National Military Fish and Wildlife Association Climate Change Working Group

Annual Report

Submitted by

Janet Johnson and Charlie Baun

Working Group Co-Chairs

February 26, 2018

The following provides a summary of the NMFWA Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) activities for 2017.

1) Working Group Co-Chairs: Janet Johnson, Arizona Army National Guard and Charles Baun, Idaho Army National Guard. Chairs officially took office March 2016. Co-Chairs 2-year position will expire at the March 2018 NMFWA meeting at which time a new Chair will be selected by the members.

2) Inception: On Sept 3, 2015, the CCWG petition and Charter were approved by the NMFWA Board of Directors. In March 2016, the CCWG held their first members meeting at the NMFWA Annual Workshop.

3) Membership: Since last year the CCWG has doubled the number of members from 14 to 29 members. Additional members signed up during the CCWG business meeting at the 2017 NMFWA Workshop in Spokane. We anticipate additional member sign in and participation during the 2018 Annual Workshop.

4) Special Session and Annual Members Meeting: At the 2017 CCWG meeting during the NMFWA Workshop the agenda included three presentations focused on climate adaptation and management. Three 20-minute presentations included guest speaker Bruce Stein from the National Wildlife Federation, which included a follow-up from the 2016 CCWG meeting followed by an interactive discussion from Dawn Lawson from Naval Installation Fallbrook in California, which was also a follow-up from the 2016 meeting. The third was presented by Co-Chair Charles Baun that provided template information about integration of Climate Change into NEPA documents. The session was immediately followed by the annual members meeting. The Members meeting was very well attended with over 50 attendees.

5) Training Opportunities: Due to the expressed desire by the membership over the past two years for hands-on training opportunities to integrate Climate Change into installation INRMPs, the CCWG co-chairs conducted research on existing training opportunities that included NTCT, Shipley, and USFS regional Climate Hubs. Based on cost and quality and the ability to conduct a pilot training session within the co-chairs military service (National Guard), the USFS Climate Hub’s Northern Institute for Climate Adaptation Science (NIACS) was selected for a pilot training session prior to the 2018 NMFWA Workshop. The idea was to “test drive” this process to see if it would be worth proposing this to the NMFWA BOD as a viable training for 2018. In May 2017, the Minnesota National Guard offered to host a pilot training session at their Bloomington Armory for free. This 2-day training was attended by 30 National Guard land managers from across the country and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Upon complete the CCWG co-chairs proposed the training to the NMFWA BOD. A single day training was approved and will be offered at the 2018 NMFWA Workshop.