In 2009, Congress urged CEQ and the Department of the Interior to develop a national, government-wide climate adaptation strategy to assist fish, wildlife, plants, and related ecological processes in becoming more resilient, adapting to, and surviving the impacts of climate change as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act Conference Report.
This congressional directive was supported by a variety of reports and calls for U.S. action from a number of sources including the U.S. Government Accounting Office (2009), U.S. Global Change Science Program (2008‐9), the National Academies, and others. In October 2010, the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force included the development of this Strategy as one of their top recommendations in their Progress Report to the President.
In the fall of 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and CEQ invited the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state wildlife agencies (with the NY Division of Fish, Wildlife, & Marine Resources as their lead representative) to co-lead the development of the strategy.
A Steering Committee, Management Team, and five Technical Teams were then established to guide and facilitate the Strategy development process.
Timeline
Initial outreach and planning for the Strategy began in 2009 and early 2010 with a number of listening and engagement sessions as well as several Conservation Leadership Forums. Learn more about past engagement efforts here.
Key milestones are shown below.
- Begin Outreach and Engagement Sessions - 2009/2010
- Steering Committee Formed - December 2010
- First Steering Committee meeting - January 2011
- Establish Technical Teams - February 2011
- First Technical Team meeting - March 2011
- Second Technical Team meeting - May 2011
- Third Technical Team meeting - May 2011
- Second Steering Committee meeting - June 2011
- Third Steering Committee meeting - September 2011
- Agency Review Draft - November 2011
- Public Review Draft - January/February2012
- Fourth Steering Committee meeting - May 2012
- Final Design and Approval – Fall 2012
- Final Strategy - 2013
