School of the Environment

WSU scientists highlight Northwest climate risks in national report

Wildfires and record heatwaves are just a couple climate change impacts that have already hit the Pacific Northwest — and there are likely to be more, according to a U.S. Government report. The 5th National Climate Assessment released this week paints a grim picture of the effects of human-caused climate change across the country but does […]

Climate change expected to decrease window for controlled burns

Rising temperatures will cut the number of days when conditions favor prescribed fires by 17% on average across the western U.S., mostly in spring and summer, according to a recent study. Prescribed fires are typically lit by trained firefighters to clear away excess plant matter to help prevent conditions that might otherwise turn a healthy […]

Getting the ratio right

A high protein diet appears linked to kidney disease and shortened lifespans for captive polar bears, a relationship similarly suspected in humans, according to a review led by WSU wildlife biologist Charlie Robbins. “Zoos made some assumptions in the past about the nutritional requirements of polar bears because their diet is almost exclusively

Too much of a good thing?

On most summer days, Vancouver Lake is a popular place for windsurfing, boating, and birdwatching. More and more, however, this picturesque place is closed to recreation for months at a time due to harmful algae blooms (HABs) that contain toxins which can cause sickness, or even death, in people, pets, fish, birds, and wild animals. […]

Crimson Spirit Award: Michelle Hendrickson

Michelle Hendrickson, a fiscal analyst with the School of the Environment, received a 2020 Crimson Spirit recognition. As one of her four nominators explained, “She is kind, tenacious, attentive to details, and displays a superior Crimson spirit. She maintains calm under pressure and exceeds all expectations, by continuously seeking knowledge to better serve the WSU […]

Reintroducing endangered northern leopard frogs

With the help of WSU scientists, hundreds of endangered northern leopard frogs have taken a leap back into the wild in recent weeks at the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) collected northern leopard frog eggs earlier this spring, and after months of growing in conservation […]

Hydrologist earns NSF CAREER award

Kevan Moffett, assistant professor of environmental hydrology at WSU Vancouver, has earned a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the National Science Foundation. Highly competitive, ‘CAREER’ awards emphasize the importance of developing academic careers in which the excitement of research is enhanced by inspired teaching and dissemination of new knowledge. Moffett’s research explores […]