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Climate change can have complex and compounding effects on the ecology, economy, and culture of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. These effects can vary across different parts of the region, making it challenging to understand and adapt to climate change.
Climate literacy—an understanding of how the climate system works, how human actions influence climate, and how climate influences people and other parts of the Earth system—is essential. By deepening our understanding of the effects of climate change and our role in causing them, we can better adapt to climate risks and make informed decisions.
According to the US Global Change Research Program, a person who is climate-literate is better able to:
- Understand the essential scientific principles of the Earth’s climate system and the options to address human-caused climate change
- Recognize credible information about climate change and know where to find it
- Communicate about climate change in accurate and effective ways
- Make informed decisions related to climate change
By fostering climate change literacy, individuals, communities, and policymakers can better understand the risks, develop effective adaptation strategies, and contribute to a more sustainable future for the Northwest.
Climate literacy for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and natural resource managers in the Northwest
While climate change literacy is important for all people, part of the USDA Northwest Climate Hub mission is to prioritize strengthening the climate literacy of farmers, ranchers, foresters, and natural resource managers in the Northwest. In the Northwest, climate change is raising temperatures, changing rain and snow patterns, and causing more extreme events, such as large wildfires, droughts, and floods. Climate projections suggest that temperatures will continue to rise, causing more extreme events, changes in sea level, rapid melting of glaciers, and more. These changes will bring challenges and opportunities for agriculture, grazing lands, and forests throughout the region. Climate change literacy can help people managing and working on these lands to understand and address climate change, and can help build rural and urban community resilience. Some more benefits of climate change literacy include:
- Informed decision-making: Understanding the effects of climate change allows producers and managers to make climate-informed decisions about their land. Producers and managers can carefully consider activities such as crop selection, livestock rotation, reforestation efforts, irrigation strategies, grazing management, and wildfire prevention with climate change in mind.
- Adaptation and resilience: By understanding the risks posed by climate change, farmers, ranchers, foresters, and managers can adapt their practices to manage those changing risks. Examples could include incorporating drought-resistant crops, grazing for invasive species removal, or establishing fuel breaks to protect valued resources.
- Greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities: Agriculture and forestry can also play a role in mitigating climate change. Climate-literate farmers can implement practices that maintain stored carbon and capture more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to store in soil and plants. These practices can include cover cropping, agroforestry, and no-till farming. Foresters and natural resource managers can replant burned or logged forests with seedlings better adapted to current and future climates using assisted migration.
- Financial benefits: For private landowners, many government and non-governmental programs offer financial incentives for adopting climate-informed (or climate-smart) practices. Climate change literacy helps farmers, ranchers, and foresters to identify and take advantage of these opportunities to improve their bottom line while contributing to ecosystem health and sustainability.
Overall, climate change literacy empowers people in the Northwest to make informed decisions, adapt to a changing environment, and contribute to climate solutions. Because science related to climate change is evolving, climate change literacy requires a dedication to life-long learning.
How is the USDA Northwest Climate Hub strengthening regional climate change literacy?
The Northwest Climate Hub creates training and outreach materials that support foresters, ranchers, farmers, natural resource managers and agency staff in making climate-informed decisions. These materials include workshops, webinars, web articles, and more. Materials focus on climate change science, climate-informed management practices, and decision-support tools that integrate climate change considerations. All are tailored to the diverse needs of producers and managers in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Below are some examples of our climate change literacy materials.
Web articles and webinars
We offer web articles and webinars based in peer-reviewed research to educate and inform resource managers about climate change. These materials are able to reach a wide audience, provide accessible information using plain language, and foster regional engagement and understanding.
- The Climate Hub hosts a website with articles that address various climate change topics, impacts, and management actions, and share relevant climate change resources. The website also hosts our monthly newsletter that disseminates regional information about climate change.
- Through a partnership with the NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System, the Hub co-hosts drought update webinars that share timely information on current and developing drought conditions as well as climatic events for Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Speakers also discuss impacts of drought conditions on wildfires, floods, water supply, agriculture, and more.
Workshops
The Climate Hub offers regionally specific climate change workshops that provide a unique opportunity for in-depth learning and engagement on climate change for targeted audiences. They can provide a hands-on experience, facilitate discussions, and inspire action.
- An assisted migration workshop in 2023 promoted shared learning around selection of plant materials for climate-informed reforestation and brought together technology transfer specialists and practitioners from across ownerships and agencies in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
- A workshop on drought and agriculture in Alaska in 2022 focused on precipitation and temperature as it relates to agriculture; drought indicators and monitoring; and drought scenarios and peer-to-peer learning for producers and home gardeners. This workshop helped agricultural producers in Alaska understand the potential impacts of climate change on current and future droughts in Alaska.
- The Climate Hub also hosts climate change adaptation workshops for national forests in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. These workshops help forest managers integrate climate change into their management decisions. For example, a 2024 workshop on the Chugach National Forest brought forest employees together to discuss climate change impacts, consider possible management strategies, and test practices with a model project. The information gathered in this workshop is also contributing to a forthcoming climate change and recreation adaptation guide.
Science and synthesis
We support scientific research and synthesis. Scientific research and syntheses play a crucial role in enhancing climate change literacy by providing evidence-based information and understanding. This information offers a solid foundation for informed decision-making and effective communication about climate change.
- The Climate Hub supports the Oregon Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Collaborative, a group that facilitates communication of post-fire research and monitoring initiatives across diverse agencies and organizations in Oregon. The collaborative also develops valuable resources that improve accessibility to post-fire information.
- Adaptation Resources for Agriculture: Responding to Changes in Climate in Alaska is a Climate Hub workbook that reviews climate change effects on agriculture in Alaska and provides information to help producers adapt their operations. Technology transfer specialists and producers can use this workbook to consider different strategies to increase resilience to weather extremes, improve soil health, and address climate-related challenges.
- Climate change vulnerability assessments are useful to adaptation processes since these documents synthesize available science and knowledges about targeted areas. These assessments examine aspects of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of key resources or systems to potential climate change impacts. Recent vulnerability assessments supported by the Climate Hub include Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation in Southwest Oregon (2022) and Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, Mount Hood National Forest, and Willamette National Forest (2022).
Tools, technology, and support
Scientific tools, technology, and support can provide access to climate data, facilitate understanding, and empower producers and managers to take action.
- The Seedlot Selection Tool, supported by the Climate Hub, helps foresters, landowners, and land managers to consider climate change when planning reforestation and afforestation projects. This online tool maps climate variables that are important to tree growth, reproduction, and survival. There is also a guidebook available for US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Silviculturists.
- Overview of Weather, Water, Land Sites (OWWLS) is a tool, supported by the Climate Hub, that helps water managers and climatologists see where weather and water monitoring sites are located in the U.S.
Climate literacy has already helped to improve outcomes for some farmers, ranchers, and resource managers in the Northwest. For example, in The Dalles, Oregon, farmer Amy Kaser transitioned her wheat farming operation to no-till to adapt to extreme weather. The transition has led to improved soil health and wildlife habitat, and reduced erosion. Ranchers and land managers in southern Idaho and Oregon have used cattle to install fuel breaks that have already prevented rangeland fires from expanding. In another example, managers on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest have restored watersheds to adapt to changes in snowpack and streamflow associated with climate change.
By investing in climate change literacy, we seek to empower farmers, ranchers, foresters, and natural resource managers to become stewards of a resilient and sustainable Northwest. Through accessible resources and knowledge sharing, we are building a foundation for informed decision-making, useful adaptation strategies, and greenhouse gas mitigation.
For more information on climate literacy, check out the US Global Change and Research Program’s Climate Literacy Guide.
