Editor's note: This story was produced by student reporters as part of the High School Journalism Institute, an annual collaboration among The Oregonian/OregonLive, Oregon State University and other Oregon media organizations. Read this post for more information about the training program.

When the Corvallis City Council approved an official climate-action plan in December, they couldn't have known that, months later, President Donald Trump would say he'd pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.

Now, officials in this Willamette Valley college town are stepping up efforts to fight global warming.

By the year 2050, Corvallis wants to cut the city's greenhouse gas emissions a fraction of 1990 levels, according to the climate-action plan.

Mayor Biff Traber told The Pride that the city is "just getting started."

The plan is a positive example of the community going through a public process to get an initiative off the ground, he said.

"It's clear what's there, it's clear what we want to do, and now we need to make it happen," Traber said.

Creating an advisory board appears to be the next step in hitting the gas pedal on the city's plan.

The largest obstacle is enlisting community help, Traber said, and part of the job is to find projects that will bring people in.

But City Hall can't carry the weight of the initiative alone.

"The city doesn't have the money to put solar on everybody's house," Traber said.

And Corvallis can have only so much impact on the larger U.S. greenhouse gas emissions problem.

"We're a small government in a system of governments," the mayor said. "And the biggest government in that system of governments is the federal government."

Trump announced in June he would pull the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, saying it would hurt the country's economy.

Traber soon afterward joined a group of U.S. mayors committed to upholding the basic tenets of the multinational agreement reached in 2015.

More than 350 mayors, including 11 from Oregon, have joined the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, representing 66 million people collectively, according to the group. That's about one in five Americans.

The group wants to take steps to keep the average global temperature from rising 2 degrees Celsius, or 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Pride reached out to a White House spokesperson, who responded by email: "The Trump Administration believes in cooperative federalism and therefore are supportive of states and cities making their own choices within their respective borders on climate change policy."

Of five people The Pride interviewed on the Oregon State University campus in July, most seemed to think the government should prioritize climate change. Some applauded the mayor's stance.

"It makes me really proud to be a member of the Corvallis community," Maya Taylor, 20, said.

For residents to combat global warming, Traber has some suggestions.

"It begins with the really simple, minimal ones of recycle and reuse more, walk more," he said.

-- Philip Chan, West Linn High School

-- Abbey Nickerson, Reynolds High School