OUTCOME: Capacity

Problem

The North Coast region is home to economically challenged and historically underrepresented communities that often lack the capacity and influence to fully compete for and utilize the significant state and national funding that has been allocated to address climate change and extreme events. Without regional collaboration and the regional infrastructure to support it, the region experiences challenges with effective, equitable regional prioritization of investments, and cannot compete with other, better resourced regions.

Solution

NCRP Regional Role - Sustain and enhance the NCRP backbone infrastructure to collaborate with Tribal, federal, state, and local partners to implement a shared regional vision for community and landscape resilience.

Background and Context

Regional backbone and collaborative capacity and infrastructure are required to assess regional and local needs, develop a community-supported, shared vision for the region, ensure access to the funding and resources to ensure ecosystem and community resilience, and to prioritize and deploy those resources objectively, effectively, and equitably. Regional collaborative infrastructure is needed to complement, synchronize, and support local capacity in North Coast communities and organizations.

Since 2005, NCRP has acted as a regional hub, gathering data, planning, identifying, and prioritizing projects and activities, advocating for investments in the North Coast region, and administering and distributing funds via large block grants. NCRP has a locally-appointed Tribal and county leadership model, a focus on integrated, multi-objective outcomes, and a track record of effective, transparent, and equitable planning and implementation. For these reasons, NCRP has been supported by state agencies and funders as an important regional hub for the North Coast. Although NCRP’s Leadership Council includes elected representatives and works closely with public agencies, the partnership is not a public agency, which empowers it to play a unique and more flexible role. Thus, it serves as an effective center of collaboration with partners throughout the region, supporting and complementing the important leadership of other Tribal, federal, state, and local entities and agencies.

Recommendations

A key factor in achieving community and watershed resilience is maintaining and enhancing NCRP capacity to coordinate assessment, collaboration, planning, prioritization, and investments in the North Coast region. NCRP will ensure that North Coast regional planning processes align and integrate Tribal, federal, and state priorities and objectives, and that regional and local objectives and priorities inform and are represented in state and federal planning and policy frameworks. NCRP will advocate for the North Coast region in state and federal planning processes for community and watershed resilience and actively collaborate with partners in the region to enhance shared learning and avoid duplication of efforts. At the local and watershed level, there is a need to enhance the capacity and infrastructure of existing groups and collaborations comprised of Tribes, counties, regional, and local or watershed-scale entities. Recommendations for local capacity enhancements are described in detail in the Capacity: Year-Round Local Capacity Solution and complement these recommendations for regional capacity enhancement and collaborative infrastructure.

Actions

  • Regularly identify, align, and integrate relevant elements of Tribal, federal, state, regional, and local into this plan.
  • Ensure alignment and integration with the priorities identified in California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan and various state and federal planning frameworks related to community and watershed resilience.
  • Continue to maintain and enhance the Adaptive Planning and Prioritization Framework by soliciting input and suggested refinements from Tribal, local, state, and federal partners.
  • Continue to seek funding and support for the NCRP Director of Tribal Engagement in convening the North Coast region’s Tribes to confer with one another, collaborate, build Tribal capacity to provide Tribal priorities to the North Coast Regional Resilience Plan and to support Tribal engagement in NCRP programs and activities.
  • Seek funding to support input from and convening of economically challenged or underrepresented communities.

  • Regularly share the priorities included in this Regional Resilience Plan with state and federal agency partners, and advocate for their inclusion in relevant state and federal planning, policy, and funding frameworks.
  • Represent the North Coast region formally and informally via the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, including as a member of the Task Force’s Northern Region Work Group.
  • Represent the North Coast region during the development and implementation of California’s Strategic Plan for Expanding the Use of Beneficial Fire, Climate Adaptation Strategy, Forest Carbon Plan, and other relevant plans.
  • Support existing local, regional, and watershed-level collaboratives (i.e., PBAs, All Hands All Lands burn teams, Tribal burn teams, CARCD, etc.) and foster the development of new ones in underserved areas in the region.
  • Significantly expand the volume of grantmaking in the region and ensure performance tracking is transparent and accessible.
  • Expand grant opportunities and technical support for collaborative programs among multiple local partners.
  • Maintain and enhance administrative capacity to support projects and activities.

Engage additional NCRP Project Developers who will work with counties, Tribes, and all implementation partners to identify, develop and implement projects, support progress, identify solutions, and address prioritization and grantmaking to address needs.

  • Expand upon the existing NCRP Small Community Toolbox by collecting, curating, and/or creating toolkits with resources and templates that could assist local organizations advancing fire adapted communities and ecosystems. Include additional topics such as:
    • Volunteer recruitment and onboarding for nonprofit community groups to build community understanding and support for priority actions (not as a substitute for paid workforce).
    • Sample liability release, insurance requirements, time-tracking, and other forms.
    • Succession planning.
    • Library of potential funding sources.
    • Grant management templates for common funding sources (i.e., CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention grants).
    • Tools created by Demonstration Project Sponsors that can be applied to other projects across the region.

 

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