Higher summer and winter temperatures, declining mountain snowpack, reduced snowfall, long, dry summers, sudden heavy rains - the residents of the Columbia River Basin in Canada are experiencing different weather conditions than in the past. They are also seeing changes in natural systems including melting glaciers, lower summer streamflows, more frequent wildfires, and outbreaks of forest pests such as the mountain pine beetle. Many are asking if these differences are a product of climate change, or if they are just extremes in natural variation in our climate. There is also widespread concern about what actions people in the Basin should be taking to reduce human risks while adapting to new climate circumstances. In response to these questions and concerns, the Water Initiatives Program of the Columbia Basin Trust contracted the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium at the University of Victoria in 2006 to work with a number of climate scientists to analyze climate change impacts in the geographic area encompassed by the Columbia Basin Trust Act. This area, defined as that part of the drainage of the Columbia River in Canada affected by the Columbia River Treaty of 1964, is bounded by the Monashee Mountains on the west and the Rockies on the east, hereafter referred to as the Basin. The study, A Preliminary Assessment of Climate Trends, Variability and Change in the Canadian Portion of the Columbia Basin - Focusing on Water Resources, concluded that the climate of this part of the Columbia Basin has been and will continue to change in ways that will alter the way people derive their livelihood in the Basin. The study underscores the need for residents of the Basin to take these changes carefully into account in the planning of their social, economic and environmental futures. This pamphlet provides preliminary information about: the climate-related changes in our environment that we have been experiencing in the recent past; Possible future changes in climate and our environment; the impacts these changes might have on the Basin's water resources; what we might do in response to these impacts; and how productive dialogue can begin in the Basin about climate and climate related issues. Citizens are encouraged to think about these findings, and talk with their families and with others in their communities and in their places of work about what can be done individually and together to live safely, reduce vulnerabilities and risks, and take advantage of opportunities created by new climate conditions.
