The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration together awarded the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) more than $170,000 in grants this month.
The EPA grant, funded by provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, is meant to help the tribe plan future climate mitigation strategies. NOAA’s grant will support the tribe marine mammal stranding response team.
The New England region of the EPA awarded climate pollution reduction grants to seven federally recognized tribes in the Northeast, totaling more than $1.2 million.
Bret Stearns, the Aquinnah tribe’s indirect services administrator, said the almost $150,000 from the EPA will be used to hire a consultant to consider strategies to reduce climate pollution, such as carbon reduction or sequestration.
“We’ll be looking at our tribal community and town growth over the future years, and then what actions we could put into place,” Mr. Stearns said. “It eventually impacts building strategies, it impacts infrastructure improvements.”
NOAA awarded the tribe a Prescott Grant of more than $20,000 towards specialized equipment and contracts to support the tribe’s stranding team, which operates as part of the NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
“It also sets aside some money for emergency veterinary care for wild marine mammals like seals, or dolphins,” Mr. Stearns said.
The team works to help animals that wash up on the Island’s shores and aids NOAA’s larger stranding network investigate marine mammal deaths. In May, the team rescued an injured seal that was found on Lucy Vincent Beach.
Mr. Stearns himself was part of the rescue operation.
“We’ve had some good successes this year,” he said. “We’ve had a couple rehabilitated and released from netting and those kinds of things.”
Grants like those from the EPA and NOAA help the tribe improve its strategies and programs, and it has been taking steps to build resilience as climate change affects the weather and the tribe’s food sources, he said.
“This isn’t our first step in this direction, but this is a continuation for us to find ways to mitigate, advance and plan for the future,” Mr. Stearns said. “We’ll be using it as a tool in the toolbox for future growth.”
