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Nicole Schmitt
Executive Director

Alaska Wildlife Alliance

Nicole has dedicated her professional life to grassroots mobilization and philanthropic administration. Nicole’s interest in Alaska’s wildlife began as a teenager, when she worked on the crew of a salmon setnetting operation in Kasilof, Alaska. She then studied geography and international development at the University of Denver in partnership with Peking University in Beijing, splitting her degrees between the United States and China. After completing her research thesis abroad, Nicole returned to the US to work in research and grants management for various government agencies and nonprofit organizations—including the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Yosemite National Park, and the Global Greengrants Fund. Nicole was excited to return to Alaska to exercise her skills for Alaska’s wildlife, and since then has been recognized as an “outstanding young professional” in Alaska’s 2022 Top Forty Under 40 class. When she’s not in the office, Nicole can be found biking, running, kayaking, or climbing across Alaska with her dog, Riley.

SESSIONS

Tribal adaptation in Western Alaska: Providing for People and Wildlife

Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Native Village of Paimiut are using a Climate Vulnerability Assessment to prepare wildlife, people and habitat in 250,000 acres of Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for rapid climate change. The Asqinaq – "a place of calmness and beauty” – are the lands, streams and coastline embraced by four Yup'ik villages in Western Alaska along the Bering Sea: Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Paimiut, and Chevak. This region holds the nesting grounds for millions of migratory birds, including 80 percent of the world's black brants and emperor geese, 40 subsistence fish species, and 12 marine mammal species including Pacific walrus, seals, whales, and threatened Stellers sea lions. The Delta is the homeland of over 50 indigenous communities, and is within the Biden Administration's Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. By the end of this century, 7 million acres of this Delta are predicted to salinize or flood from sea-level rise, the permafrost will be gone, and the temperature will increase by an estimated 8 degrees F. Put simply, these communities are going underwater and the wildlife upon which they depend face enormous uncertainty. Losing this Delta to climate change not only carries dramatic local consequences, but also broader implications for global biodiversity. To understand the region's vulnerability, our assessment includes literature reviews, household surveys, climate modeling, and species vulnerability assessments; it is the first plan of this kind for these villages. The assessment is being used in Tribal management gatherings to develop pilot projects that resist, mitigate, or direct climate change into a more favorable future for people and wildlife. This presentation will review the findings of our assessment and outline our process for developing pilot projects that directly prepare people and wildlife for the changes ahead.