Apr 8, 2014

College Advisory Board member Denis Hayes in Northwest Prime Time

The College of the Environment is fortunate to have a tremendously talented group of individuals that make up our Advisory Board–and Denis Hayes is one of them. He is the President of the Bullitt Foundation, an organization whose mission is to safeguard the natural environment by promoting responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest. Notably, the Bullitt Foundation’s headquarters are housed in the brand new Bullitt Center, billed as the greenest commercial building in the world.

Mar 31, 2014

Scientists up their ability to track salmon through DNA ‘fin-printing’

A partnership between the University of Washington and Alaska Department of Fish and Game has yielded a major breakthrough in DNA ‘fin-printing’ this week, improving the ability to conserve diminishing stocks of Chinook salmon. Implementing the new technique will allow scientists and managers to track specific stocks ensuring that no specific stock is overharvested. The results have been published in the journals Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences and Evolutionary Applications.

Mar 7, 2014

Dee Boersma talks penguins at the Future of Ice Speaker Series

The fifth event in the Future of Ice Speaker Series featured Dee Boersma, a UW scientist who has spent her career studying the ecology of our world’s penguins. Much of her time is spent in Punto Tombo, Argentina, focused on a large population of Magellanic penguins. She and her team have collected an impressive time-series of data on these birds–over 30 years–which has proved instrumental in understanding penguin ecology and the pressures that affect them.

Mar 6, 2014

Wolves and the ecology of fear

Does “the big bad wolf” play an important role in the modern-day food web? In this video we journey to Washington State’s Cascade Mountains, where the return of wolves could have a profound impact on a vast wilderness area. We meet up with biologist Aaron Wirsing to explore why wolves and other top predators are needed for diverse ecosystems to flourish.

Feb 28, 2014

Do Washington State students have what it takes to tackle ocean acidification?

2014 champions ORCA team 'A' after the awards ceremony at the Seattle Aquarium.

On March 1, Washington Sea Grant and other programs and schools from the University of Washington College of the Environment hosted the 2014 Orca Bowl on the UW campus. More than 100 students from 13 Washington state high schools competed at the event, focused this year on ocean acidification. This year, Everett’s ORCA high school team took top honors, and newcomer Redmond High placed second.