Participants Say Climate Migration Tops Risks for Door County

Jeff Lutsey, Roy Thilly and Deneen Wiske, all with the Climate Change Coalition of Door County, during a Climate Action Workshop the group hosted earlier this year at The Clearing in Ellison Bay. Photos by D.A. Fitzgerald.

Grant would take climate resilience planning to the next level

Around 40 people gathered at a meeting space Jan. 30 at The Clearing in Ellison Bay for the first of a two-day workshop with the Climate Change Coalition of Door County, and its hosts, Jeff Lutsey, Roy Thilly and Deneen Wiske. 

“The weather is becoming less predictable and more erratic,” Thilly said – and the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Impacts (WICI) predicts that will happen increasingly as Door County’s climate turns ‘warmer, wetter and wilder.’

To be sure, there will be impacts, as outlined in a summary slide deck the hosts showed participants during the workshop. The “warmer” weather will affect the agricultural sector, with longer growing seasons and more super-dry droughts; the ecosystem of plants and animals; and more visitors will enjoy the peninsula’s natural beauty, maybe deciding to call it home.

The ‘wetter’ impacts could be heavier rains producing more run-off, more soil and shore erosion, more stress to road and sewage infrastructure, and more pollution washing onto beaches and into waters. The ‘wilder’ leads to uncertainty – for plants and animals, for lake levels, for droughts, for heavy storm and rain events.  

The point of the Climate Action Workshop was not to “prove” climate change – “Let’s just assume it’s going to happen, because it is,” Lutsey said – or to brainstorm mitigation strategies for greenhouse gas reductions. 

Instead, participants identified Door County’s most significant climate risks and vulnerabilities, and began the creation of a resilience plan to address those. 

“It’s wonderful to be on the solutions side of this massive problem,” Wiske said. 

Climate Haven?

The data show the climate on the peninsula is likely to remain more temperate than elsewhere in the state; among the more temperate places in the country, even. Most of the warmer weather will be greater in winter in Door County – about 4% warmer. Meanwhile, days greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit are expected to increase across Wisconsin, but not in Door County.

“Anyone interested in climate migration will be interested in that one,” Thilly said. “The Great Lakes are likely to be a climate haven.”

If Chicago keeps getting hotter, for example, the same things that brought those residents to Door County before will still be here, with even more reason to move here permanently, Lutsey said. 

For many of those reasons, the workshop participants identified climate migration as Door County’s number one climate risk. The impacts of that risk, they identified, could lead to more deforestation, more buildings and development, more waste creation, more use of resources like energy and water, and more transportation and congestion.

The other risks the participants identified after climate migration were: biodiversity reduction and species loss; water quality threats; energy and infrastructure vulnerabilities; agricultural changes; and tourism/recreation impacts. 

In developing the risks and impacts, the participants came up with hyper-local preparedness actions. For example, wildfires, which came under the “energy and infrastructure vulnerabilities” category.

“If a Canadian boreal forest can go up, ours can go up,” Lutsey said. “So, do we have the firefighting equipment?”

Not Just Dreamers

Since the workshops, the Climate Change Coalition has applied for a $100,000 grant, in partnership with the County of Door Soil and Water Conservation Department and Facilities and Parks Department. The grant would be used to formalize the planning, including reaching a more diverse population – not only environmental and conservation groups, but farmers, firefighters, government representatives and various community and business leaders. This could even include giving people a travel and/or time stipend to get them over the hump to come to the meeting.

“This is what we have to do because we have to fill the room with the right people,” Lutsey said. 

Lutsey said they’ll know in May if they have received the grant. In June, a Climate Resilience/Protecting Door County forum is planned. 

Meanwhile, the workshop participants came up with about 30 short-term actions to work on while they plan – research, tree plantings, etc. Those action items are important.

“Otherwise, we’re just dreamers,” Lutsey said.