SMEA Professor Ryan Kelly and SMEA alumna Natalie Lowell, along with co-authors from the UW School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences recently wrote an article featured in The Conversation. The article titled “Want to change federal policies? Here’s how” discusses how the federal public comment process can be an effective way for those armed with facts, such as scientists, professionals and knowledgeable citizens to shape policy and ensure that policy is based on the best available evidence, vetting the science behind regulations. 

SMEA professor and associate director Nives Dolsak and co-authors recently wrote a piece for the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage about the extreme air pollution in India’s capital city, Delhi. The cause of the pollution is farmers in neighboring states burning straw from their last rice crop to clear fields for planting the wheat crop. What makes the situation more complicated is politicians are wary of trying to prevent crop burning because they don’t want to antagonize the powerful farm lobby, lose electoral support and set off political turmoil among regional and ethnic interests. 

Congratulations to Professor Cleo Woefle-Erskine! His paper The watershed body: Transgressing frontiers in riverine sciences, planning stochastic multispecies worlds, was recently featured in a landmark special double issue of Catalyst: Feminism and Technoscience. The paper explores how beaver modify landscapes differently than human engineers, and how human engineering might be transformed through riverine collaborations with beavers.
Read the complete paper 

Research Assistant Professor Yoshitaka Ota and co-authors recently published an article in Marine Policy titled “Ecotourism, climate change and reef fish consumption in Palau: Benefits, trade-offs and adaptation strategies.” The study found that reducing tourist consumption of reef fish is critical for Palau’s ocean sustainability. As Ota stated in a press-release from the Nereus program “The ocean is central to Palau’s life and customs; their seafood consumption must be maintained sustainably. 

Congratulations to SMEA Professor Sunny Jardine and her co-PIs, who were recently awarded a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant to study links among people, lakes, and fish in the Northern Highland Lake District in Wisconsin. The four-year project will involve a team of 15 collaborators representing nine research institutions and conservation agencies. Along with Professor Jardine, co-leading principal investigators include Christopher Solomon of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Marco Janssen of Arizona State University, Olaf Jensen of Rutgers University, and Stuart Jones of the University of Notre Dame. 

Professor Patrick Christie and co-authors recently published a paper in Marine Policy titled “Why people matter in ocean governance: Incorporating human dimensions into large-scale marine protected areas.” The paper draws on the results of a global “Think Tank on the Human Dimensions of Large Scale Marine Protected Areas” (LSMPAs) that included representatives from 17 countries and a variety of organizations such as government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, professionals, industry, cultural/indigenous leaders and LSMPA site managers. 

By Mackenzie Nelson
It is no secret that science, especially environmental science, has had to climb over a few stumbling blocks in the past six months. While the phrase “alternative facts” has spurred the development of alt-groups that challenge the stance of the current narrow-minded administration, it also highlights how scientists are failing to reach a broader audience. Nives Dolšak, however, is succeeding. 

By Mackenzie Nelson
He walks to the corner office and opens the door. The room is as big as his reputation at SMEA. The number of books lining his walls is impressive. The spectrum of colors represented, even more so—almost like an art installment with each book specifically placed to bring the most artistic appeal. But upon closer inspection, it is clear they have been carefully categorized by topic. 

By Mackenzie Nelson
This year, Professor Patrick Christie taught an undergraduate class in the Jackson School of International Studies, a Task Force capstone course for the International Studies Program focused on the Tulalip Tribe’s environmental recovery plans. The premise of this class arose as the result of lack of understanding among non-tribal individuals about tribal treaty rights and environmental decline in the Puget Sound area due to “climate change and unsustainable human activities” (Task Force Report 2017, p. 

Professor Eddie Allison was a co-author on two recently published articles. “Adaptive capacity: from assessment to action in coastal social-ecological systems,” published in Ecology and Society, draws on case studies of coastal communities from around the globe, describing and comparing 11 approaches that are often used to study adaptive capacity of social and ecological systems in the face of social, environmental, and climatic change.