Fresno County is faced with many challenges over the coming decades. The population is expected to continue to grow, current air pollution and water shortage problems could worsen without action, and pressures on natural areas from development are expected to continue. In addition to these pressures, climate change is expected to cause even more severe impacts across all sectors of society.

This report provides climate change adaptation strategies that were developed by local leaders and experts in Fresno County, California, during a series of workshops in 2009-2010. Workshop participants considered both climate change impacts and local vulnerabilities while developing a suite of recommendations for increasing local resilience across sectors and communities. These recommendations are focused on socioeconomic systems including health and emergency preparedness, agriculture, and water resources and infrastructure, as well as species and ecosystems specifically within freshwater aquatic and riparian, woodlands and forests, and valley floor grasslands and semi-desert ecosystems.  The anticipated climate impacts are delineated by sector and habitat type, and each is followed by related stakeholder recommended strategies.

Three global climate models were used in this report to provide a possible range of future conditions.  The model outputs were obtained from the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and analyzed and mapped by scientists at the GEOS Institute.