This year has been as busy as any we have had since our founding in 2010. As we look forward to year seven (!) of our organization, we have put together a sort of highlight reel of accomplishments. At various points, PSI scientists worked to prioritize emerging contaminants in our waterways. We studied the health of […]
December 9, 2016
Implementation strategies will target Puget Sound ‘Vital Signs’
When a scientist wades into an eelgrass bed or measures the weight of a Chinook salmon, their connection to the environment is clear. Much of what we know as the ‘scientific process’ takes place on the ground at a local scale. Measurements and observations are made and extrapolated. Scientists get their feet wet. But what […]
December 7, 2016
New funding for Salish Sea herring research
PSI’s Tessa Francis is co-leader of a joint US and Canadian team that has received funding to analyze threats to Pacific Herring in the Salish Sea. Funding of just over $89,000 was granted by the SeaDoc Society and will help the group develop a comprehensive Salish Sea herring conservation and management plan. Francis teams up with project […]
December 5, 2016
Adaptive Management: What, why, and how?
A “learn and adjust” strategy known as adaptive management plays a central role in state and federal Puget Sound recovery efforts. It is an approach that is gaining traction for ecosystem management worldwide. An article this week from the Puget Sound Institute provides an overview of the concept and how it is being applied locally. […]
December 1, 2016
Jay Manning will take over for outgoing Leadership Council Chair Martha Kongsgaard
Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council Chair Martha Kongsgaard has announced that she will be stepping down from her post this year. Jay Manning will take over as chair on December 7th. Kongsgaard has served on the council for nearly a decade and spent more than five years as its chair. During that time, she was a regular presence in Washington, […]
November 10, 2016
The impacts of rogue chemicals on Puget Sound
In early 2016, scientists at NOAA made headlines when they reported finding 81 different man-made chemicals in the tissues of juvenile chinook salmon in Puget Sound. Among those chemicals were drugs such as cocaine and Prozac. This was the first time scientists had made these findings for the region’s salmon, but it has been well-understood that marine […]
October 20, 2016
Removing Puget Sound’s ‘Great Wall’
Can we really wait 700 years to remove all of the armoring along Puget Sound’s shoreline? Let’s do some of the math. Senior Writer Christopher Dunagan reports in Salish Sea Currents this week that armor removal now exceeds new creation by somewhat less than a mile per year. At first glance, that’s a good thing. It is a reversal […]
October 18, 2016
White House announces blueprint for agency cooperation in Puget Sound
The Obama administration today approved the establishment of a new federal task force to prioritize agency actions for Puget Sound recovery. The announcement came from Christy Goldfuss, the managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “We understand we have a critical role to play here in Puget Sound,” said Goldfuss, speaking at a […]
October 13, 2016
CUW scientists among first to receive Amazon Catalyst grants
Center for Urban Waters engineers are among the first to receive a University of Washington Amazon Catalyst Grant. Dr. Andy James (also a member of the Puget Sound Institute) and Alex Gipe received $50,000 from Amazon to improve a process to remove phosphorous from stormwater pollution. Phosphorous can cause increased algal growth in lakes and ponds which in […]
September 28, 2016
Marine Waters report provides overview of 2015 conditions in Puget Sound
The Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program released its fifth annual Marine Waters Report today. The report provides an assessment of marine conditions for the year 2015 and includes updates on water quality as well as status reports for select plankton, seabirds, fish and marine mammals. According to the report, water temperatures broke records throughout Puget […]