Getting Started

Feeling curious about what more you could do to incorporate climate science into your day-to-day work?

Feeling overwhelmed by keeping up with the latest models and journal articles?

Feeling too stressed to change what you are doing given your already unmanageable workload?

heroic efforts of fishermen at their daily work, hauling in an abundant catch of herring. In a small dory, two figures loom large against the mist on the horizon, through which the sails of the mother schooners are dimly visible. While one fisherman hauls in the netted and glistening herring, the other unloads the catch. — The Herring Net, 1885, Winslow Homer

The Climate Action Tool (CAT) is here for you!

If you are a planner, a manager, a conservation practitioner, a researcher, a student in the environmental field, or just a person interested in easy access to the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems in the northeastern U.S., you’re in the right place.

On the CAT website, which first developed in 2012 but is newly refurbished in 2026, you will find information about how climate change is affecting the Northeast, focused on particularly stressors like extreme events; how climate change is impacting Habitats, including Forests, Wetlands, and Coastal Ecosystems and Species, including Birds, Mammals, and Herps; and resources for Planning, Adaptation, and Communication & Engagement. We have also summarized all of the existing vulnerability assessments related to the 382 regional species of greatest conservation need for the Northeast.

The CAT also highlights examples and case studies to show how colleagues and neighbors in the northeast are incorporating climate science into their goals, their strategies, their tactics, and their day-to-day actions.

Climate change is affecting the natural and cultural resources of the Northeastern U.S. We help you find ways to take action on climate change challenges near you.

This compendium is brought to you by the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, including Cybil “Nikki” Cavalieri, Heather Siart, and Toni Lyn Morelli; the University of Massachusetts Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (CAFE), including Scott Jackson, Melissa Ocana, and Evonne Gong; and the state of Massachusetts, specifically the Department of Fish and Wildlife which was instrumental in the first version of the CAT. We are thankful to the team at Common Media for web development services.