College of the Environment Newsletter - Fall 2024

The Puget Sound Partnership leads Washington state’s efforts to restore and protect Puget Sound. One of the first things they need is an inventory of the many interconnected watersheds and bodies of water, showing exactly where and what they are. Besides the sheer number, some of these areas may be challenging to reach in person due to location or the surrounding terrain. WWU researchers from the College of the Environment’s Spatial Institute are helping by creating detailed maps of stream channels in 13 watersheds (or Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs)) surrounding Puget Sound. This three-year project will use existing LiDAR and aerial images and currently employs five undergraduate and four graduate research assistants, allowing students to contribute to important research that will be used in management and conservation applications by multiple government agencies.

LiDAR (Light detection and ranging) creates high-resolution 3D maps of the Earth’s surface that can see through trees and other vegetation. The LiDAR system is mounted to an airplane as it flies over an area, bouncing lasers off the surface and calculating distances to create an accurate and detailed elevation map. This technology can help create maps, catalog land mass and forest resources, help archaeologists discover covered ruins, and more.

The photo above shows a LiDAR image of the South Fork of the Skykomish River in King County on the left and an aerial of the same location on the right.

By Emily Davis, 2024 Sustainability Pathways Communication Fellow

Sustainability Pathways is a multi-faceted, place-based, immersive fellowship program that blends real-world work experience with academic learning. The 11-week program is based in the rural Methow Valley in north-central Washington, providing students with an entirely new learning environment. Each week combines paid practicum work, opportunities to participate in local field trips, and coursework involving a community-based project. Sustainability Pathways partners with local organizations and businesses in the Methow Valley and works closely with Western’s College of the Environment and the Sustainability Engagement Institute’s Climate Leadership Certificate program.

“Being submersed in the culture of such a unique and vibrant place changed the way I interacted with my schoolwork and my internship,” Ellie Carney, a member of the 2024 cohort, said. “My internship has given me new insights into the career I want, and how I can use my undergrad experience to prepare for that career...I doubt that I could have found a more useful, or more exciting way to spend my summer, and I’m so grateful to all the people that made it possible.”

The program awards students a practicum position at an organization in Okanogan County that meets their individual career interests and goals. To further support students, the program provides housing and ensures each practicum position is paid. Through their fellowship, students develop skills and experience and have a lasting impact on the community through their hard work. 

“There’s something really special about being able to come here for a summer and build lasting relationships,” Sophia White, a member of the 2024 cohort, said. I already know this is a place I’d like to return to and maybe even offer my work to in the future. It feels really good that it’s not a transactional thing, but rather something based on relationship and really trying to build those out while I’m here.”

In addition to practicum work, there are field trips that students can attend. Field trips are a way for students to get an in-depth understanding of the different sustainability sectors, including outreach, education, and planning and policy. While on these field trips, students learn about local organizations and businesses, further understand the history of the Methow Valley, and volunteer their time to give back to the community.

Two weeks at the end of the summer are dedicated to reflecting on and celebrating the end of the fellowship. Students give a presentation to the cohort, sponsoring organizations, friends, and family about the community project they’ve been working on all summer. Additionally, they come together for an all-day retreat to reflect on their practicum and overall learning experience. The afternoon ends with a dinner created, cooked, and shared by the cohort. Finally, students give another public presentation about their achievements during their practicum.

Students come out of this program with project management skills, a deeper understanding of place-based learning and systems thinking, and skills they can implement in their future careers. The small community and rural environment provide a unique experience for students to truly see the impact they’ve made on the community.

Swimming in the river, line dancing, staying up late working on projects, and sharing the excitement of wrapping up presentations leads to a tight-knit cohort of friends that will last well beyond the program. The cohort leaves with new friendships, a network of incredible people they’ve met along the way, and a newfound love and appreciation for the Methow Valley.

Emily Davis recently graduated from WWU with a B.A. in Visual Journalism and Wildlife Multimedia Journalism. She specializes in visual storytelling focusing on environmental topics.

Read more about the 2024 Sustainability Pathways cohort’s experience in Western Today.

Do you love maps as much as we love maps? November’s #30daymapchallenge prompted Professor Aquila Flower, Director of the Spatial Institute, to create new maps all month long in response to a shared set of daily prompts. These resulted in some thought-provoking visualizations!

See larger versions of these and even more maps from the #30daymapchallenge on the Salish Sea Atlas blog.

Makayla Marquez (2024, B.A. Environmental Studies, Justice & Community Resilience emphasis) has always been interested in the intersection of science and policy. The job she landed right after graduation puts her precisely at that crossing.  

Marquez chose her major because it looks at the environment from many directions. “Something very valuable that I gained from the environmental studies program was that people and environmental issues were not viewed as separate entities,” said Marquez. “The program focuses on the relationship between the two, which I believe is crucial in influencing environmental policy that encompasses and acknowledges historically marginalized groups.” Her major’s emphasis on justice and community resilience further enhanced the idea that people and environmental challenges overlap and influence each other. “There is great value in understanding all the different angles of an issue,” she said. “Especially understanding opposing views to make one’s advocacy for an issue stronger.”

Now, as a Field Investigator and Outreach Fellow at San Francisco Baykeeper, Marquez is putting her education to work. Baykeeper is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization that monitors the San Francisco Bay for pollution and uses a unique combination of investigation, advocacy, and litigation to hold industrial polluters accountable by defending the Bay’s ecosystem and Bay Area communities. One of Marquez’s first projects at Baykeeper was a nutrient monitoring program, sampling water in the San Francisco Bay to identify toxic phytoplankton and monitor for harmful algal blooms (HABs), one of the area’s biggest threats to water quality and fish mortality. She says what she learned at Western prepared her to hit the ground running. “I felt very confident due to my background knowledge of the system as a whole, what causes blooms, connections to climate change, and how urban environments exacerbate blooms.” 

Marquez is excited to continue working with Baykeeper, collecting data that will inform the organization’s science and legal teams as they pursue their mission to hold polluters accountable.