Enhanced wildfire protection, conservation of critical habitat, and hundreds of megawatts of new clean energy are among the strides the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is taking toward building a more climate resilient state.

 

DNR today announced the release of its 3-year update to Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz’s Plan for Climate Resilience, released in 2020. The update shows progress made, as well as laying out future initiatives to hit targets laid in the plan, which maps how the agency is addressing climate risks with climate action.

 

“Three years ago I released our Plan for Climate Resilience as a call to action, our first step in how DNR would meet this challenge. Our plan created a commitment to lead and a roadmap to address climate risks with climate action,” said Commissioner Franz. “The actions we take toward climate resilience in our state will have an effect across the globe. Now more than ever it is crucial that we work together—across and within our communities - to protect our health and our lands and waters for generations to come.”

 

Since the release of the Plan for Climate Resilience in 2020, extreme weather events have increased both in frequency and severity across Washington. In addition to climate change, the health and safety of communities across Washington were impacted by COVID-19.

 

Through these challenges, DNR continued its efforts to implement climate resilience actions across the state, efforts which are spelled out in the 2023 Climate Resilience 3-Year Update. The report is the outcome of a collaborative agency-wide effort to develop and implement performance metrics and accountability structures for taking actions to be more resilient to climate change.

 

The plan sets 40 performance and implementation metrics across 14 program areas, detailing actions to make the state more resilient and identifying gaps and needs going forward.

 

Among those metrics are:

These metrics are used to track the overall performance and implementation of our Plan for Climate Resilience. And broadly represent the myriad actions identified in the plan and will be used by the agencies divisions and program to track progress and identify gaps or needs. DNR will provide updates to the overall progress of the agency's resilience metrics on DNR’s website

 

 

Elected in 2016, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz protects and manages nearly six million acres of public lands in Washington State – from coastal waters and aquatic reserves, to working forests and farms, to commercial developments and recreation areas. Commissioner Franz is committed to ensuring our public lands are healthy and productive, both today and for future generations.

 

The Plan also lays out steps DNR will take to lessen the agency’s carbon footprint

 

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