Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Section 6: Opportunities For Improving Assessment And Understanding Of The Salish Sea, Kathryn L. Sobocinski

Institute Publications

Section 6 offers a list of science-based needs and opportunities brought to light by the report and various existing efforts within the Salish Sea science community, representing opportunities for greater collaboration across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries.

Vignette 22: Sense Of Place, David J. Trimbach

Institute Publications

Sense of place refers to peoples’ bonds and meanings associated with place. Sense of place tends to include: place attachment (bond or connection to place); place dependence (reliance on place for need or goal achievement); place identity (identification with place); and place meaning (descriptions or imagery that define a place). Sense of place is subjective, yet patterned, providing researchers with the ability to assess shared connections, understandings, meanings, and the potential to predict behaviors or perceptions. Sense of place is recognized as integral to ecosystem health and recovery. Sense of place can be understood, if not harnessed to address ecosystem …

Whose Water Is It Anyway?: The Adjudication Of Water Rights In The Nooksack Watershed, Emma Ledsham

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper examines the current state of water rights in the Nooksack watershed, specifically looking at stakeholders such as the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Indian Tribe, and local farmers. I then go on to explore what an adjudication of water rights is, its process, and how it will be used in the Nooksack watershed to create an inventory of water users in the area. Finally, I explore the possible effects that adjudication might have on the different stakeholder groups and how they might respond to it.

Mentoring Through Moss: Measuring Air Pollution With High School Youth In The Duwamish Valley, Nichole Vargas

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This report is a reflection on my participation in the Duwamish Valley Moss and Air Quality Study. In this internship experience, I am mentoring South Seattle high schoolers participating in the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps to collect, prepare, and analyze moss samples from trees in the Duwamish Valley. This project is in collaboration with Seattle community organizations such as the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, Dirt Corps, El Centro de La Raza, the South Park Area Redevelopment Committee; and Just Health Action. This is the second year that this study has been done. Last year, the study found hotspots of heavy …

Radioactive Future, Avery Garritano

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Prior to being decommissioned in 1987, the Hanford Site— a nuclear production complex located in Benton County, Washington— was the local for reprocessing a large portion of the nation’s supply of plutonium and uranium. Now, over 30 years later, 430 million curies of radioactive waste are kept on-site in surface facilities or underground tanks which are beginning to deteriorate, and nearly two thousand capsules of highly radioactive cesium and strontium sit in an aging facility. This waste includes cesium-135, a by-product of plutonium production which has a half-life of nearly two million years. While the proposed disposal method of burial …

Contamination In The Upper Columbia: Smelting And Its Impact To The Environment And Human Health, Brenden Murphy

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The objectives of this project include discussing the historical context of the smelting that occurred in Washington and Canada over the past century and how political events shaped the geographies of the region(s). Another objective will be to assess the level of environmental impact to the Upper Columbia region and the potential health effects to organisms and humans from the pollution released from the smelters. We will also explore the interaction of different agencies and stakeholders and the political processes of environmental cleanup to which parties are held responsible. Explaining the different advocacy and conservation groups already involved in the …

Salish Sea Circulation Diagram, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

. Direction and relative magnitude (line width) of net water flow in the Salish Sea. Deep water flows represent primarily marine waters entering the Salish Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Intermediate depth and surface flows represent a mix of marine waters and freshwater from rivers in the Salish Sea. Actual circulation patterns are highly complex and seasonally variable, this diagram shows a simplified model of net exchanges. Labels indicate percent of the total water exchange that moves in and out of the Salish Sea through the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the south and through the northern boundary of …

Salish Sea Stream Discharge Diagram, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Major rivers of the Salish Sea and average stream discharge (cubic meters per second). Data are based on annual averages from 1981 to 2010.

Figure 2.3 in the

Salish Sea Bioregion Reference Map, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Map of the Salish Sea, major waterways, and surrounding watersheds, which when combined form a distinct transboundary bioregion.

Figure 1.1 in the

Salish Sea Population Density, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Human population density in the Salish Sea. People per square kilometer mapped for each census block. Data from 2010 in the US and 2011 in Canada.

Figure 3.1 in the

Salish Sea Jurisdictions, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

US Counties, Canadian Regional Districts, and major cities in the Salish Sea Bioregion.

Figure 1.3 in the

Marine Basins, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Subbasins and bathymetry of the Salish Sea. Basins are delineated based on water depth and circulation. Shallower areas associated with underwater sills separate many of the basins, creating distinct oceanography.

Figure 2.5 in the

Salish Sea Land Cover, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

Land cover in the Salish Sea bioregion. Land cover categories modeled using 30x30 meter resolution gridded satellite data from 2015.

Figure 3.2 in the

Salish Sea And Western North America Watersheds Contextual Landscape, Aquila Flower

Salish Sea Maps

No abstract provided.