The U.S. Department of Energy has granted $5 million to seven universities across the country to use towards new research into methane hydrates, which holds promise as a prominent energy source.  Methane hydrate are ice-like structures that when melted release natural gas.  College of the Environment oceanography professor Evan Solomon will lead a team of researchers that will look into how changes in ocean temperatures might lead to a natural release these trapped gasses.  

An intensive two week field course – visiting sites of spectacular wildfires as well as forest restoration areas – helped 20 University of Washington students learn firsthand about the challenges of managing dry, fire-prone forests of the Pacific Northwest. Traveling with Jerry Franklin, UW professor of environmental and forest science, the students explored forests of central and southern Oregon to consider how PNW forests have been dramatically altered by human activities in the last 150 years, and ways to possibly restore their resiliency to such things as wildfires.