Climate change adaptation practices and possibilities considered by the National Park Service Alaska Leadership Council in 2019: Summary of an ALC exercise (technical assistance request 10860)

Schuurman, Gregor; Reynolds, Joel; Welling, Leigh; Lawler, James

doi:10.36967/2306300

Profound climate change-driven environmental changes observed in Alaska prompted the National Park Service’s Alaska Leadership Council (ALC) to dedicate a half-day of their September 2019 meeting to understanding and addressing key climate change vulnerabilities. The session aimed to introduce participants to the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework—an emerging framing tool for exploring the “universe” of potential adaptation actions—and to initiate broader discussion regarding current and potential future adaptation actions in each of Alaska’s national parks. Participating superintendents were asked to both identify ongoing actions in their parks in response to climate change and brainstorm potential future actions. This report summarizes and analyzes their responses. To gauge the extent to which participants were exploring the full adaptation decision space and to better understand how to apply the RAD framework, actions were further classified as reflecting one of the three RAD categories: resistance, acceptance, or directing of change. Roughly half of all submissions were adaptation actions. Of these adaptation actions, nearly a third were subsistence-related, reflecting the importance of subsistence in the Alaska region. Most adaptation actions were focused on resisting climate change impacts on resources, assets, and people. The exercise clarified the need to understand what constitutes an adaptation action. For example, a decision to support or conduct a research project is different than a decision to use that research to take adaptive action. More importantly, the exercise showed that evaluating the degree to which participants explored the full adaptation decision space—i.e., by classifying each action under the RAD framework—requires that the motivating intention or goal of the action be clearly articulated. For example, “plant(ing) vegetation after disturbance” can be a resistance or a directing-change action depending on whether the motivation is to (a) plant historically occurring species in historically occurring proportions to restore pre-disturbance conditions or to (b) favor species adapted to emerging and projected conditions. This important lesson in RAD framework application underscores the need to request a higher degree of specificity about the motivations behind potential actions in adaptation planning processes. This report documents the ALC’s thinking on climate change adaptation at one point (snapshot) in time. It shows that many of the adaptation actions identified by participants focused on resisting climate change impacts, empowers assessment of the evolution of adaptation action by the NPS ALC, helps to clarify how best to use the RAD framework, and, ideally, prompts further discussion and adaptation action in Alaska.

Climate change adaptation practices and possibilities considered by the National Park Service Alaska Leadership Council in 2019: Summary of an ALC exercise (technical assistance request 10860)

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