Council on Environmental Quality Blog

Building Drought Resilience in Montana

Earlier this week, President Obama announced a series of new steps the Administration is taking to help communities prepare for the impacts of climate change. Increasing preparedness and resilience throughout the country to impacts like extreme weather, flooding, and more severe drought is a major component of the President’s Climate Action Plan. And to do so, the President is committed to working closely with governors, mayors, tribal leaders and other decision-makers who are seeing the impacts of climate change on their communities firsthand.

Right now, with much of the western part of the country facing severe drought conditions, we’re reminded why it’s so important to build the nation’s resilience to drought. While no specific drought can be attributed solely to climate change, we do know that certain climatic factors can influence droughts, making them more frequent and severe. That’s why, through the National Drought Resilience Partnership (NDRP), a partnership of seven agencies, the Administration is making it easier for states, cities, and individuals to access Federal drought resources by linking information such as monitoring, forecasts, outlooks and early warnings with longer-term drought resilience strategies in critical sectors such as agriculture, municipal water systems, energy, recreation, tourism and manufacturing. 

On Wednesday, at the beautiful Gates of the Mountains on the Missouri River just outside of Helena, Montana, the NDRP joined Montana Governor Steve Bullock in announcing a new climate resilience demonstration project in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, joined Governor Bullock at the event, noting that the demonstration project  “will build on and complement, not replace, existing drought planning and preparedness efforts in the Upper Missouri River Basin. There is already a strong foundation of Federal and state partnerships and the NDRP demonstration project will harness and coordinate existing efforts by Federal agencies and tailor the response to the unique needs of Montana watersheds.”

The initiative is focused on how improved drought preparedness at the local, state and tribal levels can be achieved through enhanced coordination of Federal agency resources. The idea is to demonstrate how drought resilience can be improved when Federal agencies go “all-in” to help with coordinating and focusing resources on specific watershed basins.  And, with the Upper Missouri River Basin currently not facing drought conditions, the project will allow for the tough conversations among state, local, tribal and Federal partners to happen without a crisis looming.

Governor Bullock has already shown commendable leadership on drought preparedness, and has been essential in bringing this multi-agency collaborative model to his state. The content and scope of NDRP-Montana Upper Missouri River drought resilience demonstration is likely to evolve over time as we work closely with the Governor, tribes, local communities and watershed organizations.  These folks are on the front lines of dealing with drought and know best what they need to build a long term drought resilience strategy. Lessons learned from this local demonstration will help the NDRP develop better programmatic support for drought resilience at the national level and in other parts of the country.

All of the NDRP agencies are looking forward to learning from this important demonstration project. In the meantime, the Administration will continue to look for opportunities to support state, local, and tribal leaders as they prepare their communities for drought and other impacts of climate change.

Mike Boots is Acting Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Administration Prepares for Hurricane Season, Impacts of Climate Change

With hurricane season beginning on Sunday, the Administration has been hard at work making sure we’re as prepared as possible. Today, the President convened a meeting with members of his response team to receive an update on these efforts, as well as a briefing on the outlook on the 2014 hurricane season. Federal, State, and local agencies are working together on mobile applications and other innovations that will better inform and involve the public in preparedness and response activities.  

As a result of our changing climate, more and more communities across the United States can expect to feel impacts like increasingly frequent and severe storms or extended drought and wildfire seasons. In fact, the third National Climate Assessment that the Administration released earlier this month confirms that climate change is already affecting every region of the United States as well as key sectors of our economy.  Local decision-makers in communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change know this, as they’re on the front lines of dealing with climate change. And through the President’s State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, we’re working with a group of those decision-makers – all of them proven leaders in helping their communities adapt to the impacts of climate change - to figure out how the Federal Government can best support their efforts. The Task Force will provide its recommendations to the President in the fall, and in the meantime President Obama is doing everything he can to support the work of those leaders and build a safer and more resilient Nation.

One of the ways we can do this is by investing in the resilience of our natural resources. This week, the United States Department of Agriculture announced the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), a program that will rely on partnerships with regional organizations, non-profits, and the private sector to drive conservation and restoration efforts in the regions where they are needed most. With the government serving as a catalyst, we can spur more private investment in rural America to increase local resilience to drought and flooding, increase water supply, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

As we work to improve the resilience of our precious natural resources, we also need to build smarter and stronger, so that our infrastructure can withstand the next storm, and the next. In the Hurricane Sandy-affected region, state and local stakeholders are working with the Federal Government to do just that. Sandy recovery efforts can serve as a model for future investments in building climate resilience in communities all over the country. For example, today the Federal Transit Administration is awarding approximately $167 million to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and $67 million to New Jersey Transit from their Emergency Relief Program to help both agencies continue rebuilding and replacing transportation equipment and facilities damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. By strengthening rail systems, ferry terminals, and local infrastructure, the region can be prepared for a future with intensified storms and other extreme weather events. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced a third round of grant funding, totaling more than $2.5 billion, to help four states and New York City continue recovering from Hurricane Sandy.  

The President stands with the communities all over the U.S. as they prepare for hurricane season, and for the impacts of climate change that are affecting us now, and will continue to affect us in the future.  

Mike Boots is Acting Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.