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Washington agencies present climate resilience strategy, highlight funding, equity and implementation steps
Summary
State agency leaders and University of Washington researchers summarized findings from the National Climate Assessment and outlined Washington’s new Climate Resilience Strategy, emphasizing urgent action, equity-focused investments (tree canopy grants, tribal funding), and a proposed governance structure to sustain cross-agency coordination.
State agency leaders, University of Washington researchers and partners gathered at a public briefing to present key findings from the National Climate Assessment and to outline Washington state's newly published Climate Resilience Strategy, describing concrete near-term actions, funding needs and a proposal to formalize cross-agency governance.
"It really underscores the importance and the urgency of this work," Laura Watson, director of the Washington Department of Ecology, said during opening remarks, framing the strategy as a response to rising temperatures, wildfire smoke, drought and flooding. Dr. Crystal Raymond, a University of Washington researcher and coauthor of the Northwest chapter of the National Climate Assessment, summarized the national report and regional findings, noting that extreme events are already shaping outcomes in the Northwest and across the country. "The U.S. has experienced about $89,000,000,000 disasters between 2018 and 2022," Raymond said, and she described how projected increases in heat events, drought and floods will have uneven effects across communities.
Panelists from four state agencies described priority actions within the state strategy and how they will work together to implement them. Levi Kiesecker of the Washington State Conservation Commission said the plan helps operationalize existing science and partnerships to deliver on-the-ground projects such as irrigation-efficiency measures and forest-health work that reduce wildfire risk and conserve water.
Chanca Favreni Torba, policy director at the Department of Natural Resources, highlighted marine and terrestrial measures in the strategy, saying DNR has issued a kelp and eelgrass conservation plan and is pursuing protection zones with tribes. "In some places our kelp beds have declined up to 90% and so this is a really urgent critical issue," Torba said. DNR also described a reforestation strategy and a goal to accelerate planting across large areas of the state while addressing seedling supply and workforce constraints.
Agency leaders also detailed equity-focused investments. Torba said DNR distributed $8,000,000 in grants this past year with over half directed to federally disadvantaged communities to expand urban tree canopy and reduce heat-island impacts. Mike Fong, director of the Department of Commerce, said Commerce has deployed $52,000,000 in tribal grants this year through formula funding, with 28 of Washington’s 29 federally recognized tribes receiving support for planning or implementation.
Public-health and monitoring measures were emphasized as implementation priorities. "Do facilities that primarily care for people who are going to be most impacted by a heat or smoke event have access to clean air and cooling in that facility?" asked Nate Weed, chief of resilience at the Washington State Department of Health. Ecology said it has set up additional air monitoring in 16 overburdened areas and plans rulemaking to determine next steps if monitoring shows elevated pollution.
Panelists repeatedly identified consistent funding and durable coordination as central challenges. Agencies said the strategy’s action-oriented approach includes budget decision packages the departments intend to seek from the governor and legislature. Watson also said Ecology has proposed agency-request legislation to create a governance structure ‘‘not a new agency, but a governance structure’’ to sustain the cross-agency coordination that produced the strategy.
Supporters said the strategy assigns specific agencies to responsibilities, establishes metrics and should be treated as an implementation roadmap rather than a planning document. Larry Epstein, deputy director of the Puget Sound Partnership, said he will weave the strategy into the Puget Sound recovery action agenda to influence regional priorities and funding.
The briefing concluded with an open-house and networking session where agency staff remained available to discuss details of particular programs. Several panelists said next steps include pursuing funding through the governor’s budget and continuing to work with tribal and local partners to translate strategy actions into implemented projects.
