I live in the Pacific Northwest where I create visual narratives to enhance understanding of science. I also write about forestry, wildlife, ecology, agriculture and the way humans interact with the natural world around us.
Once upon a time I studied anthropology and forestry.
Bulletins
The sounds we create and carry into the natural soundscape, from our conversations to the whir of mountain bike wheels or the roar of off-highway vehicles (OHVs), can be stressful to wildlife.
Scientists at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range collected real-time data from tracking units worn by hunters to better understand their movements as well as how deer and elk respond to their presence.
In recent years, the number of outdoor programs for veterans who experience post-traumatic stress has grown. Yet, there is little understanding about the diverse social, therapeutic, geographic, and activity dimensions of these programs on public lands, or how they are coordinated within and across agencies.
The 2020 Resources Planning Act Assessment looks at historical data and projects the availability and condition of renewable resources across the nation’s forests and rangelands 50 years into the future. This bulletin presents a sampling of findings relevant to disturbance, forests and rangelands, and water, both across the nation and specifically within the RPA Rocky Mountain Region.
Wildfire size and severity have increased in recent decades prompting scientists to take a closer look at where fire refugia––forested locations that are burned less frequently or severely than their surroundings––occur on a given landscape. Recently published research to identify potential refugia across upland conifer forests sheds light on the factors that influence where tree survival and recruitment are likely.
A greater familiarity with the physics of fire behavior translates to not only a better-prepared fire management workforce but also improved fire behavior prediction models. Both are critical for developing proactive approaches to managing wildfires and using fire itself as a stewardship tool.
Bees are declining in the United States and with them the pollination services on which people and wildlife depend. Among the threats to these pollinators are pesticides, disease, climate change, and habitat loss. Several national forests have begun to include habitat restoration for bees in their forest plans.
New tools to measure of the recovery potential of riparian ecosystems allow managers to both predict likely responses to disturbance and determine effective management actions.
Mammals, including humans, have evolved in concert with the world of microbes. From birth to childhood and throughout adult life, the human immune system is shaped by exposure to microbes.
A new, game-changing approach to spotted owl monitoring is less invasive to the owls than the call-back surveys and mark-and-recapture methods of yore, and holds promise for learning about many more species.
Scientists are seeing an increase in cases where forest resilience is pushed beyond a breaking point.
A new approach for estimating rangeland carbon stocks helps managers plan climate change mitigation strategies
Across the western United States, pinyon and juniper woodlands are undergoing significant changes that are of concern to land managers and the communities who depend on them.
In the Southwest, scientists and managers are working together to find ways to reduce the risk of future megafires while also maintaining critical nesting habitat for Mexican spotted owls.
Using the appropriate modeling tools can save managers time and effort and help them design restoration efforts that are best suited for a given area.
Using the appropriate modeling tools can save managers time and effort and help them design restoration efforts that are best suited for a given area.
After a more than a century of fighting to keep fire out of forests, reintroducing it is now an important management goal. Yet changes over the past century have left prescribed burning with a big job to do.
Beavers have become a source of inspiration for land managers over the past decade as their dams can help control flooding, raise groundwater levels, and improve surface water flows. Land managers are now designing stream restoration projects that mimic the way beaver dams shape river ecosystems.
Research partnerships with the US Forest Service are yielding advances in species threat assessments. An index based on rarity and sensitivity to climate change is designed to rapidly assess the vulnerability of amphibians, fish, and reptiles native to Oregon. Landscape genetics has helped assess dispersal of torrent salamanders, highlighting conservation needs that span the species’ life cycle.
The Humboldt marten is a weasel-like carnivore not much bigger than a kitten. This rare subspecies of the Pacific marten, which was once thought to be extinct, persists in a narrow strip of coastal Oregon forests. Forest service scientists are trying to better understand the Humboldt marten before it’s too late.
Recreation and wildlife managers asked Forest Service scientists to help them understand the impacts of motorized and nonmotorized recreation on elk. The unique setting of a large, fenced area within the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in eastern Oregon, allowed scientists to collect real-time data and establish a cause-effect relationship between human activities and elk responses.
Features
UW researcher David Montgomery traveled around the United States and abroad to see how large and small farmers and scientists are restoring soil fertility - and doing it much faster than he thought possible. His research bodes well for the future of food and agriculture.
As David Huggins looks out across the rolling hills of the R.J. Cook Agronomy Farm at Washington State University in Pullman, his enthusiasm about soil is tempered with a sense of urgency about the future of agriculture.
Could this really be it? Going to work, staring into a computer screen for hours every day so I could have health insurance and pay for a house increasingly boxed in by newly constructed townhouses? Then returning home so depleted ... Continue reading →
It's canning day at Tieton Cider Works in Yakima. Tall, red cans of Rambling Route cider pass through a pasteurizing unit as they come off the conveyor belt of the mobile canning truck. Sold in four packs, the company's first canned product is intended to reach the masses, perhaps even enticing craft beer drinkers with a moderately-priced, portable cider.
Gary Wegner first noticed the problem in 1991, when a field on his family's farm west of Spokane produced one-fourth the usual amount of wheat. His father and grandfather attributed the problem to farming on shallow soils, but Wegner decided to dig deeper. Lab tests revealed a surprising result: the soil had become acidic.
A self-described beer man, Alan Shapiro had his cider "wow moment" on a beautiful spring day in Suffolk, England, in 2003. He was staying at a mansion surrounded by a moat on an apple orchard estate.
Hay languished in the fields this year while farmers waited for dockworkers to settle their contract dispute with West Coast port operators.
Paul Stamets has had a life-long love affair with mushrooms, one that goes well beyond their culinary and psychedelic qualities.
News Stories
PULLMAN, Wash. - A comprehensive study finds organic agriculture is more profitable for farmers than conventional agriculture. In spite of lower yields, the global study shows that the profit margins for organic agriculture were significantly greater than for conventional agriculture.
PULLMAN, Wash. - Prickly lettuce, a common weed that has long vexed farmers, has potential as a new cash crop providing raw material for rubber production, according to Washington State University scientists. Writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they describe regions in the plant's genetic code linked to rubber production.
PULLMAN, Wash. - For farmers, especially organic farmers, who are increasingly challenged by food safety guidelines, dung beetles could provide an elegant solution to a vexing problem. Entomologists at Washington State University are investigating whether the insects could suppress harmful foodborne pathogens in the soil before they spread to humans.
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - Demand for locally grown beer and booze has set the stage for craft brewing and distilling industries to capitalize on the flavors of western Washington wheat and barley.
Design
Salish Sea Currents Magazine articles
Pugetsound Institute Science Communication webpage
Finding Common Ground: Collaborative Leadership in Washington State
Report title: The role of estuaries in the ecology of juvenile Pacific salmon and trout in Puget Sound
Report title: The role of estuaries in the ecology of adult Pacific salmon and trout in Puget Sound
Report title: Puget Sound Marine Waters 2023 Overview
Title: Circulation in Puget Sound | Design: Sylvia Kantor; Artwork: Emily Eng
Title: Low dissolved oxygen in Puget Sound | Design: Sylvia Kantor; Map: Emily Eng
Title: Sources of nitrogen in Puget Sound | Design: Sylvia Kantor; Artwork: Emily Eng
Title: Impacts of low oxygen on Puget Sound aquatic life | Design: Sylvia Kantor; Artwork: Emily Eng
Video