September 2022

Oct 3, 2022

College of the Environment

Dean’s letter: Looking ahead to a new academic year

Maggie Walker Dean Maya Tolstoy — Maya Tolstoy, Maggie Walker Dean of the College of the Environment

Welcome to the start of our academic year! For those of you joining us for the first time, I’d like to give a special welcome to our College of the Environment community, where our work has never been more important or more urgent. I hope all of you had a rejuvenating summer and managed to get outdoors to enjoy the spectacular Pacific Northwest sunshine. I had my first hike in the foothills of Mt Rainier, and it took my breath away in multiple ways!

It is such a privilege for me to start my first full academic year at the College of the Environment. I’m enjoying the hum of activity as our outstanding students return to campus and our amazing scholars and scientists return from field work across the globe, carrying the knowledge they have gathered to better understand our planet and its inhabitants.

In partnership with you, I am eager to use this year to further elevate our College’s tremendous reputation as a home of essential and impactful research and education, and continue building a culture that is welcoming, collaborative and inclusive. To that end, I have two items central to our work that I would particularly like to share with you.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

First, we are beginning our search for an Assistant or Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ADDEI), a critical role that will help us develop deliberate and meaningful pathways for our College to become a more inclusive and equitable place. We have work to do in this arena; our College community — undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty, researchers and staff — is not as diverse as our broader community, both regionally and nationally. Our operational practices and physical spaces, both on campus and in the field, are not accessible to all. And we need to continue challenging our cultural norms to make more space for everyone to truly feel welcome, regardless of their identity.

We have the opportunity to chart a better course forward with dedicated leadership, to hold ourselves accountable, and to truly become the College we aspire to be. We are excited by the possibilities of what the ADDEI can help us achieve together. I encourage you to help us spread the word so that we can find the right candidate for this important role.

Strategic planning

Second, work continues on a College-wide strategic planning effort, and this quarter is going to be an important opportunity for more internal and external input. We have worked to create a process that is inclusive across all levels of the College, and will ultimately help us sharpen our focus, build on our strengths and attract the resources and support it will take to further cement our place as a research powerhouse for the 21st century.

As the largest environmental college in the country, we are in a unique position to shape not only the lives of our students, but the future of our entire planet. We face numerous parallel crises: climate change, declining biodiversity and worsening health outcomes for those who bear the brunt of pollution and environmental degradation, to name a few. It is critical that we generate meaningful research and train the next generation of environmental scientists and policymakers to meet these challenges fearlessly. We must approach our work with strategic clarity; when we do, our foundational and solutions-focused research can flourish. Strategic planning will help get us there and truly become more than the sum of our parts.

A bright future

While these two efforts will help us take our impact to the next level, rest assured that we continue to excel as one of the leading environmental research institutions in the world. We continue to innovate and break down barriers, create partnerships focused on solutions and develop new ways to engage and prepare our students to be successful in an increasingly complex work environment. We continue to pursue high-caliber research that spans from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from beneath the Earth’s surface and our oceans out into the cosmos. We have a real impact on lives in and around Washington and across the globe.

There are challenges ahead, to be sure, but I see a bright future. And that’s because of you, and the vibrancy of our community. As we always have, let’s roll up our sleeves and do what we do best as we embark on another year of teaching, learning, scholarship and research. With all of us working together, our positive impact on people and the planet will be profound.

Thank you for your support and partnership with the College of the Environment.

Yours,

Maya Tolstoy
Maggie Walker Dean
UW College of the Environment

Sep 26, 2022

College of the Environment

Join us for the 2022 Doug Walker Lecture, Climate Crisis: Finding Hope in Action and Community

Environmental advocate and educator Jamie Stroble '10. — Environmental advocate and educator Jamie Stroble ’10.

Faced with countless environmental crises, it can be difficult to see a path to a better world — but change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We can find hope in the relationships we build, the communities we forge, and the power we share when we act together.

Join us for the University of Washington College of the Environment’s 2022 Doug Walker Lecture as we explore these topics and more with environmental advocate and educator Jamie Stroble ’10. This live discussion will be moderated by Maya Tolstoy, Maggie Walker Dean of the UW College of the Environment.

Event details

Climate Crisis: Finding Hope in Action and Community

When: October 18, 2022, 6:30 PM PST
Where: Town Hall, Seattle – Forum
Cost: $8.00 General Admission

About the lecture series

The annual Doug Walker Lecture is named for Doug Walker, who was instrumental to the founding of the College of the Environment in 2009 as a co-chair of the Advisory Board and passionate advocate for the environment. Doug passed away tragically in 2016. In order to carry on and amplify Doug’s passion for outdoor recreation and his unending desire for learning, the College of the Environment hosts this annual lecture on health and nature.

Sep 28, 2022

Deepest scientific ocean drilling effort sheds light on Japan’s next ‘big one’

Harold Tobin of the University Washington inspects drilling pipes. Researchers used similar equipment during a record-breaking attempt to drill Japan’s Nankai fault in 2018.University of Washington

Scientists who drilled deeper into an undersea earthquake fault than ever before have found that the tectonic stress in Japan’s Nankai subduction zone is less than expected.

The results of the study led by the University of Washington and the University of Texas at Austin, published Sept. 5 in Geology, are a puzzle, since the fault produces a great earthquake almost every century and was thought to be building for another big one.

Although the Nankai fault has been stuck for decades, the findings reveal that it is not yet showing major signs of pent-up tectonic stress. Authors say the result doesn’t alter the long-term outlook for the fault, which last ruptured in 1946, when it caused a tsunami that killed thousands, and is expected to do so again during the next 50 years.

The findings will help scientists home in on the link between tectonic forces and the earthquake cycle. This could potentially lead to better earthquake forecasts, both at Nankai and other megathrust faults, like the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Washington and Oregon.

“Right now, we have no way of knowing if the big one for Cascadia — a magnitude-9 scale earthquake and tsunami — will happen this afternoon or 200 years from now,” said lead author Harold Tobin, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and co-chief scientist on the drilling expedition. “But I have some optimism that with more and more direct observations like this one from Japan we can start to recognize when something anomalous is occurring and that the risk of an earthquake is heightened in a way that could help people prepare.

UW Botanic Gardens' Miller Seed Vault preserves some of Washington’s rarest native plants

Miller Seed Vault volunteer — A volunteer sorts seeds in the Miller Seed Vault

In 2017, nearly half the population of Umtanum Desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) was destroyed by a wildfire in Washington’s Hanford Reach National Monument. This unassuming perennial plant is not found anywhere else in the world — meaning catastrophic events such as this could eventually spell extinction for its corner of Washington’s rich biodiversity.

How do we protect rare, endemic plants as they come under increasing pressure from intensifying wildfires and habitat disruption? Following models established around the globe, the University of Washington Botanic Gardens (UWBG) have devised an extraordinary solution: the Miller Seed Vault, a climate-controlled repository where they can collect and store the seeds of endangered, threatened, and sensitive plants from across the state.

Devising a safety net

Entering the Miller Seed Vault feels like stepping into a large refrigerator. Tucked away at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture and run by UWBG’s Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation (Rare Care) program, the vault was built in 2003 to facilitate rare plant research and preserve native populations. Now housing nearly a million seeds from about 140 species, it is the largest collection of its kind for rare native plants of Washington.

Most seed vaults in other parts of the world focus on preserving agricultural or medicinal plants. UWBG, however, is a part of the Center for Plant Conservation, a network of organizations across the U.S. dedicated to specifically preserving rare native plants.

“Seed banks are increasingly being recognized for their importance in conserving the genetic diversity of rare plant species that are vulnerable to climate change,” said Wendy Gibble, director of the Rare Care program. “It is critical that we bank these seeds now to capture their current genetic diversity before these populations go through severe reductions or are extirpated.”

With drastic environmental changes becoming the norm as a result of the climate crisis, the seed vault acts as a safety net. Should a natural disaster like a wildfire, rockslide, or flood wipe out a population, Rare Care is prepared to restore it.

Rare Care volunteers look for plants to catalog and collect

Citizen scientists save the day

With the threat of wildfires increasing in Washington, Rare Care is having to act quickly to protect Umtanum Desert buckwheat. Its susceptibility to fire and low reproductive success make it one of the state’s most imperiled plant species.

Projects such as this are heavily reliant on a dedicated team of volunteer citizen scientists. “Volunteers are the linchpin of Rare Care,” said Christina Owen, director of UWBG. “They are critically important in making the program happen.” These citizen scientists log thousands of hours each year, traversing rugged ground to monitor endemic plant populations, collecting seeds for the seed bank, and meticulously cataloging and storing minuscule seeds.

Since the devastating fire in 2017, Rare Care has been working alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy to establish a secondary Umtanum Desert wheat population near Yakima to supplement the single native Hanford Reach population. Ideally, the success of this new Yakima population will ensure that if a disaster strikes its predecessors in Benton County, the Umtanum Desert buckwheat will live on.

Umtanum desert buckwheat habitat — The sole native population of Umtanum Desert buckwheat is found atop basalt cliffs overlooking Hanford Reach in Benton County, WA

Investing in an uncertain future

The Miller Seed Vault and the Rare Care program will continue to play a key role in preserving Washington’s natural heritage into the future. Staff and volunteers are actively working to protect other species of rare native plants, including Whited’s milk-vetch (Astragalus sinuatus), endemic to Wenatchee; showy stickseed (Hackelia venusta), one of Washington’s rarest endangered plants; and the Wenatchee Mountains checkermallow (Sidalcea oregana var. calva).

Owen and her colleagues see the vault as a long-term investment in the face of an uncertain future. “There are services that plants provide to humans that we’re still discovering,” she said. “So I think it’s really worthwhile to have a space where you can preserve them.”

The Miller Seed Vault was made possible thanks to funding from the Pendleton and Elisabeth C. Miller Charitable Foundation. They continue to provide support to the vault today and are vital partners in making the project possible.

To volunteer with the Rare Care program, contact Anna Carragee at rarecare@uw.edu.

Story by Amelia Wells

Sep 19, 2022

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

New direction for UW Botanic Gardens focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion

The New Directions in Public Gardens speaker series started in May and will conclude with the final speaker on Sept. 20.

Botanical gardens historically are exclusive spaces, but the University of Washington is working to change that.

Many gardens originated as private spaces for predominantly white and wealthy individuals, said UW Botanic Gardens director Christina Owen. The collections were often curated through a process of stealing and renaming before the gardens were gifted as land to cities and universities.

“There’s a history of colonialism in many botanic gardens,” said Owen. “That is the bedrock on which we’re standing. Plants and collections that exist throughout the world were collected in ways that did not honor the people and did not honor the plants themselves. They’re driven by the colonial age. That’s a history that all gardens must grapple with.”

That’s the challenge for the UW Botanic Gardens, which includes both the Washington Park Arboretum and the Center for Urban Horticulture. When Owen was hired in July 2021, UWBG already had an Equity and Justice Committee and was organizing an ongoing speaker series, New Directions in Public Gardens, which explores how public gardens can evolve to meet the needs of local communities.

Owen is shifting the focus from bottom-up initiatives to work that is supported with and through leadership.

“Part of what we’re looking at is having regular updates with our leadership team,” Owen said, “and having the leadership team get more engaged in equity and social justice work and developing better onboarding. One of my big long-term goals is to see an increase in the diversity of staff. I think that starts with us and making sure that our culture is supportive for candidates of color and for employees of color.”

‘Dangerous’ and ‘extremely dangerous’ heat stress to become more common by 2100

Map graphic showing increasing dangerous heat days across the globe. — The top panel shows the historical record for “dangerous” days per year, with a heat index above 103 F. The left column shows the range of dangerously hot days in 2050, with 10 times more “dangerous” days in the southeastern U.S and more than 100 “dangerous” days in parts of South America, Africa, India and Australia. The right column shows the broader range of possibilities for 2100. The bottom right shows the worst-case scenario, with dangerous conditions for much of the year in South America, central Africa and South Asia. (Lower values in sub-Saharan Africa and India are because they experience “extremely dangerous” conditions.)

Record-breaking heat waves have occurred recently from Delhi to the Pacific Northwest, and the number of these deadly events is expected to increase. New research from the University of Washington and Harvard University gives a range of heat impacts worldwide by the end of this century, depending on future emissions of greenhouse gases.

The study was published Aug. 25 in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment.

“The record-breaking heat events of recent summers will become much more common in places like North America and Europe,” said lead author Lucas Vargas Zeppetello, who did the research as a doctoral student at the UW and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard. “For many places close to the equator, by 2100 more than half the year will be a challenge to work outside, even if we begin to curb emissions.”

“Our study shows a broad range of possible scenarios for 2100,” he added. “This shows that the emissions choices we make now still matter for creating a habitable future.”

“The number of days with dangerous levels of heat in the mid-latitudes — including the southeastern and central U.S. — will more than double by 2050,” said co-author David Battisti, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW. “Even for the very low-end estimates of carbon emissions and climate response, by 2100 much of the tropics will experience ‘dangerous’ levels of heat stress for nearly half the year.”