PREFACE

The evidence for climate change is becoming more compelling, yet most regions of the United States do not have a strategy to deal with the potential impacts of climate change. In the Central Great Plains region (i.e., the Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming area), the potential impact of climate changes is expected to affect winter snowfall, growing season rainfall amounts and intensities, minimum winter temperatures, and summer average temperatures. The combined effect of these changes in weather patterns and average seasonal climate will affect numerous sectors critical to the economic, social and ecological welfare of this region. In order to initiate a strategy to address these potential impacts of climate change within different regions of the U.S., the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) have sponsored a set of regional workshops to assess current concerns of climate change impacts.

In the Great Plains region, for instance, water resources already are scarce, and are projected to have greater demands among the various users in the future, such as urban demands for drinking water, irrigation of agriculture lands and wetlands wildlife conservation. Climate warming may severely impact the wetland areas of the region creating serious consequences for migratory and local water fowl and wildlife populations. Climate change may also result in greater crop damages due to increased drought stress resulting from higher growing season temperatures. The loss of soil from these croplands may be enhanced by the lack of plant cover. Ranchers in the region may not be able to support the current number of animals on the existing rangelands due to reduced dryland pasture production and lack of water resources for their animals.

Associated with climate change will be a number of indirect effects that will modify the ecological integrity of many of the ecosystems in the region. The increased number of noxious weeds, greater pest outbreaks, increased rate of aquifer use, and loss of wetlands for water fowl may result due to increased temperatures in the region. The economic and aesthetic costs of these changes have not been evaluated within the region, nor have strategies for mitigating or adapting to these changes been developed.

In order to better understand the scope of climate change issues and the potential economic and political implications of these climate impacts, we invited critical stakeholders in this region and the scientific community to a workshop to highlight the regional concerns and knowledge. The workshop was sponsored by the Department of Energy/National Institute of Global Environmental Change (DOE/NIGEC) under the auspices of the USGCRP and OSTP. The initial focus of this workshop was on the ranching, farming, and wildlife sectors within the region.

The goals of the workshop were:

To identify the stakeholder perspectives of critical climate change impacts on each sector;

To understand more clearly the scope of the potential climate change impacts with which this region may need to deal in the future;

To identify the critical climate related constraints to economic, environmental, and social well-being in the region;

To begin the development of a regional mitigation and adaptation strategy that is politically, economically, and socially feasible.

The structure of the workshop was designed to provide a forum to present what is known about the climate change issues and to identify the impacts of these changes on various economic and environmental sectors critical to the region. The workshop developed a greater regional appreciation of the critical climate change issues that will affect the future development and sustainability of the Great Plains. The workshop provided a forum to discuss the scientific basis of climate change impacts and the socio-economic and environmental fabric from which the climate change impacts are interwoven.

Drs. Jud Harper and Diana Freckman were especially critical in securing University resources for the workshop. The success of the workshop was greatly facilitated by the resourcefulness of the NREL staff, especially Ms. Becky Techau, Amy Whitehead, Robin Kelly and Jill Lackett. Editorial assistance was provided by Celine Donofrio and Erich Stroheim.

Dennis Ojima

Bill Easterling

Co-Chairpersons