California Coast & Ocean

Conservancy Responds to Climate Change
Global climate change will likely have profound effects on almost every aspect of the Conservancy’s work, from habitat preservation and stream restoration to coastal access. That is why, in addition to taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, the Conservancy has now begun to collaborate with agencies and researchers to learn more about the impacts of climate change and what can be done to build adaptation and mitigation into all of its projects.

To reduce its own contributions to greenhouses gases, the agency is offering alternative work schedules and telecommuting opportunities. To cut down on travel, more phone conferences are being held and the option of teleconferences is being developed. The agency will lease a low-emission vehicle for local travel. Staff is encouraged to rent low-emission vehicles when traveling and to use public transit, carpools, or bicycles to commute. An effort is being made to cut down on paper use and to be diligent about turning off lights and equipment at the workday’s end. The Conservancy has joined the California Climate Registry and will be calculating its own carbon footprint this year, to provide a baseline for measuring progress.

The Conservancy is working with other state and federal agencies to collect, assess, and make available the most up-to-date scientific information about climate change and its effects on shoreline processes and ecosystems. Projections for sea level rise are being built into all trail, park, and wetland restoration projects. Decisions about which pieces of land to help preserve will take into account the need for corridors that will allow animals and plants to migrate as temperatures rise, and restoration project managers will have to consider how a changing climate may also change the types of habitat within their geographic area. Predicted changes in rainfall and stream flows will be considered in stream restoration projects to benefit anadromous fish. The Conservancy is also discussing what types of changes, if any, it might require from partner organizations and grant recipients.

“I suspect that the changing climate will dominate our thinking and our work for the rest of our professional lives,” said the Conservancy’s executive officer, Sam Schuchat. “Although this is a small agency, we play a large role in coastal California, where about 80 percent of Californians live.”

The Conservancy is also collaborating with the California Ocean Protection Council and others to help fund some climate-related research, including one study that will assess how high the sea level will rise along different sections of the state’s coastline, and how and where the shoreline will be affected by storm surges and erosion rates. Another research project will refine a hydrodynamic and sediment transport model of San Francisco Bay and use it to help scientists understand how climate change is affecting these processes.