Spokane City Council sustainability committee wants to know your climate concerns

The volunteer group that Spokane City Council has tasked with drafting a climate action plan is conducting a survey to get a sense of how the community feels about climate-related topics.

The Sustainability Action Subcommittee (SAS) survey, which can be found here, will be open through March 20.

It will help inform the work of the subcommittee, which is being led by sustainability research analyst Kara Odegard.

"Many of us in Spokane remember winters that started in November and continued well into March with extended snow cover. Now we're seeing a trend of warming and a change in our winter precipitation patterns to more rain and less snow," Odegard says in a news release. "Our winter sports season is shortened, agriculture is impacted, water flows in the Spokane River are changing. Cherished community events like Bloomsday have already been impacted by rising temperatures. And what we're asking ourselves on the SAS is, 'How as a community should we respond?'"

The survey looks for participants' concern levels about areas ranging from agriculture to snowpack, and wildfires to recycling. There is a space at the end to leave additional comments.

"The city of Spokane wants to hear from all community members to learn how they think we should respond to current climate challenges," City Council President Breean Beggs says in the same release. "We can only move forward if we listen to everybody."