To help struggling salmon populations, the state of Washington is legally required to replace hundreds of culverts that divert streams under roadways. The state transportation department is replacing old, rusting metal pipes with broad, concrete promenades that provide more gradual gradients and gentler flows for salmon swimming upstream to access more spawning grounds. The full scope of the effort will last 17 years and cost $3.8 billion.
Read more at UW News »Video: New hives at UW Farm welcome us to ‘bee curious’
The UW Farm welcomed an addition this spring: two bee hives in an apiary on the south side of the Center for Urban Horticulture. The new hives are tended by Kurt Sahl, a program manager at the University of Washington’s Continuum College who, together with UW Farm manager Perry Acworth, re-launched the farm’s beekeeping program in early 2023.
Read more at UW News »REBURN: A new tool to model wildfires in the Pacific Northwest and beyond
In 2006, the Tripod Complex Fire burned more than 175,000 acres in north-central Washington. The fire, which was within the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, was more than three times the size of Seattle. Yet while considered severe at the time, even larger wildfires in 2014, 2015 and 2021 have since dwarfed Tripod. Past research shows that large and severe wildfires like these were much rarer in the western U.S.
Read more at UW News »Are wildfires really getting worse? A Q&A with Brian Harvey
Whether you live in a rural community that grapples with annual threats of destructive wildfires or in a city that now spends part of every summer inundated with smoke, many across North America have found themselves wondering: what happened to cause such a sudden change in the way our forests burn? We sat down with Brian Harvey, assistant professor of environmental and forest sciences in the UW College of the Environment, to discuss some of the most frequently asked questions we encounter about the causes of wildfires, how they’re changing and what we can do to limit their impacts on human health and property.
Read more »Marine heat waves caused mass seabird die-offs, beach surveys show
Seabirds, from cormorants to puffins, spend most of their lives at sea. Beloved by birdwatchers, these animals can be hard to study because they spend so much time far from shore. New research led by the University of Washington uses data collected by coastal residents along beaches from central California to Alaska to understand how seabirds have fared in recent decades.
Read more at UW Today »