ELGIN, Ore. (AP) — Against the backdrop of a region-wide drought, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are bracing for the potentially harmful long-term effects of climate change.
The tribes have secured hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to study climate change in the Pacific Northwest and come up with an action plan to protect the reservation’s natural resources, including traditional First Foods.
Native salmon and steelhead are having an especially tough summer, as intense heat and record-low snowpack have lowered most rivers to a fraction of their normal flows.