The Program on the Environment will host our Spring 2018 Capstone Symposium on May 23 at the Fisheries Sciences Building. We welcome all to attend and support students as they present on the culmination of three quarters of hard work.

Sword ferns in Seattle’s Seward Park are disappearing and nobody really knows why. UW’s Tim Billo, Paul Shannon and national fern experts are investigating the phenomenon.

Sword ferns provide valuable ecosystem benefits, holding soil in place to prevent erosion and invasive plant growth. They also provide a habitat for forest birds such as the Pacific wren, and a food source for wildlife, such as mountain beavers. And in Seattle’s Seward Park, they are dying off at alarming rates.
Nobody really knows why, but Program on the Environment lecturer Tim Billo and Seward Park steward Paul Shannon have some ideas, which they shared with King 5 News reporter Alison Morrow last Friday. 

Communicating on Twitter about environmental topics and Capstone project experiences has become the new norm for Environmental Studies students in Sean McDonald’s three-quarter Capstone Course Series. Some are still skeptical of the power of social media, while others, like Amy Haymond, have taken to it, finding value in the access it gives to myriad environmental leaders and organizations.
During the course’s “topic of the week” Twitter assignment, students were called to find and connect with an expert doing work related to their Capstone, and Amy tagged Conservation Corridor, who then reached out to Amy to provide a student perspective on studying wildlife connectivity. 

Shruti Parikh is a junior at UW, majoring in Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences and Resource Management (ESRM), with a QSCI minor. She’s lived in Washington for the majority of her life and is passionate about good air quality.
She recently won a Mary Gates Research Scholarship for her research on using plants to purify air and reduce pollutants such as arsenic, a known carcinogen. 

Professor Janneke Hille Ris Lambers at UW is seeking some Environmental Studies students to work with her this fall. Details below!
The HilleRisLambers lab studies the impacts of climate change on plant communities in the Pacific Northwest. We are interested in understanding how warming temperatures and declining snow levels will affect the geographic distribution of tree species and the phenology (seasonal timing) of wildflower reproduction. 

Hope you’re staying cool this summer. URP brings the following research-related opportunities, presentations, and deadlines to your attention.
(1) URP Seeks Undergraduate Research Leaders – Apply by September 1
(2) Attend a URP Info Session to get started in undergrad research
(3) EIP-Presidential Scholarship – Apply by September 9
(4) Journal of Young Investigators Undergraduate Research Photography Competition – Submit by September 1, 2016
(5) Attend the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SfRRBM) International Conference in San Francisco – Submit Abstract by Sept. 

Spend a quarter studying in residence at the UW’s marine field station at Friday Harbor Labs (FHL). Undergraduates can study at FHL in spring, summer or autumn quarters. The deadline for spring/summer applications is February 1.
●      Explore the marine environment of the Salish Sea where your classroom is a marine preserve, and the boats are just steps away from your dorm. 

Each week we share the latest publications coming from the College of the Environment. This week, twelve new articles co-authored by members of the College of the Environment were added to the Web of Science, including research on the survival of steelhead trout, livelihoods and conservation in China, and more. Check them out!

Our Washington coastline is one of the most prolific and productive in the world, teeming with abundant plant and animal life. In fact, much of entire U.S. west coast is the same, and we can largely thank a strong upwelling system for driving this bounty. New research published in Science has shown that upwelling in the eastern boundary current systems – meaning, the eastern edges of ocean basins across the globe where winds, currents, and geological formations create a prime environment for upwelling – has increased globally over the past 60 years. 

Read more on the Los Angeles Times