develop and implement a regional plan to restore and enhance coastal wetlands and salt marshes to maintain and protect these habitats from future sea level rise.
    • Support assessments of the suitability, siting, installation, and maintenance of Horizontal Levees to protect against sea level rise.
    • Develop and implement a regional plan to conserve inland and upland areas to allow for migration of species due to sea level rise, climate-related elevation changes in habitat areas, etc. and to create corridors to facilitate species migration.
    • Develop and implement a regional plan to construct living shorelines, which are protected, stabilized shorelines constructed with natural materials that can sequester carbon and maintain carbon stores of the wetlands they protect, build resilience to sea level rise, improve water quality, and provide habitat.
    • Develop a regional plan to protect existing seagrass habitat and create and restore additional habitat.
    • Develop a regional kelp restoration and management plan.
  • Partner with Tribes to preserve, restore, enhance, and create wetlands, meadows, and riparian areas on Tribally-owned and trust lands.
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