Graduate Student News

Kelli Archie Awarded Ph.D. and Published New Paper

Center graduate student Kelli Archie was awarded a Ph.D. in ENVS in December. Kelli’s research on climate change adaptation planning on public lands in the Western U.S. and in Colorado mountain communities was supported by the Center’s NSF “SPARC” project. She was advised by Lisa Dilling. Congrats Kelli!!

A paper summarizing Kelli’s research was recently published. Archie, K. M., L. Dilling, J. B. Milford and F. C. Pampel (2012), Climate Change and Western Public Lands: a Survey of U.S. Federal Land Managers on the Status of Adaptation Efforts, Ecology and Society 17 (4): 20.

Abstract: Climate change and its associated consequences pose an increasing risk to public lands in the western United States. High-level mandates currently require federal agencies to begin planning for adaptation, but the extent to which these mandates have resulted in policies being implemented that affect on the ground practices is unclear.

To examine the status of adaptation efforts, we conducted an original survey and semi-structured interviews with land managers from the four major federal land management agencies in the U.S. states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The survey was designed to examine current planning for adaptation on public lands and how it differs from prior planning, the major challenges facing land managers in this region, the major barriers preventing managers from planning for adaptation, and the major hurdles associated with implementing adaptation plans… Read more.

Graduate Student News

John Berggren White Paper on Climate Information Needs in the Missouri River Basin

Center grad student John Berggren prepared a white paper for the Western Water Assessment, Analysis of Documented Needs for Climate Information in the Missouri River Basin.

From the Executive Summary: In order to gain a better understanding of climate-related needs in the Missouri River Basin, this project entailed an analysis of needs stated in published documents. Through web-based searches and the querying of colleagues within the Basin, fifty-three documents were ultimately selected to be included in the analysis…

While a variety of needs were identified across the multiple sectors and coding categories, some general themes emerged. Some of these commonly seen needs included: the need for additional plains snowpack monitoring, especially from the flood control sector; modeling output needs to be applicable to users and at a scale that is relevant to the intended recipients of decision-makers; a better understanding of potential climate change impacts for their respective sectors is needed, and it seemed that a lack of understanding these potential impacts translated into a barrier for decision-making in regards to adaptation. Read more.