The Climate Adaptation Fund is pleased to announce its 2011 grant awards. We have awarded $905,323 to the following six organizations in support of on-the-ground projects promoting wildlife adaptation to climate change.
- Hawaiian Silversword Foundation, Inc. - $250,000
- Scenic Hudson, Inc. - $50,679
- The Nature Conservancy, Colorado - $164,900
- Trout Unlimited - $140,000
- The Nature Conservancy, Virginia - $149,744
- Grand Canyon Trust - $150,000
The Nature Conservancy, Virginia was granted an award this year for their work to demonstrate climate change adaptation strategies on Virginia's Eastern Shore. This project will inform the expansion and restoration of the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Their work will inclue restoring a functional oyster reef, improving 300 linear feet of living shoreline, creating 7,000 square feet of tidal salt marsh and enhancing more than an acre of existing, emergent wetlands. Once demonstrated, these types of interventions can be readily replicated along the Eastern seaboard. Photo: Hal Brindley.
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To view the 2011 Request For Proposals click here:
2011 WCS Climate Adaption Fund Request For Proposals (.pdf file, 183 KB)
Grants awarded through the Climate Adaptation Fund will support wildlife adaptation projects that are designed to implement landscape-scale strategic habitat conservation plans and achieve the following types of results:
- Demonstrate land management techniques to assist wildlife adaptation to climate change;
- Protect or expand core habitat areas;
- Create new protected areas or change land use designations to secure intact habitat;
- Assure connectivity for wildlife between core habitat areas; and
- Protect keystone species at risk from the impacts of climate change.
A red fox carries a smaller arctic fox in northern Alaska. Warming temperatures have allowed red foxes to expand their range, making this a more common site and introducing a dangerous new threat to the survival of the arctic fox. Photo Steve Zack/WCS.
WHY THE CLIMATE ADAPTATION FUND?
Due to changing climate, high-elevation whitebark pines have become hospitable to outbreaks of mountain pine beetles, destroying entire stands of these trees critical to many species. Grizzly bears depend on these pine nuts to help them gain weight for winter and a decline of the whitebark pine means less nutrition during the critical months before hibernation begins. A warming climate is also contributing to the decline of western trout populations. Grizzlies may soon find another favorite—spawning cutthroat trout—off the menu. These impacts are being felt by humans, as well. Recreational anglers spent more than $3 billion in the eight Rocky Mountain states in 2006. A reduction in cutthroat and other cold water fish species could translate into a major economic loss for tourism, the fishing industry, state wildlife agencies, and the local communities that depend on these revenues.
This rise in temperature of just a few degrees has broad implications for wildlife. Without action to preserve functional ecosystems and assist wildlife in adapting to varying habitat conditions, climate change could prove devastating. Through the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, we hope to help overcome the odds.
HISTORY OF THE PROGRAM
In 2006, thanks to the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the WCS Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund was launched. Over these past four years, the Opportunities Fund awarded more than $7.2 million for 81 wildlife conservation projects in 46 states, working to restore habitat, protect movement corridors, incorporate wildlife into land-use planning decisions, reintroduce endangered species, and implement priorities of State Wildlife Action Plans. We are proud of the conservation outcomes achieved by all of these projects and grateful for the on-going support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Read more about the history of our grantmaking program from 2006-2010