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Maureen McCarthy - Loretta SingletaryUSDA/NIFA Project Directors Meeting

Washington, DC 12 Oct 2016

Native Waters on Arid Lands -

Enhancing Climate Resiliency on Reservation Lands

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NWAL Team

UNR - Maureen McCarthy, Loretta Singletary, Staci Emm DRI - Beverly Ramsey USGS – Michael Dettinger Ohio University – Derek Kauneckis FALCON – John Phillips Utah State – Kynda Curtis, Eric Edwards U Arizona – Bonnie Colby, Karletta Chief, Trent Teegerstrom Nevada/Arizona FRTEP Extension Educators TCU NWAL Advisors, faculty, students

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Engaging Great Basin and Southwestern Tribes in Sustaining Water Resources

“Indigenous peoples in North America have a long history of understanding their societies as having an intimate relationship with their physical environments. Their cultures, traditions, and identities are based on the ecosystems and sacred places that shape their world...water is life and water is sacred.”

(Chief, et al., Water 2016, 8, 350)

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NWAL Team integrating research and outreach

• Focusing research on nine reservations (Gila River, Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Walker River, Pyramid Lake, Duck Valley, Uintah/Ouray

• Downscaling climate models and hydrology impacts to reservation scale

• Conducting applied agriculture and resource economic analysis to better understand opportunities and barriers to enhance resilience

• Building Knowledge Portal for secondary data sharing• Organizing Annual Tribal Summits with Western U.S. tribes,

research partners, agency partners• Establishing new TCU faculty-student internships

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Research Areas

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Research in partnership with Tribes

• Participatory research identifies barriers and opportunities for sustaining agriculture on reservation lands

• People of the Land serves as a model for this research

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Research Areas

• Climate Risks

• Water Resources

• Agricultural Resiliency

• Traditional Knowledge and Ecology

• Invigorating Reservation Economies

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Regional Climate Risks

Predictions for Great Basin & American Southwest: Decreasing water supplies Longer droughts More rain/less snow Increased intensity of monsoonal storms Reduced surface water availability Declining groundwater supplies Warmer temperatures

What can tribal famers and ranchers do to adapt?

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Water Rights in the American West based on Prior Appropriations

First in Line/First in RightBased on 1850’s Mining Law

Beneficial Use Agriculture Production

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Water Resources

• Water Rights • Ground-Surface water

interdependencies• Water infrastructure –

reliability/adaptability• Water Quality

Colorado River Indian TribesAlfalfa Production

Animas River Spill 2015 Navajo Nation

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Agricultural Resiliency

• Production Crops• Fisheries• Livestock

Navajo Sheep

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Traditional Knowledge and Ecology

• Traditional drought resilient corn (Hopi)

• Traditional knowledge for crops and fisheries (Navajo/Hopi/Pyramid Lake)

• Paleo and current ecological watersheds (Gila River, Navajo/Hopi, Walker, Duck Valley)

Hopi Corn

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Invigorating Economies

• Innovative water resource management

• Water adaptation strategies leasing/banking/trading

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Tribal water-ag drought resilience compounded by historical land use and water policies

Fallowed fields

Reduced fish supplies Dry

wetlands

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Water WisdomTribal Knowledge is vital to humanity’s future