Gunnison group grapples with climate change in area

Responding to climate change whether you believe in it or not

A new climate-change working group orchestrated by the Nature Conservancy is seeking to understand the impacts of climate change in Gunnison County. According to Betsy Neely, senior conservation planner with the Nature Conservancy, it’s part of a deliberate shift in strategy. The Nature Conservancy, which has secured 18 conservation easements in Gunnison County, believes it can have a bigger impact on climate change if it expands its focus from individual parcels of land to landscapes.

“Climate change is not just going to affect our little parcels of land scattered across the landscape, it’s going to affect all of us across jurisdictional boundaries,” Neely said at a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners on August 9.
According to Neely, in the Southwest United States changes in temperature have been linked to significant ecological changes: greater frequency of wildfire, a spring runoff one to two weeks earlier and drought linked to large-scale die-off of piñon trees.
Gunnison was selected as one of four pilot landscapes in each of the Four Corners states, where the Nature Conservancy is bringing together decision makers and land management organizations to address how climate change might affect their landscape and how to respond.
The Jemez Mountains in New Mexico, Bear River Basin in Utah and the Four-Forest Restoration area in Arizona have all been selected as pilot landscapes. Gunnison was chosen in part because of its vulnerability to changes in climate but also because of the region’s history of bringing groups together to tackle land management issues and research through the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL).
“We’re not here to say we’re going to have it bad or horrible or you should believe in climate change or not believe,” said Dave Gann, energy program manager with the Nature Conservancy. “But there is clear science that suggests [the Gunnison area] is vulnerable. We want to deliver information to decision makers so they can incorporate it into their work.”
Fourteen groups, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Gunnison Stockgrowers Association, the Forest Service, RMBL and Western Water Assessment have been working together since 2009 to develop a baseline of information—what are the vulnerabilities specific to Gunnison, and what are the strategies for dealing with them. They focused in particular on the Gunnison Sage Grouse, the health of the headwaters and alpine ecosystems.
According to Neely, the group expects to rollout a resources vulnerability report in October. But the Gunnison Sage Grouse provides a good example of what the group hopes to tackle. The areas where the bird rears its young could be drying up. Protecting the species will require developing strategies to retain water in these areas.
Commissioner Hap Channell commended the group’s efforts but wondered how quickly new social constructs or broad solutions could be implemented when government agencies are often limited in their scope. Neely and the working group found that in many ways, Gunnison County efforts are under way or could be developed in manageable ways.
“We’re not coming up with these wildly innovative things,” Neely said. “Sometimes it means changing priorities or the pace of what we’re already working on.”
“Building new social constructs to digest climate change takes a lot of time and effort, so we’re also focusing on what we’re already doing,” said BLM Gunnison field office manager Brian St. George. “Coming out of the collaborative are very simple solutions we can do in a box.”
St. George shared one potential example: fixing roads can be an effective way to control runoff and loss of water. It. It would benefit the Sage Grouse and recreational user groups, and it falls under the jurisdiction of the BLM, making it an easier project to get approved.
“I don’t need you to believe in climate change, I need your help with the road,” St. George said.
The group will meet again this fall to develop adaptation strategies. For now, the take-home message is simple.
“Never confuse weather and climate—weather is what we have right now outside, climate is what happens over many, many years, and the climate is getting warmer,” Gann said. “That affects grazing a lot, water a lot, snowfall, the skiing industry and the agriculture industry. If there’s a concern the commissioners could draw with respect to this group, it is to choose to continue to support or encourage that research so the science can be boiled down so that you as decision makers can turn around and use it.”