SMEA Core Faculty member Dr. Cleo Woelfle-Erskine will be working closely with one of 6 master’s students selected for the inaugural Future Rivers cohort. UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences student, Sofi Courtney, will be one of 12 master’s and doctoral students who will be helping to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on freshwater ecosystems and how changes in climate and the environment are protecting these vital resources. 

The University of Washington and The Nippon Foundation today announced the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, an interdisciplinary research group at the UW that studies changes, responses and solutions to societal issues that emerge in relationship with the oceans. The Center will bring uncompromised, critical voices to policy and public conversations to enable research and studies equaling $32.5 million spread over 10 years. 

 
Eelgrass, a species of seagrass named for its long slippery texture, is one of nature’s superheroes. It offers shade and camouflage for young fish, helps anchor shorelines, and provides food and habitat for many marine species.
A University of Washington study adds one more superpower to the list of eelgrass abilities: warding off the toxin-producing algae that regularly close beaches to shellfish harvests. 

Check out these recent publications from SMEA faculty, staff and alumni!
A halo of reduced dinoflagellate abundances in and around eelgrass beds was published by SMEA staff member Emily Jacobs-Palmer, alumna Kelly Cribari, Associate Professor Ryan Kelly, and colleagues in collaboration with the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The findings suggest that eelgrass seems to knock down (sometimes toxic) dinoflagellate populations at a distance. 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is pledging $10 billion to fight climate change. How should it be spent? Research and development? Politics? The oceans? Professor Nives Dolšak sat down with KUOW’s Bill Radke to discuss how to spend the money in order to have the most impact. She believes Bezos’ Earth Fund should revitalize the American Rust Belt instead of chasing technological solutions. 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting is the world’s largest general scientific gathering, and UW is the host university of this year’s conference. A number of representatives from the College of the Environment, and more specifically our own SMEA faculty, will be sharing their insights and research via panels and presentations. A number of SMEA students will also be in attendance using the opportunity to dive deeper into the issues they are studying, researching, and are passionate about; this also serves as a great networking opportunity for them. 

SMEA is proud to announce that faculty member Dr. Cleo Woelfle-Erskine has been recognized with the 2019 Annette Kolodny Prize for the best environmentally-themed paper presented at the American Studies Association national conference held this past year in Honolulu, HI.
Woelfle-Erskine’s paper “With and for the Multitude: Ecology as Queer Acts” was described as “a poetic, rigorous, and inventive reconceptualization of post-industrial waterfronts as transgressive spaces, or queer ecologies. 

SMEA Director and Professor Nives Dolsak was interviewed by a team in the College of the Environment about why she chooses to write about the social side of all things environment. In the interview she talks about why she feels timely, public-interest pieces in the popular press are essential to environmental issues, and how she weighs in on sensitive topics without being an advocate for particular outcomes. 

 
SMEA Director and Stan and Alta Barer Professor in Sustainability Science, Nives Dolsak co-authored a piece for Forbes alongside Aseem Prakash, the Walker Family Professor and the Director of the Center for Environmental Politics here at the University of Washington. According to Dolsak and Prakash, Microsoft has set ambitious targets, which if reached, would mean the company might become “Carbon Negative”. 

SMEA faculty member Dr. Patrick Christie participated, as one of two social scientists, in a diverse working group organized by the Palaua International Coral Reef Center and Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. His role was to provide guidance, drawing from his extensive work in other contexts, on the human dimensions of marine protected area (MPA) planning, program monitoring and evaluation, and public engagement—all elements that determine the success of any MPA.