Summer trout fishing was closed in western rivers due to dangerously warm water temperatures. Ice fishing seasons have come and gone without safe ice. Elk hunts are canceled due to worsening wildfires. Moose populations are plummeting due to tick infestations. Droughts crushing whitetail food dreams once again and inciting recurring EHD nightmares. Warming lake and ocean waters fueling extreme algal blooms and fish kills. Millions of acres of forest are exterminated by ever-growing swarms of beetles.
This is our reality today. The world we are handing over to my children and maybe your children too.
As a hunter or fisherman in the 2020s, it is increasingly difficult to go far and not notice the impacts of climate change. The question of whether this climate change thing is an exaggerated political hoax has passed. The idea that this is a hypothetical crisis that will come far in the future now seems curious. A 2022 TRCP national survey of hunters and anglers confirms this finding even within the hook-and-ball community, with more than 70% of respondents acknowledging that climate change is happening.
Is here. Right Now. Changing our forests and waters and wetlands and wild places. If you can erase from your mind what partisan speakers, whether left or right, have told you, and simply open your eyes, you can’t help but see it.
The past eight years have been the world’s hottest in recorded history. And while there have been other significant warming periods in earth’s history, these have unfolded over thousands if not millions of years. Our situation has unfolded in about 50. It is unprecedented. And it will surely continue to affect fish and wildlife populations, the wild landscapes they call home, and our opportunities to pursue them.
But what can we do about it?
It’s easy to imagine that this is a problem above any of our pay grades. Climate disruption is a global phenomenon that can apparently only be addressed by global policy and human-scale system changes (many of which are politically charged). But it is not necessarily so. In fact, scientists and conservationists are discovering that natural systems and wild places that have long been managed by hunters and anglers can play an important role in defending against and reversing the effects of climate change.
Known as “nature-based climate solutions,” these common-sense habitat protection and restoration efforts represent a true win-win opportunity for hunters, anglers, and the natural world as they address the climate crisis in the long term while directly benefiting the fish. wildlife and outdoor recreation during the weather.
What are nature-based climate solutions?
A nature-based climate solution is the use of some type of natural landscape or ecosystem (either by protecting, restoring or creating it) to minimize the impacts of climate change or remove carbon from the atmosphere which contributes to greater warming.
The climate disruption we are already experiencing today (and the much more dramatic warming expected in the future) is caused by an abnormally rapid increase in human-influenced carbon being released into the atmosphere, primarily in the form of carbon dioxide, which then reflects the heat towards the earth like the glass of a greenhouse. Historically, Earth has managed and balanced natural emissions of carbon into the atmosphere (when plants or animals die, volcanic eruptions, etc.) through a series of natural “sinks” that draw carbon out of the atmosphere. Forests, grasslands, wetlands, and even the ocean work this way.
The first set of nature-based solutions are those that reinforce, restore, or scale up these natural carbon sinks. More simply, these projects protect or restore more of the things that absorb carbon from the air. Reforest a burned national forest or protect old trees. Preserve intact grasslands and move from traditional grazing practices to a rotational model that improves the health of previously degraded grasslands. Invest in the restoration of coastal ecosystems by protecting or encouraging new mangrove or kelp forests. All of the above can cause massive amounts of carbon to be pulled from the sky and stored in the earth and its living exoskeleton.
The second set of nature-based solutions are those that use nature to adapt to or reduce the damage caused by climate change impacts such as sea level rise, floods, hurricanes and storm systems every time more serious, drought and forest fires. In essence, these efforts use one form of nature to protect us from another. The protection or restoration of wetlands to absorb flood and storm damage. Restoration of dunes, beaches and “living litter” so that they act as natural dikes. Implementing regenerative agriculture practices to reduce soil moisture loss, erosion and vulnerability to drought. Creating riverside improvements to reduce the risk of river erosion and flooding.
How will these affect hunters and anglers?
All of the above, and many other similar nature-based solutions, are victories in the long-term effort to reduce the carbon load entering the atmosphere and defend our current way of life from a changing climate. But examine any of these projects in isolation and you’ll also see immediate and direct benefits to hunting, fishing and wildlife.
Restoring prairie ecosystems in Nebraska, Kansas or North Dakota? This will benefit pheasants and other upland species, mule deer, pollinators and countless other birds. Not to mention anyone who enjoys hunting amidst these vast and wonderfully nostalgic landscapes.
The installation of new oyster reefs, mangrove forests and the restoration of barrier islands? Redfish, bonefish, snook and a host of marine mammals and birds should enjoy it, along with thousands of shore anglers.
Reclaim abandoned mine sites in states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania? This will help whitetail deer, black bears, elk, turkeys, and yes, many big game hunters.
In essence, nature-based climate solutions represent the continuation of the wildlife habitat work that hunters and anglers have been advocating and working for for decades, but now with the added benefit of addressing the world’s most big of climate change. And with this added reach comes the benefit of new sources of funding that are directed towards addressing the climate challenge. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the largest climate-focused bill in US history) includes $200 million for vegetation management efforts on national forest lands and $2.6 billion of more dollars for NOAA to protect coastal and marine habitats and resources. This kind of much-needed funding for habitat work could go a long way toward addressing the climate crisis, but also the many other challenges facing fish and wildlife in America.
How can we contribute?
So what can hunters and anglers do? We can act as advocates for action on climate change with a common sense first step to advocate for nature-based solutions as part of the solution.
Through emails and phone calls to our congressional representatives, our participation in events and in-person demonstrations, social media posts, opinion pieces, and financial donations, we can draw attention to the benefits of these projects that address both the climate mitigation/resilience as wildlife habitat, and we can help drive funding and approval for these efforts.
Second, we can go out on land or water to implement nature-based climate solutions ourselves. Volunteer to plant trees on public land, plant native grasses on a whitetail property, participate in a wetland restoration project or river cleanup—all these projects and more can help. Hunters and anglers have led the charge, volunteering for habitat work on the ground for years. It only makes sense that we continue to do so, especially now that our impact can spread further than ever before.
And finally, we can witness the changes we are seeing in our wild lands. Few people in the United States have more opportunities to see, feel, and experience the effects of climate change than those of us who spend countless days, weeks, and months each year exploring the natural world in search of fish and game. Our voices and observations on the ground in real life can help drag this issue out of the realm of partisan politics and into the real world of decent people with common sense who simply want to solve a problem.
Our future
The climate is changing rapidly. It’s an uncomfortable reality that many of us are now coming to terms with and with this change will come more dramatic impacts on the fish, wildlife and wild places that we hunters and anglers care so much about. Now we have a choice.
We can bury our heads in the sand and scream “fake news!” We can shout and point fingers at politicians or big companies. We can be paralyzed by the staggering scale of the problem and throw our hands in the air, saying, “What can I possibly do!” Or, instead, we can choose to take action, one generous step at a time. A phone call to a senator. A conversation with a friend. A tree or ten planted behind the house. A day of volunteering at the creek.
Nature-based climate solutions are a common-sense first step toward a better future for wildlife and wild places, our hunting and fishing traditions, and all of humanity. It’s funny that by simply getting out of the way and letting nature do what it does best, we could begin to emerge from this monumental man-made crisis.