Western Today for Monday, July 13
Ancient trees, ancient data
Andy Bunn, assistant professor at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment, is analyzing core samples from bristlecone pines, including the ones shown here in California's White Mountains in 2007, to determine past climate patterns. Because the trees can live as long as 5,000 years, and dead ones can stay on the dry, barren landscape for many more years, they provide information that reaches back well before modern climate data, which go back just 100 years. See full story below.
WWU photo
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| Graphic designers move to University Communications |
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Graphic designers Chris Baker and Shona Fahland have moved from their former offices in the commissary building to the Office of University Communications suite at 300 Old Main due to a reorganization within the University Relations Division.
The work of the two graphic designers, which had been charged to campus users on an hourly basis because the designers formerly were part of the self-sustaining Print and Copy Services, will no longer incur charge-backs to campus users.
That change is estimated to save the university as much as $100,000 a year, and these savings will be realized across campus, said WWU University Relations Vice President Steve Swan. Read more at FAST Online.
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| 'Desk Notes' from Facilities Management's Tim Wynn |
| This is the first of an ongoing series of messages intended to provide information to the campus on current and anticipated construction. |
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| 'Audit Insights' now online |
| The Office of the Internal Auditor has posted a campus newsletter called Audit Insights on its Web site under Audit Resources. The newsletter provides information on a variety of topics, including compliance, ethics, best practices and controls. The newsletter is also intended to increase employee awareness of the services provided by the Office of the Internal Auditor. The publication can be found here. |
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The Bellingham Herald
- WWU researcher turns to ancient pines for research on climate change
Andy Bunn will walk through a starkly beautiful landscape in September, where twisted and ancient bristlecone pines grow from a dry, rocky land scoured by high winds and blanketed in snow much of the year.
The Bellingham scientist's aim during those 10 days in Great Basin National Park in Nevada will be to extract small core samplings from as many as 100 trees. The diameter of a pencil, the cores will be taken to his lab at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment.
At Huxley, the pieces of trees with a lifespan of thousands of years will be examined under a microscope, their rings studied and counted to gain a sense of how the climate has changed in the past - before people had an impact - in the hopes of understanding what climate change could mean for the future.
- WWU professors get $75,000 grant to research the mental health of veterans
Two Western Washington University employees have received a grant to study the effects of military service on health. Sociology professor Jay Teachman and Demographic Research Laboratory director Lucky Tedrow received nearly $75,000 from the National Science Foundation via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant will cover two years of study into the mental and physical health of veterans who fought mostly in the 1980s and 1990s.
- Bellingham celebrates its PRIDE
Mother Nature threatened, but she just couldn't rain on this year's Bellingham Pride parade on Sunday, July 12.
This is the third year for the pride parade in Bellingham, though the festival has existed in some form for about nine years. With about 40 entrants - including the Rainbow City Band, PFLAG and Western Washington University students - the parade has nearly tripled in size from last year, with a goal of celebrating local gay, lesbian and transgendered people.
- B.C. economy at a crossroads - will Olympics bring gold?
Our neighbors to the north are going through some interesting economic times.
While B.C. is dependent on the U.S. and the global economy, what happens up north impacts us in Whatcom County. According to the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University, 936,876 people came through our local border crossing in May, down 7.6 percent year-over-year. Southbound border crossings have been consistently down year-over-year in 2009.
- Storm turn to Hathaway to lead volleyball team
Julie Hathaway already knows what it takes to win a high school volleyball state championship. She helped Meridian claim a title as an assistant coach in 2004
Now the former Trojan is hoping she can help Squalicum's program to that state tournament's promised land when she takes over the Storm's head coaching duties this fall.
Hathaway spent last season as the junior varsity coach at Meridian and spent several years learning under Meridian volleyball coaching legend Diane Axelson. She's also helped out at Western Washington University's volleyball camps under the Vikings' coach, Diane Flick. She credits both coaches with shaping her style.
Peninsula Daily News
- Wildfire study highlights risks on North Olympic peninsula
One of the wettest counties in the state is also its most likely to suffer catastrophic loss of property in the event of a major wildfire, a recent study shows.
Clallam County topped the state and ranked No. 5 out of 413 counties in 11 western states in a study from Montana-based Headwaters Economics that looked at the potential for damage in a fire.
The assessment, released in May by the Peninsula College Center for Excellence and Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment, is available online at www.pc.ctc.edu/coe.
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