Resistance, Resilience, and Transformation Resource

Climate adaptation actions that respond to climate change impacts can be categorized across a spectrum of Resistance, Resilience, and Transformation (RRT). We are pleased to share a new resource: Adaptation Actions for Resistance, Resilience, and Transformation. This resource provides an overview of climate adaptation actions across a spectrum of categories, and now includes example projects in specific ecosystems. Whether you are new to climate adaptation or a seasoned practitioner looking to better understand where your work fits into the bigger picture, we hope this RRT framework helps you achieve your objectives in response to climate change. Understanding the universe of options can help us better match our actions to our desired outcomes.

The overview was created through the collaboration of Mass ECAN, the Northeast Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change (RISCC) Management Network, and the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, and the examples actions were created with too many partners to list here (look for their logos on each page)! Thanks for support from the UMass Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Check it out here to learn more!

Active transformation: Mass ECAN members plant floodplain forest tree species that are adapted to future climate conditions at Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Northampton, MA.

Photo credit: Olivia Douhan

Watershed-Scale Climate Collaboration

Collaborating across a watershed is an effective and impactful way to prepare for and respond to climate change impacts (climate adaptation). We are pleased to announce that we are developing a Watershed-Scale Climate Collaboration Toolkit, starting with this new resource: Advancing Climate Adaptation through Watershed-Scale Collaboration. This resource provides context for and highlights the benefits of these types of collaborations. For example, this collaborative watershed-scale approach allows a vast problem to be brought down to a manageable size across an ecologically meaningful area, while still maintaining a large enough scale to be actionable.

This resource was created through the collaboration of the Mass ECAN-affiliated Climate Communications Work Group and Slow the Flow Work Group, with support from the USDA and UMass Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Check it out to learn more about watershed-scale climate collaboration and examples of collaboratives in our state!

We look forward to collaborating on the broader toolkit in the coming year to inspire and inform watershed-scale climate collaborations. We will continue to post updates here.

Neck Creek, Ipswich, MA. Photo credit: Neil Shea, courtesy of Ipswich River Watershed Association

Nature-Based Solutions Resource

We are pleased to announce Taking Cues from Nature to Adapt to Climate Change: A Communications Resource for Nature-based Solutions. This resource was created through collaboration of the Mass ECAN-affiliated Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions Work Group and Climate Communications Work Group, with support from the US Dept. of Agriculture and UMass Extension. This resource was written for practitioners to provide more climate adaptation and ecosystems context for nature-based solutions and highlight their many co-benefits for people and nature. Recently, there has been increased interest in nature-based solutions associated with their prioritization in the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program.

Check out this resource to learn more about nature-based solutions and examples of projects in our state!

Salt marsh, Essex, MA. Photo credit: Sarah Towle, courtesy of The Trustees

Communications Expert Work Group Products

Although most Americans accept that climate change is happening, most also perceive it as a distant threat. They see it as someone else’s responsibility, and feel helpless to do anything about it anyway.

For practitioners on the front lines of climate adaptation, that’s a problem. We see the impacts of climate change in flooding rivers, drowning salt marshes, and pest-infested forests. We recognize the need to act now. But without buy-in from colleagues, landowners, community leaders, officials, and funders, we can’t.

Effective communication is essential for engaging diverse stakeholders in climate adaptation, but many practitioners need guidance on how to reach target audiences with messages that are empowering, not overwhelming. Practitioners in the land conservation sector have a unique role to play in advancing climate adaptation on the ground, but many are just starting or haven’t yet started having those conversations.

  In response to this challenge, the Massachusetts Ecosystem Climate Adaptation Network (Mass ECAN) -affiliated Climate Communications Working Group partnered with the Land Trust Alliance and the Open Space Institute to create a set of climate-communication recommendations based on social-science research, a searchable database of example climate-communication products developed by Northeastern land trusts, and a gallery of real communication products developed by practitioners that embody best practices, with accompanying interpretive text explaining why.

These products can help practitioners develop effective communication techniques based on research and examples from peers that bring best practices to life.

While this project grew from a partnership with organizations focused on land trusts throughout the Northeast, the Work Group is continuing to collect and share good communication examples from practitioners in other sectors here in Massachusetts. If your organization has an outstanding communications product, please feel free to share it with massecan at umass.edu.

Explore the products:

Recommendations for climate change communications

Database of example communication products

Example communication products with interpretive text:

Tug Hill Tomorrow

Maine Coast Heritage Trust

Vermont Land Trust

Scenic Hudson