The US Department of the Interior has selected the University of Alaska as the first of eight planned regional Climate Science Centers in the nation.
The DOI hopes to have the new climate science center at the University of Alaska formally established in Anchorage within six to eight weeks.
“With rapidly melting Arctic-sea ice and permafrost, and threats to the survival of Native Alaskan coastal communities, Alaska is ground zero for climate change,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “We must put science to work to help us adjust to the impacts of climate change on Alaska’s resources and peoples.”
In addition to the Alaska region, Climate Science Centers will be selected in seven additional regions throughout the country as directed by a 2009 Secretarial Order on climate change.
The DOI will be seeking grant proposals for four more Climate Science Centers in the next few weeks–including centers in the Northwest, Southeast, Southwest and North Central regions.
“Regional Climate Science Centers and their networks will provide science about climate change impacts, help land managers adapt to the impacts, and engage the public through education initiatives,” Secretary Salazar said. “In short, Climate Science Centers will better connect our scientists with land managers and the public.”
In September 2009, with Secretarial Order No. 3289, Secretary Salazar put into action the Department’s first-ever coordinated strategy to address current and future impacts of climate change on America’s land, water, ocean, fish, wildlife, and cultural resources.
The plan called for establishing not only the regional “Climate Science Centers” but also a network of “Landscape Conservation Cooperatives” that will engage federal agencies, local and state partners, and the public in crafting practical, landscape-level strategies for managing climate change impacts within the eight regions.
Within their respective regions, these cooperatives will focus on impacts that typically extend beyond the borders of any single national wildlife refuge, national park or Bureau of Land Management unit–such as the effects of climate change on wildlife migration patterns, wildfire risk, drought, or invasive species.
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