About NBCAI

The Goal of NBCAI is to foster an open conversation between technical experts, land managers and policymakers in support of effective local scale climate adaptation strategies that preserve natural resources, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.

Our Purpose is to implement effective climate adaptation strategies that sustain ecological and human communities of North San Francisco Bay watersheds.

Our Vision is that the San Francisco North Bay has resilient, biologically diverse natural systems that provide lasting ecosystem functions and services.

Who We Are

• The North Bay Climate Adaptation Initiative (NBCAI) is a coalition of natural resource managers, policy makers and scientists committed to working together to create positive solutions to the problem of climate adaptation for the ecosystems and watersheds of Sonoma County.
• Members are experts and conservation leaders drawn from natural resource science and management organizations throughout the region.
• Since climate adaptation is ultimately a regional issue, our goal is to pilot an approach in Sonoma County that can be extended throughout the North Bay as a whole.
• NBCAI’s vision is that the San Francisco North Bay will retain resilient, biologically diverse natural systems that provide lasting ecosystem functions and services into the future.

Key Aspects of our Approach

1) Collaborative

Meeting the challenge of climate change requires that specialists “leave their silos” and work together to get results. NBCAI is nimble, adapting our emphases to focus at the cutting edge of the fast-evolving arena of climate readiness. Our partnerships with agencies and nonprofits have been recognized at the regional, state, and national levels.

2) Science-Based

NBCAI is unique in its connection between the scientific and climate modeling community on the one hand and the county land and water use decision makers on the other hand. By tightening linkages between cutting edge climate science and on-the-ground management solutions, NBCAI will ensure that its approaches are not only scientifically sound, but that they are in fact at the leading edge of emerging approaches to climate adaptation. As we improve our understanding of the problem and better refine solutions, this progress will be captured in updates to Sonoma County’s BAP.

3) Local Action

The fate of local land and water resources are essentially in the hands of Sonoma County land and water managers, local businesses, and private citizens. By working at this grass roots level, NBCAI has the potential to make the greatest impact on the resource. By facilitating constructive exchanges between technical experts, land managers and policymakers, we will realize effective local scale climate adaptation strategies that preserve natural resources, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Just as Sonoma County led the way for the nation in innovative approaches to climate mitigation, we strive to lead the way as a model in adaptation approaches using the BAP process that other counties throughout the nation may follow.