Project Description
Saulteau First Nations and Climate Change Planning
Together with Ecofish Research, Compass has supported Saulteau First Nations in a suite of watershed planning and management initiatives for the upper Moberly watershed, a critically important cultural and ecological landscape for the Nation. One of these initiatives was the development of a Climate Health Action Plan for the community, which focussed on assessing and mitigating the impacts of climate change to Saulteau members’ ability to access traditional foods and clean water in the watershed.
Recent and forecasted climate change effects will significantly affect the watershed’s climate and hydrology in the coming decades. They will also exacerbate the cumulative effects already negatively impacting Saulteau community members’ food security and access to healthy traditional foods, clean water, traditional medicines, and overall physical and mental health. These ongoing and future impacts will further hinder community members’ peaceful enjoyment of their Treaty Rights and affect their relationship with the lands and waters that sustain them, and upon which their culture depends.
The Climate Health Action Strategy has four broad goals to support building community preparedness and resilience to climate change. Each of these goals encompasses a suite of recommended strategies and actions that can be undertaken to meet those goals:
- Safeguarding traditional foods and water
- Ensuring Saulteau members’ well-being on the land
- Building community resilience and climate preparedness
- Emergency planning and preparedness in the watershed
The Climate Strategy was developed through a community-driven process, guided by the priorities, values, and knowledge of Elders, land users, staff, and community members. Saulteau youth were also involved through a summer camp, a workshop at Moberly Lake Elementary School, a focus group with Saulteau Chetwynd high school students that culminated in a presentation to Chief and Council, and students participating in a community open house to share their ideas about climate change and water conservation.
Compass worked with community members and Saulteau staff to identify a suite of Saulteau Climate Health Values. Compass assessed projected trends in key climate metrics for the upper Moberly watershed to understand future changes to local climate and hydrology, and to inform the assessment of Saulteau’s Climate Health Values. Compass and Ecofish then carried out an individual assessment of each value to characterize the current condition and future vulnerability to climate change for each of these values.
