Southern Regional Drought Resilience Planning

Resilience is being able to adapt to new challenges and thrive through change. It requires a connected community, thriving ecosystems, prosperous local economies and adaptive systems. From ecosystem function to small business viability to food production, the impacts of our changing climate are being felt locally. This is an opportunity to be part of the solution.

We spent the first 6 months connecting with stakeholders and collating a series of themes and goals based on feedback to our baseline survey and these conversations. Then we hosted a series of Community Conversations (16 across the region) todelve a bit deeper and determine what needs to happen to achieve these goals and collate ideas for specific projects, initiatives, actions that will get us there. In these sessions, the diverse perspectives of over 300 people came together to exploreboth the practical actions and systemic changes needed to prepare for and cope with drought and increasing climate variability.

The next step is a series of Pathways to Resilience workshops, which will bring key community members and other subject matter experts together to further refine ideas, determine strategic actions and develop clear pathways toward achieving the goals identified through the planning process. All of the ideas and insights generated through these workshops and conversations to date willinform development of ourRegional Drought Resilience Plan and funding its implementation over the coming years.