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BELLINGHAM – Two Western Washington University graduate students are mapping songbirds and plant populations along the Elwha River corridor. David Dow was one of several WWU students to receive a $3,600 grant from the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium. The Washington Space Grant awards at WWU go to future science teachers Dow and another WWU graduate student, Carly Gelarden, collected baseline data this summer at 250 points along the Elwha River, which flows through the Olympic Peninsula. The fieldwork is part of Gelarden’s master’s thesis project in environmental science. She received funding from Western’s Huxley College of the Environment and the North Cascades Audubon Society. The Elwha River dams are scheduled for removal in 2009. Before they were constructed, the river was one of the most productive salmon rivers in the Pacific Northwest. Researchers are monitoring the ecosystem before and after the dam removal. “This is the largest dam removal project to date, so the implications for ecological restoration are pretty interesting,” Gelarden said. Dow and Gelarden observed patterns of bird distributions that can be used to forecast avian responses to dam removal, he said. “There’s a real concerted effort to take advantage of this unique opportunity,” Dow said. Dow is working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to map the area. The finished product could help ecologists determine what vegetation will be needed – after the dam is removed – to create a habitat for native songbirds. “There is scant research into the ecological impact of removing dams,” Dow wrote in his grant proposal. “This study aims to document existing habitat conditions, apply predictive models to suggest future outcomes, and provide data for comparison with future data following deconstruction.” Dow is pursuing a Master in Teaching degree with endorsements in biology and general science. He plans to teach at the high school or middle school level. Western’s Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (SMATE) Program and the state NASA Space Grant Consortium award research grants to students planning to become science, math or technology teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade. “These awards reflect two approaches to improving science education: engaging future science teachers in authentic scientific research and providing scholarship support as a means to recruit our best students into teaching,” said SMATE Director George Nelson. Western is studying the ecological effects of the removal of the dams in a number of ways. Another major effort involves Western’s Huxley College of the Environment, which, along with students and researchers at Peninsula College, and other partners in a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary consortium, will be conducting field studies before and after removal of the dams. |
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