might not have a ton of vulnerability, and so there isn't necessarily as much urgency to act on the information. ” (R01)
● “[Forest] managers really don't see climate change as an immediate thing we're going to be dealing with in two years. It's a farther in the future sort of thing, even though those same researchers’ data ...does not bear that out. It's happening now ...and I think that definitely bears out in our programming. We do certainly talk about it. But a lot of the attitude seems to be, from a managerial side, either that [climate change] is ‘a future issue’, or that ‘yes, it’s an issue, but I don't know what we can really do about it. ’” (R03) ● “...and then we'll have the rug pulled out from under us when concentrations of CO 2 get up over 500 parts per million in 2070, 2080 and 2090. We will have more droughts, more extreme weather events and agriculture will fall and it will fall fast. ” (R16) ● “ I'm hoping that we're seeing a shift that people as a whole are more interested, more aware, more willing , that we have to do this. That that state of mind is coming forward, regardless of what other crises we currently have, which are not insubstantial or inconsequential, is that the climate is changing. And the more we wait the harder it's going to get. ” (R05) Lack of Community Capacity & Resources for Action In addition to the lack of urgency for action, respondents also noted that a lack of community or partner capacity, resources, and investment also places very real constraints on their ability to sustain C/EW programs and meet audience needs.
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“ A big challenge is community capacity . A lot of times we're working with volunteer board members. And so how much bandwidth do they have to take on a project or, you know, staff is limited. They're wearing a lot of hats.” (R01) “Even if the grants are out there, if there's not really the capacity at the local county level to go after it [the grant], then that also is definitely an impediment to doing climate work.” (R02)
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● “ I have only been able to do what I can do with my limited time and funding. And similarly with Extension out in our counties, there are very few of our county staff who have grant funding to work on climate. So the way it’s been able to work is by being creative, to do as much as we can with the funds we have and making good connections with people [locally].” (R11)
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