NEW: Spring 2021 Biweekly Seminars

Spring 2021 Biweekly seminars hosted by the Northwest Scientific Association

NWSA hosted its first ever series of webinars in Spring 2021.  If you missed a webinar, you can log on to the member portal and view them here.

The speakers with underlined names were scheduled to present last year and more information can be found here.

• February 25: Patrick Bartlein, University of Oregon: The Real Controls of the Temporal and Spatial Variations of Climate in the Pacific Northwest
• March 11: Megan Walsh, Central Washington University: Combining paleoecology and archaeology: what interdisciplinary research can tell us about Holocene human-landscape interactions in the Pacific Northwest
• March 25: Michelle Steen-Adams, Washington State University - Vancouver: The role of ethnohistory, traditional knowledge, and cultural fire regimes in first foods management: applications to Vaccinium membranaceum in the eastside Cascades.
• A central challenge of returning human-adapted ecosystems to the Northwest lies in reinvigorating the social-ecological processes that historically maintained a community’s first foods. In this study we collaborated with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to generate knowledge regarding restoration of forest resilience and first foods. Our analysis revealed a pronounced cultural fire regime in the moist mixed conifer zone, as structured by traditional knowledge regarding thinleaf huckleberry. Practices to promote huckleberry restoration include: maintenance of canopy openings, either through frequent application of low-severity fire or silvicultural treatments that approximate the cultural fire regime (site-scale application); management across ownerships and a broad spatial extent; and engagement of the holders of traditional knowledge.
• April 8 (rescheduled from May 6): Michael Kauffmann:  The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History
• Take a journey through the biotic and abiotic wonders that define the Klamath Mountains as one of the most unique mountain ranges in North America. Ecologist and author Michael Kauffmann will take us on a journey across the range based on the forthcoming book The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History. We will explore a variety of features that make the Klamath Mountains unique including climate, geology, water, fire, plants, and animals -- all of which, when taken together, define one of the most biodiverse temperate mountain ranges on Earth.
• April 22: Connie Harrington, USDA Pacific Northwest Research Station: Climate Influences Range and Phenology of PNW shrubs.
• How might the distribution and phenology of four native food-producing shrubs - thinleaf huckleberry, beaked hazelnut, Oregon grape, and salal - shift as climate changes?  Our models project substantial reductions in habitat suitability across the drier portions of the species’ current ranges. Phenology models indicate that flowering and fruit and nut ripening of fruits will occur several weeks sooner in the future. Management activities that could be helpful in ameliorating the effects of future climate change include monitoring effects in traditional harvesting areas, planting in new areas with predicted high future suitability, or reducing moisture stress by removing plants competing with desired species.
• May 6 (rescheduled from April 8): Ken Lindke, California Department of Fish and Wildlife: The last glacier: a personal and scientific journey to document modern Trinity Alps glaciers during an unprecedented drought.
• The last glacier in the Klamath Mountains is a symbol of the past, present, and future of the region. The glacier’s story weaves together climate change, geology, and water, providing the basis for a journey through this unique corner of Northern California and Southern Oregon. This study was published in Northwest Science in 2020: vol94, Issue 1: 44-61.
• May 20: Monique Wynecoop, USDA Forest Service co-presenting with Melodi Wynne, Spokane Tribal Network: Food Sovereignty and Fire.
• We will talk about past, present, and future natural resource projects and the ways in which fire and fuels management directly affects cultural and food sovereignty of area tribes.