Thanks to $400,000 in provincial funding the Uchucklesaht Tribe is able to move forward on several climate-related projects.
The British Columbia government is providing the funds to the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation via its Disaster Resilience and Innovation Funding (DRIF) program. This funding will in part help create projects that will assist communities with their ability to mitigate climate-caused disasters.
Earlier this month government officials announced they would spend a total of about $41 million to fund 61 projects throughout the province.
Besides its DRIF program, about half of the funding that was announced will be coming through the province’s Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF). The CEPF is administered by the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM).
“Climate change is with us now,” said Nigel Moore, the special projects manager with Uchucklesaht’s lands and resources department. “It's not going to be going away. And we acknowledge that and so it's a sort of a forever project for us to be always looking to adapt and understand and build our resilience.”
Moore said it was perfect timing for Uchucklesaht to receive the provincial funding. The First Nation recently completed its climate action plan. It staged its final community engagement and a celebration event for the plan on April 26.
The plan details how Uchucklesaht is going to address both mitigation of climate change and adaptation methods.
As for the new provincial funding, Moore said it will be utilized for what Uchucklesaht officials are calling its Climate Monitoring and Resilience Project.
Work will start later this year. It’s expected to be a two-year project.
“This work is stuff that builds on a lot of things that we're already trying to do but allows us to take it a step further and also to do this work in a more sort of comprehensive manner,” Moore said. “So, we're able to do this comprehensive project, to look at all of our climate adaptation priorities rather than just doing little one offs with the smaller amounts of funding that we have from other sources.”
Moore said Uchucklesaht’s recently completed climate action plan helped determine many next steps.
“We're doing some upgrades to some climate monitoring stations throughout our territory that we've already installed,” he said. “We also have some marine monitoring stations that we're going to be doing some upgrades to improving our data management processes, and just building out our ability to over time track local climate changes that we're experiencing in the territory.”
Moore provided details on other work that is planned.
“We're also going to be doing a local climate baseline and forecast report,” he said.
This entails looking into local information that is specific to Uchucklesaht territory, an analysis over time that looks deeper than the “global-scale models” that are often used to track the effects of climate, explained Moore.
Another upcoming study will see Uchucklesaht representatives examining its long-term freshwater access for its village of Ehthlateese.
“We're going to be looking at access to freshwater for Ehthlateese and whether our current freshwater systems will need to be upgraded and how climate change might impact groundwater levels,” Moore said.
He added another initiative is a sea-level rise study looking at a lake in the First Nation’s territory.
“We already experience at really high tides, some backwatering of seawater into the river, so the river actually begins to flow backwards in some sections near the ocean there,” Moore said. “So, the concern that many of our citizens have brought up is that what happens when we have more sea level rise, bigger coastal storms that drive those higher tides. We start to see more backwatering of seawater all the way into the lake, and how might that change the lake, the biology in the lake, the habitability of the lake for salmon and other species over time.”
Moore also said Uchucklesaht reps will be looking at shoreline protection options for Ehthlateese.
“The village and many of the homes are very close to sea level,” he said. “We have a coastal protection berm there already. But the idea is to look at more robust options and also some nature-based solutions.”
Josie Osborne, the MLA for Mid Island - Pacific Rim, said the provincial funding, including money that Uchucklesaht is getting, will help communities be better prepared for emergencies caused by climate change.
“These projects reflect a shared commitment to proactive, community-led emergency planning,” Osborne said. “By funding projects like these, we’re building resilient communities that can withstand climate threats, protecting both our residents and ecosystems.”
Kelly Greene, the Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, also believes the provincial funding is vital.
“The frequency of climate-caused events is increasing, and managing and reducing these risks is essential,” she said. “By supporting communities on these projects, we are helping to better protect these communities and the people who call them home. Our new DRIF program provides reliable, long-term funding so communities can better plan for and address their most pressing disaster-mitigation needs.”
Trish Mandewo, the president of UBCM, said local governments deal with climate-caused emergencies and there is a great need to have proactive solutions driven by communities in place.
Mandewo is pleased the UBCM has joined forces with the province to provide funding “which equips communities across B.C. with the tools and resources they need to adapt to a changing climate and reduce disaster risks before they happen.”
