Tribes and Tribal Organizations

Project Overview The sandbar willow of the Klamath River is used within the Karuk Tribe’s ongoing cultural practices of basketweaving. The willow has been threatened by intensifying fire and dams, but restoration and the recent historical dam removals provide an opportunity to increase the quantity, quality, and access to this important resource. Researchers supported by this Southwest...

Feral horse populations in the southwestern United States, including on tribal lands, are far above sustainable levels. This overpopulation poses threats to rangeland ecosystems as the feral horses compete with native species and livestock for limited resources – which likely will become even more limited with climate change. Researchers supported by this Southwest CASC project will...

Project Overview Coastal marshes in the Gulf of America host diverse ecological communities and hold Native American cultural artifacts within shell mounds (middens). However, both are vulnerable to erosion and submergence due to rising sea levels and more frequent severe storms. Researchers supported by this Southeast CASC project will develop a risk-assessment tool to evaluate the...

Project Overview Climate change and invasive fish species threaten the resilience and biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems in the Southeastern U.S., including the Everglades, which are vital to the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Researchers supported by this Southeast CASC project will model invasive fish distributions under changing climate conditions and refine the model...

Much of the cranberry bog farmland in Massachusetts used to be Atlantic white cedar ecosystems, which provide important habitat, water filtration, and cooling effects on the landscape. Researchers supported by this Northeast CASC project will experiment with modern restoration strategies and integrate Indigenous cultural stewardship practices to build and sustain climate-resilient...

Project Overview The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation faces challenges in maintaining stream health due to recent extreme weather events, oil and gas development, and row crop expansion. Researchers supported by this North Central CASC project will assess how these changes affect stream health while providing career development for undergraduate researchers from Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish...

The Gulf of America coast of Louisiana and Texas faces threats from increasingly destructive extreme weather, heat, subsidence, and coastal erosion. Inland areas also face stronger storms, floods, and shifts in land development patterns. Increasing drought and extreme heat in Texas and New Mexico also exacerbate fires and floods. All of these regions are culturally rich, rapidly changing...

The Midwest region faces unique challenges from climate change that affect forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers, wetlands, and the services and cultural values these ecosystems provide. These changes also occur in a wide range of land types and cultural settings, such as on and off Tribal reservation and treaty-ceded land, within and around towns and cities, and in farms and managed...

Many inland bodies of water in western Louisiana are receiving too much sediment and nutrient pollution from upstream which has caused declines in the health of many fisheries. These bodies of water include many traditional lake-based fisheries of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana (CTL), and fisheries used by visitors, providing critical tourism and economic development dollars to the...

Managing water resources in arid regions is increasingly important in the face of more frequent droughts and desertification that is occurring with climate change. These challenges of climate change intersect with potential environmental contamination from naturally occurring sources and legacy human activity (such as mining) and create a need for sustainable land and water management...

Stretching almost 1,900 miles from Colorado to the Gulf of America, the Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin (RGB) supplies drinking water for more than 6 million people and irrigation for about 2 million acres of land. The river also supports habitat for many at-risk and endangered species. Because of its size and diverse ecosystem services, the RGB faces complex shared-management challenges that...

Despite the pandemic, Future of Fire postdoc Dr. Nina Fontana developed and contributed to a range of projects with cultural fire practitioners from 2021-2023. This funding will provide her an additional year to complete and grow projects started with partners as a Future of Fire fellow. Fontana’s work focuses on two broad areas: (1) improving best practices in teaching and learning...