Dear Mavens,

We’re working on a community adaptation strategy, which clearly means we need to get the community engaged—otherwise it wouldn’t be a community strategy, would it? We think the idea of “preparedness” will resonate with our community, and want to build on that to get people thinking about, sharing, and taking adaptation actions. This means we need to develop an ad campaign to get people on board. Can you offer any advice? Our local advertising company doesn’t have experience with an issue like this.

Sincerely,

Shirley Outside Sheboygan

Dear  SOS ,

What a great idea. You’re all in it together so you might as well make it sexy and enticing to the member audience. We’ve never designed an ad campaign (other than our influential ecumenical series, including our anti-leaf blower effort “For god’s sake buy a rake,” our water conservation effort “Holy moses don’t use hoses,” and our buy local campaign “For the joy of Buddha, buy local gouda”) but we won’t let that stop us from sharing with you our thoughts on the matter.

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Dear Adaptation Mavens,

My hypothetical goal is to develop landscape-scale adaptation strategies that will maximize the ability of wildlife and their habitats to persist in upland/inland systems under climate change.  I can imagine numerous adaptation strategies that can be employed at the project & site level in both inland and coastal sites.  I can even tentatively identify a couple of landscape-scale adaptation strategies that may be appropriate for coastal systems, despite the inherent uniqueness of every site.  However, I am having a harder time identifying landscape-scale strategies for inland/upland systems.  

What can one do beyond identifying biologically diverse "hotspots" and conserving large tracts of land that are conducive to movement and include the greatest number of these biologically/geologically rich sites? Are adaptation strategies most applicable at the project or site level?  

Sincerely, No Finger Guns

Dear No Finger,

Here is our hypothetical answer to your hypothetical question. Just as the effects of climate change are experienced differently at different scales, so too must adaptation be approached differently at different scales. Some solutions can only be enacted at the federal or even multinational scale; others can only be effectively enacted at the site or project level. There is useful work to be done at both ends of, as well as all along, the spatial spectrum. If you’re trying to figure out the right scale for your own adaptation action, we suggest that you either focus on strategies that are best implemented at the scale at which you currently work, or find yourself a new position where you can work at the scale necessary to enact the strategies you think are most important. Read more »

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

I have my botany class researching the effects of climate change on plants.  Is there research on the role of plants in mitigating climate change?  Or is this another long-term study I should think about starting?

Marya Czech, Lourdes University, Ohio

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Dear Adaptation Mavens,

A massive heat wave struck our community a decade ago leaving several people dead and many more hospitalized. We had extended power outages, severe water restrictions, and lots of environmental problems.  Thanks to this wake-up call, we’ve started to incorporate climate savvy actions into our regional planning and management schemes. We’ve planted more trees for shade, put in place water and energy conservation strategies, and created emergency action plans. Most folks are happy with the changes—property values are up and crime is down in our newly greened-up neighborhoods, and a number of businesses have commented that they’ve noticed significant financial savings thanks to using less water and energy—but a few people are asking whether the changes we have made are making any difference. How can we know if adaptation is working?

Help!

Looking for Options to Stay on Track

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Dear Adaptation Mavens,

I manage a small land trust created to protect a lovely little wetland beloved by birds, birders, and human or amphibian couples seeking a romantic getaway. In addition to the wetland there’s a nice meadow that boasts gorgeous spring flowers, and a beautiful hardwood forest around the entire perimeter of the trust land. We’re not far from a good-sized urban area, and we just heard about plans to create a large suburban development right next to our land trust! Acres of currently forested hillside upslope from our land will be cleared for houses, and of course there will be more roads put in to accommodate all the new traffic. Read more »

Spring is a time of renewal, and in the Northern Hemisphere it is spring. Buds are bursting from trees, flowers are emerging from the ground and CAKE is blossoming right along with it! Read more »

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

Is there some formal method to judge the relative value of different adaptation options? Many conservation tools (acquiring property, restoring it, keeping it healthy) have potential climate benefits, and I see plenty of folks trying to sell their existing work based on a theoretical ability to help address climate change. We all like to get funded.

I suppose it's easy to evaluate among climate projects if they can be compared by CO2 sequestered, as in carbon calculators used in comparing the sequestration value of forest tracts. What I'm talking about are projects with more wildlife-focused benefits, such as habitat connectivity or the implicit value in acquiring additional habitat along an elevation gradient.

How can you judge the value of one versus another from a climate perspective? We have limited resources and want to put our money/energy where it makes the most difference. Read more »

Dear Adaptation Mavens,

Sea-level rise in Florida and associated impacts are being documented today, we will soon have to acknowledge that Florida is drowning in a slow-motion disaster. In the meantime, Florida communities are taking serious steps towards Post-Disaster Planning (i.e. what to do about waterfront property when the next hurricane blows it away). Can the right to rebuild be taken away from coastal property owners? Do municipalities have to rebuild infrastructure to service those properties? These property rights questions are common to sea-level rise retreat strategies and post-hurricane response.

Please send ice cream before the waters rise.

Sincerely,

Habeas Corpus

Dear Legal Eagle,

First, the Mavens want to make it perfectly clear that we are not lawyers, have never attended law school and don’t even know many lawyers, so we are not going to give legal advice. However, as former academics we are always happy to share what we know (and even what we don’t know) and proffer a random opinion.

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Dear Adaptation Mavens,

We have an office betting pool and are wagering on the best way to deal with sea level rise. Should we build sea walls or just move out of the way? There’s a lot riding on the right answer. We agreed that it would take decades of waiting to see the right answer for ourselves, so have agreed in the meantime to have you settle the debate.

Awaiting your reply,

Getting Anxious, Maybe Becoming a Little Eager for Reassurance

Dear GAMBLER,

We’re not sure if we can settle your bet—the “right” answer to a question like this is dependent on your local situation--but we can tell you what people, organizations, and governments are doing and how they’ve decided what’s right for them.

Start by thinking about planning for sea level rise in terms of the fairy tale about the three little pigs….only different. Read more »