Wyoming communities face increasing climate-related risks including wildfire, drought, flooding, and heat waves, compounded by existing economic, social, and environmental stressors. In 2023, the Adapting to Climate Change in Wyoming grant competition awarded three $30,000, 2-year grants to projects tackling climate adaptation planning or implementation. This funding provides a rare and important opportunity to directly support adaptation and build climate resilience in underserved communities in Wyoming, including Indigenous and small rural communities.
Funding comes from the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Western Water Assessment, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP/RISA) regional team, which works with communities and resource managers to conduct science and build resilience to climate impacts. The University of Wyoming Center for Climate, Water and People led the funding program.
Click here to read a press release about the grants.
Applicants provided brief, five-page descriptions of their projects. A committee that included representatives from the Wind River Indian Reservation (Tribal), the Wyoming Stockgrower’s Land Trust (Agriculture), the Western Water Assessment, the University of Wyoming, and an at-large representative reviewed the proposals. The committee ranked proposals based on:
Team members from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Wyoming partnered to develop a funding announcement, identify areas of expertise and services that WWA core staff members could provide to funding recipients, and launch the funding opportunity.
Lead Organization: Wyoming Outdoor Council
Leads: John Burrows and Lisa McGee
Partners: Lander Climate Action Network; Citizens United for Responsible Energy Development
Summary: Addressing climate change is particularly challenging in Wyoming, a sparsely populated rural state whose economy and communities are intricately tied to fossil fuel extraction. This project seeks to leverage the resources of the Western Water Assessment to bolster and unify Wyoming’s growing climate movement by supporting community climate action efforts in Pinedale, Cody, and Casper. The project team’s main objectives are to activate, resource, and empower citizens in these towns to bring about homegrown climate solutions. Wyoming Outdoor Council will help these communities organize effectively and access vital information so they can influence public discourse and create local changes that build resilience over time.
Lead Organizations: Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, and Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative
Leads: Janna Black, Wes Martel, Colleen Friday, Signa McAdams, and Jason Baldes
Summary: The project leads will develop Indigenous Youth Culture and Climate Camps that will support Indigenous ways of knowing, climate adaptive strategies, and prepare the youth for the future on the Wind River Reservation. These intergenerational land-based camps will focus on preserving cultural traditions while fostering a passion for environmental sustainability.
Our goals are:
The camp hopes to accomplish a strong sense of place that is rooted in culture.
Lead Organizations: Town of Jackson, Wyoming, and Voices Jackson Hole
Leads: Tanya Anderson (Town of Jackson) and Alin Y. Badillo Carrillo (Voices Jackson Hole)
Summary: The Town of Jackson and Voices Jackson Hole are collaborating to engage historically disadvantaged and vulnerable residents in the development of the Town of Jackson’s Community Sustainability Plan. Jackson faces increased wildfire risk, flooding risk, sustained drought, and warming temperatures. Water pollution, air pollution, and hazards in the built environment contribute to growing public health risks. The Town of Jackson ranks worst in the country with respect to income inequality, which destabilizes the community and threatens to undermine its resilience to the shocks and stressors of climate change.
To advance community resiliency, the Community Sustainability Plan must account for pre-existing risks, the vulnerabilities of marginalized community members, and the intersectionality of risks facing these community members. The project leads will deploy a participatory process that ensures that the Community Sustainability Plan is developed with robust input from Jackson’s most vulnerable residents from the outset. At the completion of the two-year grant period, the Town will have identified mitigation, adaptation, and conservation needs and strategies that will be integrated into the data and community-driven Community Sustainability Plan. The participatory planning process will help forge a strong partnership between the Town of Jackson, Voices Jackson Hole, and members of the community who are dedicated to improving their quality of life.
