Adapting to Climate Change in Wyoming

Small Grants Competition

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.

Selection Process

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:

  • demonstrated community interest,
  • resources and networks in place to support the project,
  • realistic budget and timeline,
  • appropriate and sufficient partners,
  • strong connection to their communities,
  • clarity about how resilience or adaptation would be built through the project,
  • plan for communicating with WWA and leveraging of WWA resources,
  • plan for and potential impact of external outreach, and
  • quality, novelty, and innovation of their ideas.

Program Team

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.

  • Corrie Knapp (project lead), Associate Professor, Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, UW
  • Benét Duncan (co-PI), Managing Director, Western Water Assessment, UC-Boulder
  • Katie Clifford, Lead Social Scientist, Western Water Assessment, UC-Boulder
  • Ethan Knight, Associate Scientist, Western Water Assessment, UC-Boulder
Main Page
Community members in a meeting.

Project 1: Helping Rural Wyoming Organize for Climate Action

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.

School buses and bison.

Project 2: Indigenous Youth Culture and Climate Camps

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: 

  • Cultural Empowerment—providing a safe space for the youth to learn ancestral traditions from Elders. 
  • Environmental Stewardship—to teach youth about protecting nature and local ecosystems. 
  • Climate Action—to inspire youth as environmental ambassadors for positive change. 
  • Tribal Governance—understanding Wind River's unique sovereignty to strengthen stronger communities and families.

The camp hopes to accomplish a strong sense of place that is rooted in culture.

Community meeting in Jackson.

Project 3: Participatory Planning for Equitable Climate Action in Jackson, Wyoming

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.