Part of the Skagit River, Fisher Slough has been drained and plumbed extensively to create some of the most productive farmland in the country: More than 100,000 acres are farmed by over 1,200 operations in the Skagit Valley. The Skagit River is also the last to support wild populations of all five species of Pacific salmon, one of which — the Puget Sound chinook — was federally listed as threatened in 1999. 

Speaking at the World Fisheries Congress 2012 in Edinburgh this week, Mike Mitchell, Young’s Seafood Limited’s Director of Quality and Corporate Social Responsibility, called on scientists, fishers, politicians and the fish processing industry to work closer together to tackle the sustainability challenges faced by our oceans. Mike Mitchell spoke alongside numerous academics and experts from around the world, including SAFS Professor Ray Hilborn 

Research from CoEnv scientist James Lutz and others, published last week, showed that big, old trees have disproportionately large roles in their ecosystems. Check out this blog post at New York Times to learn more about this work. 

SCIENCE ONLINE SEATTLE #2 Dances with data: Tools for turning information into visual stories. Room 133, William Gates Hall, University of Washington, 6:30pm – 8:00pm With the accelerating accessibility of data, from satellite imagery, genomics and all ‘omics, digitized historical records, and more, answering research questions is now as much about working — and playing — with existing data as about gathering new data.