News from the Host

 

The PNW CESU has a new website!

We are excited to share our new site and encourage you to check it out to learn more about the PNW CESU's work, members, and funding opportunities.

 

http://depts.washington.edu/pnwcesu/

You can find over 350 project reports in our website's Project Library, which allows searches by agency, partner, project type, or keyword.

News from the CESU National Network

2016 CESU Network Biennial National Meeting 

The 2016 CESU Network National Meeting will be held June 14th-16th at the National Conservation Training Center.

 

The CESU National Meeting brings together the CESU Network Council, CESU Directors and partners from across the nation. This year’s sessions include discussions about partnerships that cross international and agency boundaries, presentations about successful CESU projects conducted at multiple geographic scales, and meetings focused on programmatic needs and future strategic directions of the CESU Network. Please visit the CESU National Website for a complete outline of the meeting as well as a link to register on-line and further instruction on lodging. This meeting is open to all partners! We encourage our members to consider sending representatives to attend the meeting to network with federal and non-federal partners.

2016 CESU National Awards - Call for Nominations

The CESU Network National Awards recognize individuals, groups of individuals, institutions, and/or projects within the CESU Network that have contributed substantially to the development, implementation, or accomplishments of the CESU Network. Awards highlight the collaborative structure of CESUs and reflect the achievements of federal and nonfederal partners working together. Awards will be announced and presented at the CESU Network National Meeting.

Eligibility
Any representative of a CESU Network partner organization (federal or nonfederal) is eligible for a CESU Network National Award. Nominations can represent any of the following categories:

• A group of individuals

• One or more CESU-affiliated institutions

• One or more CESU projects

• An individual – e.g., student, faculty, staff, administrator, unit or program manager

Award Criteria
Awards recognize the collaborative structure of CESUs, and reflect the achievement of federal and nonfederal partners working together. The criteria used to select recipients are intended to be broad and flexible, reflecting the range of activities involved in the CESU concept, and fall into one or more of the following general categories:

• Significant contribution to the development of the CESU concept and/or CESU Network.

• Innovative use of the CESU Network through development of new and valuable collaboration.

• Application of CESU-affiliated research, technical assistance, and education efforts or outputs to inform decision-making or stewardship activities.

Nomination Procedure
Any federal or nonfederal representative of a CESU partner organization may submit an award nomination. A complete award nomination package must include all of the required elements listed below. Nomination packages must be submitted via email to the CESU Network National Office (c/o Tom_Fish@nps.gov) and include “2016 CESU Award” in the subject line. A downloadable PDF version of the call for nominations is available here. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, 31 May 2016.

National Park Service

 

The National Park Service is celebrating it's Centennial Year!

The centennial will kick off a second century of stewardship of America's national parks and engaging communities through recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs.

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Seattle Unit (KLSE) recently opened a new exhibit, A Century of Service: The National Park Service Story. This exhibit highlights the NPS Centennial and park service history through the eyes of the park ranger. Visitors are invited to join the Find Your Park adventure at the trailhead and follow a career of green and gray—learning about 100 years of service along the way. This exhibit was designed by KLSE museum staff and University of Washington Museology graduate students. It specifically highlights NPS units in the North Coast and Cascades Network, with rotating artifacts on display from these parks throughout the duration of the exhibit. For more information about the park's partnership with the U of Washington's Museuology Program and this exhibit contact: Tarin Erickson, Museum Technician Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Seattle Unit, tarin_erickson@nps.gov.

U.S. Forest Service

The Pacific Northwest Forest Service Center’s main scientific goal is to provide robust scientific information supporting the effective management of marine, coastal and diadromous living marine resources. The Center conducts a wide range of research that includes scientific disciplines from physiology to stock assessment to geomorphology. Addition of these research scientists to the staff helps PNW research station remain the pillar of cutting edge research that its  known for and assures continuity into the future.

The USFS has 16 new beginning career research scientists. Find out more about them here.

 

National Park Service: Midwest NNL Gap Analysis

The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) program is interested in cooperating with CESU partners to systematically identify potential NNLs (PNNL) in the midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.  Project components will include a gap analysis of the biological and geological features (natural history themes) not yet represented by current designated NNLs, development of criteria to prioritize gaps in representation utilizing elements of landscape scale conservation, and identification and description of the top 2-3 sites to potentially fill these gaps. Read more

 

U.S. Geological Survey: Host Climate Science Centers

The U.S. Geological Survey has released a Program Announcement via Grants.gov to request applications to host Climate Science Centers (CSCs) in four regions. Access the announcement here. Closing Date for Applications: July 19, 2016. Read more

 

National Park Service: Hampton National Historic Site

National Park Service, Letter of Research Intent for Ethnographic Study for the Hampton National Historic Site Please see this notice for an opportunity to partner with the NPS for an Ethnographic Study for the Hampton National Historic Site. Approximately $90,000 is available for this project and the deadline for inquiry is May 26, 2016. Please respond…Read more

Bureau of Land Management

Climate Data: Identifying Tools Based on What Users Do

The Oregon/Washington BLM funded an undergraduate student, Melanie Brown, at Oregon State University who worked with the Conservation Biology Institute. Melanie conducted one-on-one interviews over the phone with 30 managers from eastern Oregon and southern Idaho to understand what they did with respect to sagebrush ecosystem management and restoration and what climate and weather data they used to conduct their analyses and work.

She walked the managers through a series of climate and weather websites covering snow cover, longer range weather forecasts, drought, and climate change. The feedback received resulted in changes to web-based tools provided by the Conservation Biology Institute to better serve land managers and the blueprint for a new tool to focus on potential climate change impacts on vegetation, as requested by the managers.

Melanie completed her undergraduate thesis based on this project, and presented her findings at three conferences and in two webinars. Interest in further development of the climate impacts delivery tool is high. The BLM plans to provide additional funds to support further development of the climate impacts delivery tool as part of Melanie’s graduate studies in 2016. The BLM Agreement Technical Representative for this project was Louisa Evers and the OSU PI was Dominique Bachelet (Project # L14AC00103).

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Routed Streamflow Projections for the Western U.S.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group (CIG),  partnered to produce historical and projected daily stream flow data for select 4th level Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC8)  basins in the Western U.S. with averaged, routed, and/or biased-corrected flows:

1.  An observationally-based historical  dataset for the period 1915-2011.
2.  For a set of 10 CMIP5 model projections spanning the historical period of 1950-2005 as well as the 21st century for both a low and a high greenhouse gas scenario.

The result is a single observationally-based time series for each HUC8, along with a set of 1OCMIPS historical simulations and 20 CMIPS projections for each site.  The USFWS will clip climate change model projection grid cells with the watershed boundaries of interest to produce fractional coverage masks. These masks will be used to determine routed average daily flows.

Dr. Guillaume Mauger served as the UW PI and David Hines of the USFWS Columbia River Fisheries Program as the Agreement Technical Representative. Dr. Mauger presented related work related assessing the impacts of climate change on flooding at the last PNW Climate Center Conference.

National Park Service

 

Developing Implementation Plan and Curriculum for the Mount Rainier Institute at the Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest

This collaborative project between the National Park Service Mount Rainier National Park (MORA) and the University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Services (SEFS) launched The Mount Rainier Institute.

The Institute, located at the UW Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest, provided residential environmental education programs and services for school children during the school year and emphasized programming and services designed to address two key societal issues: 

1) engaging diverse youth in outdoor and environmental education potentially leading to higher education and career pathways in related fields
2) increasing youth competency in math and science, particularly among traditionally underrepresented students. 

The MORA team included the Chief of Interpretation and Education, the Education Program Manager, the Park’s Education Specialists, along with park subject matter experts in the natural, physical and social sciences. Working with the UW SEFS PI Dr. Greg Ettl and UW personnel, they established a clear philosophy for the Mount Rainier Institute’s curriculum and help create a basic framework that will direct the program. This project's final reports can be found here (Project # P12AC10608).