Digital Commons Network^™

Land, Body, Liberation: An Ecofeminist Pedagogical Approach To Place-Based Education, Amy L. Fitkin

WWU Graduate School Collection

Within this project I applied an ecofeminism framework to the tangible practices of place-based education regarding issues of social justice-based sustainability efforts. In order to recognize the impact of identity-based privileges, I explore how place-based education promotes the development of problem-solving skills, critical-thinking techniques and building meaningful relationships within a community. These goals were achieved by shifting the white settler colonist understanding of human conquest and subjugation over land and bodies from an anthropocentric lens to an androcentric lens. In other words, illuminating the oppressive role the patriarchy has continued to play in exploiting natural "resources" and the bodies of …

Investigating The Effects Of Climate Co-Stressors On Surf Smelt Energy Demands, Megan Russell

WWU Graduate School Collection

Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) are ecologically and economically important to the Pacific Northwest. They play a critical role in the food web and support numerous commercially important species and are an economically important baitfish. Surf smelt interact closely with the nearshore environment, utilizing approximately 10% of Puget Sound coastlines for spawning throughout the year. Surf smelt spawn at high tide and adhere fertilized eggs to beach sediment, causing their embryos to be exposed to air and seawater throughout embryonic development. Because of this unique life history, surf smelt may be susceptible to anthropogenic stressors including coastal development and …

Clam Garden Bivalve Dietary Responses And Trophic Shifts In Relation To Environment, Octavio Cruz

WWU Graduate School Collection

Clam gardens are a method of Indigenous aquaculture, involving altering of beach gradients, to increase clam habitat that have been used since pre-contact. Ecological examinations of clam gardens have been increasingly led by First Nations groups, as restoration projects begin on clam gardens aiming to re-establish pre-contact conditions.

The purpose of this study was to measure condition indices of traditionally-harvested littleneck clams (Leukoma staminea), dietary parameters and beach-level oceanographic conditions were used to investigate differences between clam gardens from non-walled beaches in Kanish Bay, Quadra Island, British Columbia. I utilized non-metric multidimensional scaling, distance-based redundancy analysis, and Bayesian 3-source isotopic …