Two projects led by Washington Sea Grant (WSG) will receive a total of $1.59 million through the Puget Sound National Estuary Program’s Habitat Strategic Initiative, a partnership between Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington Department of Natural Resources. The WSG-led projects will focus on sea level rise vulnerability and on managing invasive European green crab, which will receive $798,785 and $794,789 in funding respectively.
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In much of the United States, there is a twice-yearly shift in timekeeping between standard time and daylight saving time, or DST, which delays both sunrise and sunset to make mornings darker and evenings brighter. Recently, scientists, policy experts, lawmakers and citizens have debated abandoning the twice-a-year switch and adopting either year-round standard time or DST. A team of researchers at the University of Washington — led by postdoctoral researcher Calum Cunningham and Laura Prugh, an associate professor of quantitative wildlife sciences — have found that one of those options would sharply reduce a hazard common to much of the country: deer-vehicle collisions.
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People often visit U.S. national parks to catch a glimpse of wildlife. But how does our presence impact the animals we hope to see? National park traffic has grown steadily over the past decade, and popular parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone can easily see over a million visitors a year. In these heavily used areas, one might expect animals to change their behavior to avoid humans.
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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?
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Few people would consider launching a boat into Seattle’s Elliott Bay on a winter morning. It’s cold, dark, and more often than not, wet. But the steadfast members of Seattle’s Tengu Club, a Japanese American fishing club that held its first annual salmon derby in 1946, can reliably be found doing just that. In the 85 years since it was founded, participants have gathered on the shores of West Seattle each winter to reconnect and fish for resident Puget Sound Chinook salmon, also known as blackmouth because of their dark-colored gums.
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