Dec 8, 2015

Award honors hundreds of citizen scientists who search for Washington’s rarest plants

Volunteer Hally Swift, a UW Burke Museum employee, on the hunt for Barrett’s beardtongue (Penstemon barrettiae) in Klickitat County.

Each year, hundreds of volunteers spread across Washington’s forests and grasslands to look for the state’s rarest, most sensitive plant species. Many of these endangered populations live in remote valleys or along unseen slopes and haven’t been seen in a decade or more. That’s where the University of Washington’s Rare Plant Care and Conservation program comes in. Its team of more than 200 volunteers fans out each summer to gather intel, one plant population at a time, on some 4,000 living in Washington state.

Gear, not geoducks, impacts ecosystem if farming increases

A geoduck farm in Puget Sound’s Case Inlet.

The equipment used to farm geoducks, including PVC pipes and nets, might have a greater impact on the Puget Sound food web than the addition of the clams themselves. That’s one of the findings of the first major scientific study to examine the broad, long-term ecosystem effects of geoduck aquaculture in Puget Sound, published last week in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s Journal of Marine Science.

UW's Alaska Salmon Program: A Living Laboratory

Sarah Schooler walks up one of Lake Aleknagik's many streams, counting and tagging sockeye salmon.

Sarah Schooler spent her summer in the Alaskan bush, collecting data on salmon and the habits of hungry grizzly bears with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

New fact-check on fisheries reporting takes to Web, social media

An international team of experts in fisheries management, spearheaded by UW professor Ray Hilborn from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is trying to lead the conversation about sustainable fisheries using a less traditional approach—reaching the general public directly through a new website and social media outreach. The initiative is called the Collaborative for Food from Our Oceans Data, or “CFOOD” for short, and offers data and commentary on the sustainability of global fisheries.

College scientists named to inaugural class of American Fisheries Society Fellows

Ray Hilborn and Tom Quinn, professors in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, are among the first-ever group of Fellows named in the American Fisheries Society (AFS). Fellows are recognized for their outstanding or meritorious contributions to the diversity of fields that represent the AFS, which can include leadership, research, teaching and mentoring, resource management and/or conservation, and outreach or interaction with the public.