Editor’s note: This commentary is by Betsy Hands, who is program officer for the High Meadows Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation.
[S]ince it was published last November, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the Fourth National Climate Assessment. What made the report so captivating to me, and to many others around the country, is how plainly it described the consequences of climate change in economic, social, and human terms. The Fourth National Climate Assessment also looked specifically at the different regions of the country — I’ve spent most of my time reading Chapter 18, about the Northeast. With all of this, it’s been impossible for me to read the report and not reflect on the mission of the High Meadows Fund in the face of climate change.
While the Northeast’s coastal cities may focus on rising oceans, the report identified Vermont’s biggest challenge to be the pressure of climate change on rural industries and livelihoods. The report tells us, “[The] natural landscape provides the economic and cultural foundation for many rural communities, which are largely supported by a diverse range of agricultural, tourism, and natural resource-dependent industries.”
That natural landscape, the foundation for Vermont’s communities, is rapidly changing. Reading through the Northeast chapter, I kept track of the many different ways our state’s farms and forests are at risk:
• Shifting seasonality negatively affects the health of our forests and wildlife. Less snow and warmer winters impacts our winter recreation industry, threatens access and ability for logging and managing forests, encourages invasive species, and exacerbates the loss of charismatic wildlife that drive tourism.
• Higher precipitation and temperatures in the region will adversely impact our farming and water quality. Excessive precipitation can lead to crop loss, more erosion, and more agricultural runoff. Warmer waters and stream flow changes will threaten cold water fisheries and other aquatic species.
• More intense precipitation impacts our rural villages and towns where we historically concentrated people, infrastructure and agriculture. There is little redundancy in our road systems and infrastructure, leaving our communities especially vulnerable and with limited ability to cope when the large storms hit inlands and cause intense flooding.
With these changes and threats coming at Vermont from so many directions, High Meadows and our partners doing environmental work around the state should ask, “Does our work match the urgency of the Fourth National Climate Assessment?”
The 2019 Resilient Vermont Conference at Norwich University from June 7-8 is the occasion to ask and answer these kinds of questions. The conference takes a multidisciplinary approach to how climate change is impacting Vermont, from our water to our farms to our housing. Vermont leaders, community members, planners, agencies, municipal officials, nonprofits, and funders will come together at Norwich University seeking to build lasting solutions for a strong and more resilient state for everyone. To make real progress, we need everyone we can get to join our discussions.
There are many transformational forces at work in Vermont. Climate change is one of them. The Resilient Vermont Conference is a rare and necessary opportunity for Vermonters to focus on adapting to these threats. I encourage you to join us on June 7 as we seek to understand, imagine, and plan for the future — specifically, a future where Vermont’s natural landscape, and thus Vermont’s economies and communities, are different than they are today.
