NW CASC Welcomes New Postdoctoral Fellow

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The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) is excited to welcome Mary Ann Rozance as our new Postdoctoral Fellow. Mary Ann joins us from Portland State University, where she received her PhD in Urban Studies and was also a Fellow through a National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program. Mary Ann’s PhD research examined sea level rise adaptation planning in Miami-Dade County, Florida, focusing on knowledge systems and institutional processes that determine how risks from sea level rise are understood, assessed and managed by different stakeholders across the landscape. She is fascinated by how different types of knowledge, including scientific knowledge and community-based knowledge, inform climate adaptation decisions.

Prior to her time at Portland State University, Mary Ann worked with the Puget Sound Forest Stewardship Program with Washington State University Extension, where she served in an outreach, education and research role helping state, county and other local partners work towards achieving their stewardship and sustainability goals.

Mary Ann brings expertise in different social science theories and methodologies related to the process of co-production, and has applied social science research approaches that help address sustainability and resource management challenges. She received her B.S. in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of British Columbia andher M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Washington. We are confident that Mary Ann’s experiences and perspectives will help us to expand the reach and impact of the NW CASC’s work across the region!

Upcoming Webinar: Managing Western Washington Wildfire Risk in a Changing Climate

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The Wolverine Creek Fire located northwest of Lucerne, WA began on June 29, 2015. The fire was caused by a lightning strike.
Source: U.S. Forest Service

In partnership with the Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative and the Tulalip Tribes, the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group are co-hosting an upcoming webinar on Tuesday, April 16th at 11 AM (PT) on “Managing Western Washington Wildfire Risk in a Changing Climate”.

In December 2018, multiple organizations came together with a shared interest in deepening the conversation about western Washington wildfire risk in a changing climate. The Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative, the Tulalip Tribes, the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group co-convened an event, “Managing Western Washington Wildfire Risk in a Changing Climate”, to summarize the state of the science, share options to increase preparedness and identify barriers to acting. This workshop brought together almost 100 participants from city, county, state, federal and tribal agencies. This webinar will summarize the content presented during the one-day workshop and will highlight key themes that emerged from the presentations and discussion throughout the day.

Register Here

Upcoming Panel Event on Wildfire with NW CASC University Director Amy Snover

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Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s University Director Dr. Amy Snover will serve as a panelist during an upcoming Seminar “Fired Up: Building Wildfire Resilient Communities in a Changing Climate,” held at the University of Washington on March 27th as part of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) Seminar Series. Amy will be joined by Dr. Brian Harvey from SEFS, Dr. Yufei Zou from the UW Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory and Nick Lauria from Wildfire Defense Systems.

During this moderated session, the panelists will answer questions about the impacts of a changing climate on wildfire and impacts on communities at risk of experiencing wildfires. Amy will also discuss how NW CASC-funded research is helping increase our understanding of the relationship between climate change and wildfire, and helping build resiliency in the face of a changing climate. This event is being co-sponsored by UW SEFS and PEMCO insurance.

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Boreal Forest Fire
Boreal Forest Fire
Source: Scott Rupp, Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center

Application Period Open for Tribal Climate Resilience Student Internships

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The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Pathways program is offering two summer Tribal Climate Resilience Internships for Native American undergraduate and Master’s students. The first internship opportunity, located in Eugene, Oregon, will be co-hosted by the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC), University of Oregon’s Tribal Climate Change Project and the BIA Tribal Resilience Program. The second internship opportunity, located in Corvallis, Oregon, will be co-hosted by the NW CASC and the BIA Tribal Resilience Program. Internship tasks may include supporting the Pacific Northwest Tribal Climate Change Network; participating in field visits to tribal resiliency projects in the Northwest; and assisting with the Affiliated Tribes for Northwest Indians’ Tribal Climate Camp, Tribal Canoe Journey and the Tribal Leaders Climate Summit; in addition to other tasks assigned.

The deadline application for these internships is April 5, 2019.

Learn More & Apply

Sunlight filters through tall trees and casts shadows on a hiking trail in an Oregon forest
Oregon forest
Source: Public Domain

Register Today! Spring Skills-Building Webinars on Co-Production in Practice – Examples from the NW CASC

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The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center is hosting its next skills-building webinar series, designed to illustrate the process of co-production using examples from a wide range of projects funded by the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. Each webinar provides practices and lessons learned for those wanting to take a co-production approach to generating actionable science to inform decision-making in a changing climate.

Funding Opportunity: NW CASC 2019-20 Research Fellowship Program

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The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center invites proposals for its 2019-2020 Research Fellowship Program from graduate students at University of Washington (UW), Boise State University (BSU), University of Montana (UM), Washington State University (WSU) and Western Washington University (WWU) and postdoctoral scientists at BSU, UM, WSU, and WWU (this fellowship cannot support postdocs at UW). The NW CASC Fellowship Program provides both support for research related to climate adaptation in Northwest natural and cultural resource management and instruction of funded fellows in the principles and practices of co-producing decision-relevant (“actionable”) science. Funding will be available as early as Fall Term 2019, to support research performed during the 2019-2020 academic year. Proposals are due April 15, 2019.

Learn More & Apply

Flock of birds taking flight on Oregon Coast
Oregon Coast
Source: John Westrock, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

NW CASC-funded Research Describes the Importance of Fire Refugia in a Changing Climate

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As our climate changes, increasing wildfire activity continues to impact our forested ecosystems and the species that inhabit them. A new paper on NW CASC-funded research examines fire refugia in the context of global change.

Fire refugia, areas that remain unburned or less disturbed by wildfire, play a critical role in maintaining biodiversity and resilience in forest ecosystems. Fire refugia provide important ecological functions in a landscape over time. During fire events, fire refugia offer shelter and protection for plants and wildlife. Immediately following a fire, refugia provide food, cover and other habitat needs for species. In the years following a fire, refugia can serve as long-term habitat for species as they re-establish in surrounding areas. As increasing wildfire continues to stress our forest ecosystems, fire refugia will become even more important buffers to the negative impacts of climate change.

In addition to describing the ecological function of fire refugia and their role in buffering against climate change, this paper presents a framework for characterizing fire refugia based on a synthesis of current literature. By capturing the spectrum of refugia characteristics, this framework offers a more holistic view of fire refugia and may help in their future identification and classification. Considering their ability to support biodiversity and ecosystem resilience under change, this paper recommends deepening our understanding of fire refugia and prioritizing fire refugia for conservation and management.

Read this paper

Black plumes of smoke engulf a forest ridge during the Pioneer Fire in Boise National Forest, Idaho, 2016
The Pioneer Fire, Boise National Forest, Idaho, 2016
Source: Kari Greer, U.S. Forest Service

If you have trouble accessing this paper, please email nwcasc@uw.edu.

Funding Opportunity: NW CASC Request for Proposals

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The Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center invites Statements of Interest (SOI) for projects to be initiated in Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Approximately $400,000 may be available to fund projects that support NW CASC science and resource management priorities. Applications should be submitted through the RFPManager system by March 13, 2019.

Due to the recent federal government shutdown and recently implemented U.S. Department of the Interior award procedures, the timeline for this year’s SOI and proposal development and review process is compressed. Although the primary purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to solicit proposals to be initiated with FY 2019 funds, applicants are also encouraged to submit SOI that could be developed for future fiscal years (e.g., FY 2020), as well as ideas that the NW CASC may be able to assist with via other resources and mechanisms (e.g., leveraging, networking, consultation, etc.). The NW CASC is committed to being inclusive and transparent while working to broaden the community of practice around climate adaptation in the Northwest.

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Travis King and friend on a snowy hike up Harts Pass to retrieve cameras on a 24 mile day hike
Former NW CASC Fellow Travis King and friend on a snowy hike up Harts Pass to retrieve cameras on a 24-mile day hike.
Source: Travis King, Mammal Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab at Washington State University

Call for Tribal Delegates to Apply for 2019 Tribal Climate Camp

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The 2019 Tribal Climate Camp, hosted by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, will take place June 16-21, 2019 at the Flathead Lake Biological Station in Polson, Montana. The Tribal Climate Camp is designed to support teams of tribal leaders, climate change coordinators, planners and program managers to build skills, gather information and develop tribal policy needed to address climate change impacts. This week-long program will help build individual and team capacity to lead and manage for climate change and adaptation across departments within a tribe, and between tribes and partner agencies and organizations.

Participants may include tribal climate change staff, policy leaders, Tribal Council, natural resource and environmental managers and staff, administrators, department staff from health, public works, education, housing, or other relevant positions interested in engaging in climate change planning. Although participants will need to cover their own transportation expenses to and from the camp, ATNI will cover all other expenses including food, lodging, local transportation and curriculum.

The 2019 Tribal Camp is organized through a collaboration of Tribal and non-tribal partners including the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI), Institute for Tribal Government (ITG), United South and Eastern Tribes (USET), Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

 Applications are due by March 1st, 2019.

LEARN MORE AND APPLY

 

View across Hungry Horse Reservoir to the Flathead Range, Montana
View across Hungry Horse Reservoir to the Flathead Range, Montana
Source: Public Domain

NW CASC-Funded Research Explores Streamflow Permanence in Northwest Rivers and Streams

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Upper Whitehorse Creek, Oregon
Upper Whitehorse Creek, Oregon
Source: Jason Dunham, U.S. Geological Survey

As the climate changes, resource managers are increasingly challenged by limited knowledge of where and when streams and rivers will maintain streamflow. A new paper on NW CASC-funded research details the USGS PRObability of Streamflow PERmanence (PROSPER) model, a regional model that provides information about where streams supported year round flow on a year-to-year basis for 2004-2016. This model provides streamflow permanence information for the Northwest at an unprecedented spatial scale (30 m channel segments) and temporal resolution (annual) for applications in water resource management and species conservation.

Streamflow permanence describes the extent to which rivers and streams maintain flowing surface water, which directly controls how nutrients and organisms move through a river network. Information about streamflow permanence is used to inform aquatic and terrestrial species vulnerability assessments, land management decisions and water quality regulations. Although there are a variety of methods for determining streamflow permanence at smaller scales, there is a lack of streamflow permanence observations at regional scales or that account for year-to-year climatic conditions. Addressing this gap, the PROSPER model pairs existing streamflow permanence observations with modeling to allow analysis of streamflow permanence at a regional scale.

The new paper, published in the Journal of Hydrology X, introduces the PROSPER model and demonstrates its use by analyzing streamflow permanence in three Northwest river basins. Since predictions of streamflow permanence from the PROSPER model are publicly available through the USGS StreamStats platform, it can be used to help managers identify streams that are resilient to drought conditions, enabling them to focus limited resources on watersheds that support populations of threatened species.

Read this paper

If you have trouble accessing this paper, please email nwcasc@uw.edu.