WA community colleges to get $9 million to train frontline climate change workers

The Climate Lab is a Seattle Times initiative that explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The project is funded in part by The Bullitt Foundation, Jim and Birte Falconer, Mike and Becky Hughes, the University of Washington and the Walker Family Foundation, and its fiscal sponsor is the Seattle Foundation.

Six Washington state community colleges will receive $9.26 million to expand and develop new curriculum related to natural resource management and ultimately increase the number of people working on the front lines of climate change, especially indigenous workers.

Eight other states and territories are also receiving $60 million to develop programs aimed at training a workforce of people from underserved communities to advance climate resilience in coastal areas.

In Washington, the money, from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, will support tribal students at community colleges and build a pipeline of technicians, principals and other workers at Washington tribes or state agencies, such as the Department of Natural Resources.

These jobs may include water specialists, hydrologists, fisheries or forestry technicians, and senior jobs that require bachelor’s degrees, such as directors and program managers.

This program will seek to integrate climate adaptation and traditional indigenous knowledge into the curriculum around fisheries, forestry and other natural resource management.

The projects across the US are collectively called the Climate Ready Workforce Initiative. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the four-year grant funding on Tuesday.

Currently, natural resource programs at Washington community colleges lack sufficient information on climate adaptation and the cultural and administrative processes around working with tribes, said Glenda Breiler, director of tribal government affairs at the Washington State Community and Technical College Board. and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Colville.

Washington’s program hopes to fix that, but also increase representation of tribal members working in natural resource management across the state, she said.

In Washington’s application for grant funding, the Colville Confederated Tribes said 146 of the more than 500 jobs in their natural resources divisions are unfilled due to a lack of skilled workers. With a shortage of qualified applicants, many of these jobs from tribal employers will go to non-tribal members, Breiler said.

“As the first peoples of this land, Washington tribes have led the front lines of environmental protection and stewardship of their lands since time immemorial,” she said. “Tribal communities are the best custodians of natural resources as our culture, health and livelihoods are linked to the natural environment.”

The new state program, called the Tribal Stewards Initiative, will also allow community colleges to hire a support staff member to help tribal students with wrap-around services such as child care and transportation, Irene Shaver said. , the state’s climate solutions program manager. community college board.

College attainment for tribal students in the state is 9.7%, four times less than the state average, according to the grant application. Unemployment for tribals is also three times higher than the state average and 72% of all tribal jobs are filled by non-tribal employees.

The beneficiary community colleges include Peninsula College, which will partner with the Makah Tribe, Grays Harbor College with the Quinault Indian Nation, Green River College with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, South Puget Sound Community College with the Squaxin Island Tribe and Spokane Community College and Wenatchee Valley College with the Colville Confederated Tribes.

As part of the grant application, tribes, Washington public agencies and private companies, such as Sierra Pacific Industries, have committed to hiring graduates for internships and 465 jobs over four years. The grant will train 63 faculty members and 2,130 students across the six colleges and redesign 10 natural resources programs, according to a news release.