UW experts part of technical team investigating Snohomish County mudslide

View of Oso landslide from the air

A national team co-led by a University of Washington geotechnical engineer will investigate what caused the March 22 mudslide in Snohomish County and what effects the disaster had on the nearby residential communities. The Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association is mobilizing to collect information about the landslide that occurred on a steep slope above the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River near Oso, Wash., 

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Scientists up their ability to track salmon through DNA ‘fin-printing’

King salmon and Rainbow trout

A partnership between the University of Washington and Alaska Department of Fish and Game has yielded a major breakthrough in DNA ‘fin-printing’ this week, improving the ability to conserve diminishing stocks of Chinook salmon.  Implementing the new technique will allow scientists and managers to track specific stocks ensuring that no specific stock is overharvested. The results have been published in the journals Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and Evolutionary Applications. 

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Governor Inslee and Dean Graumlich to be on climate panel, April 1

Join us on April 1 for Climate Action Goes To Washington (State): Energy Solutions in the Pacific Northwest. The event will feature Washington Governor Jay Inslee, College of the Environment Dean Lisa Graumlich, and other distinguished leaders for a discussion on the future of clean industry. The recent agreement between Washington state, British Columbia, Oregon and California to harmonize their climate and energy policies has the potential both to accelerate greenhouse gas reductions and to catalyze a strong, clean, and resilient economy.  

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Carbon dioxide in the tropical Pacific Ocean is increasing faster than expected

NOAA buoy

Research published by scientists at the College of the Environment Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean and NOAA has yielded new findings in the role that the tropical Pacific plays in regulating global CO2. The ocean acts both a source and sink for atmospheric CO2, and the tropical Pacific has always had a disproportionately large influence on that interplay. 

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Citizen scientists: UW students help state legislator with climate policy

In a twist on the concept of citizen scientist, University of Washington science students helped the state Legislature with environmental policy. During the past year and a half, four UW graduate students participated in a working group tasked with creating policies to satisfy the 2008 law requiring Washington state to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Read more about these students and how they participated on UW Today. 

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