Seattle’s new Winter Weather Response webpage was unveiled Wednesday. The city also has partnered with Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences, to develop a tool to track and forecast snowfall at the neighborhood level. Read more here. 

“When it comes to keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, it makes more sense to use trees to recycle as much carbon as we can and offset the burning of fossil fuel than it does to store carbon in standing forests and continuing burning fossil fuels.” – a quote from Bruce Lippke, University of Washington professor emeritus of forest resources and co-author of a recently published paper in Forests Read more of this article here! 

A new analysis, released last week, makes the most detailed case yet that Marine Stewardship Council certification does yield environmental benefits.  Read here for an overview; SAFS’ Timothy Essington is quoted. 

Alaska Air Group says they have enough biofuel to power 75 flights between Seattle, Portland and Washington DC. The grant the UW recently received for biofuels research is noted. 

Cherry blossoms, an icon of spring, are celebrated in many cultures of the temperate region. For its sensitivity to winter and early spring temperatures, the timing of cherry blossoms is an ideal indicator of the impacts of climate change on tree phenology.  Center for Urban Horticulture’s Uran Chung and others examine the phenology of cherry trees in DC, the Midwest, and here on UW campus to see how they might respond to climate change.