National Scenic Area Climate Change Action Plan Open for Public Comment

This article is part three of the Gorge Commission 101 series.

By Rodger Nichols, Columbia River Gorge Commission

A young man once asked science fiction author Octavia Butler the answer to ending all the suffering in the world. “There isn’t one,” she replied. “There’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead, there are thousands of answers — at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.”

The Columbia River Gorge Commission is looking for some of those answers today as it develops a Climate Change Action Plan for the National Scenic Area. 

To explain, we need to go back to the beginning. When the National Scenic Area Act was passed in 1986, it created the Columbia River Gorge Commission and charged it with writing a Management Plan for land use in the National Scenic Area. 

Time, effort, and input from many stakeholders helped to develop the first plan. The plan tried to anticipate as many eventualities as possible to protect resources, but the concept of climate change was not yet on everybody’s mind in the late 1980s. 

Consequently, the original Management Plan did not specifically address climate change, although the foundations were laid. In 2020, as part of a required periodic plan review, the Gorge Commission added a new section on climate change that called for an Action Plan to address threats to Gorge resources. 

The concern is that changes, such as rising air and water temperatures, are impacting weather patterns, affecting habitats for plants and animals, and increasing wildfire risk. As a land-use agency, the Commission has a responsibility to consider effects that planning ordinances have on all communities as well as the natural, scenic, cultural, and recreational resources and the economic vitality of the region. 

Now, the Commission staff, together with support from the USDA Forest Service, has developed a draft Climate Change Action Plan. The draft is posted at http://www.gorgecommission.org/initiatives/climate-change/ and available for public comment through July 5, 2022. You are welcome to submit your comments to ClimateAction@gorgecommission.org.

“This Action Plan is the first of its kind for the National Scenic Area” stated Jessica Olson, Senior Natural Resources Planner who co-authored the plan. “With your help, we will add new information and ideas to improve the plan over time. Please share your comments and creative ideas with us. Where possible, specific suggestions and references to sections of the Management Plan are especially helpful.”

The Commission recognizes that it has limitations but is focusing on areas where it can make a positive difference to protect the resources that make the Gorge a special and unique landscape while also supporting efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. 

One example of climate adaptation policy that the Commission included in the 2020 Management Plan review, was to increase riparian area setbacks from the stream banks of certain cold-water tributaries in the Gorge from 100 feet to 200 feet. By protecting this additional area of streamside buffers, the new policy encourages the growth of vegetation which would shield and shade the stream and prevent downstream silting and pollution. These actions will contribute to lowering water temperatures. The riparian buffers benefit the fish population, particularly salmon, which need cold water refuges in these streams during their journey to the sea and back to their home waters in the Columbia River tributaries. 

The Climate Change Action Plan describes additional strategies the Commission can take to address climate change, including consideration of future policy changes, building strategic partnerships, and improving the way that we implement our current regulations. 

Please send comments, creative solutions, and great ideas to ClimateAction@gorgecommission.org

or mail them to the Gorge Commission office at PO Box 730, White Salmon, WA 98672.