Winter Environmental Speaker Series co-presented by the College of the Environment and the Salish Sea Institute
The winter quarter Environmental Speaker Series is presented by the College of the Environment in coordination with the Salish Sea Institute. Talks present topics of environmental concern for the WWU and Bellingham communities.
Talks are free, open to the public, and take place on Thursdays at 4:30 p.m., in Academic Instructional Center West, room 204 and online via Zoom. Learn more about the speakers and talks on the Environmental Speaker Series website. Register with The Foundation for WWU & Alumni to attend in-person or via Zoom. If you miss one, look for the archived video in this Vimeo collection.
Read on for a preview of this quarter’s Environmental Speaker Series talks.
Thursday, Jan. 15 - 4:30 pm
“Moving Toward Solutions: Measuring Positive Change in Urban Seas”
Presenter: Associate Professor Kathryn Sobocinski, Marine and Coastal Science and Environmental Sciences, WWU
Topic: Environmental science is good at problem identification, but once a problem is identified, how do we move toward making positive change and detecting that change in noisy systems? Solutions thinking is necessary to alter the environmental trajectory in urban sea systems, like the Salish Sea, where urbanization and climate change create compounding impacts. Cumulative Effects Evaluation is one approach to bring disparate datasets together in a new way. Using an example of salmon habitat restoration in Whidbey Basin, Sobocinski will explain the framework, the causal analysis at the base of it, and provide additional examples of how urban sea systems can benefit from data synthesis, from models to community engagement.
About the Speaker: Kathryn Sobocinski is an associate professor in the Marine and Coastal Science program and the Department of Environmental Sciences at Western Washington University. She is an applied marine ecologist focusing on fishes, fish habitats, and the impacts of human disturbance in coastal ecosystems.
Thursday, Jan. 22 - 4:30 p.m.
“Basking Sharks in the Salish Sea: A Multidisciplinary Story”
Presenter: Kelly Bushnell, Ph.D., 2024-25 Salish Sea Institute Fellow
Topic: For around thirty million years, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) have filter-fed on plankton across Earth’s oceans. They once gathered in aggregations of hundreds (some estimate thousands) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and individuals were common throughout the Salish Sea until a Canadian government-sponsored eradication program in the 1950s and 1960s drove the species to near extinction. This talk provides an overview of historical population data and changing cultural attitudes toward basking sharks in the Salish Sea and greater Northeast Pacific and lays out the possibilities for conservation and recovery.
About the speaker: Kelly Bushnell’s Ph.D. from the University of London considered how depictions of marine life in the nineteenth century unsettled British colonialism. She’s taught and conducted research at sea and on multiple coasts. Her research and teaching focus on the historical and cultural dimensions of marine ecology. Outside the classroom or the archive, you can find her underwater in the Salish Sea all year round.
Thursday, Jan. 29 - 4:30 p.m.
“Exploring the entwined lives of Southern Resident killer whales and the humans who seek to protect them through video storytelling“
Presenter: Jessica Plumb, Salish Sea Institute Fellow
Topic: Jessica Plumb released three films about the Southern Resident Killer Whales in her time as a Fellow with the Salish Sea Institute. Those films are “Call of the Orcas,” “Managed to Extinction,” and “Shared Waters, Shared Crisis.” This presentation will be a screening of the first two of these short films, followed by a Q&A with Jessica afterwards. For more information about these films and others by Jessica Plumb, visit her website, Plumb Productions.
About the speaker: Jessica Plumb is an award-winning filmmaker and writer known for her exploration of the relationship between people and the land and waters, and is the principal and creative director of Plumb Productions, a multimedia storytelling company specializing in short films focused on the environment, people and place. Plumb holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, an MFA from Goddard College, is a guest lecturer at the Seattle Film Institute, and is a Salish Sea Institute Fellow.
Thursday, Feb. 5 - 4:30 p.m.
“Beaver in tidal marshes of the Pacific Northwest“
Presenter: Gregory Hood, Ph.D., senior research scientist, Skagit River System Cooperative
Topic: Beaver are considered fluvial (river) or lacustrine (lake) animals, whose dams convert lotic (flowing) habitats into lentic (still) ones. This produces extensive changes in ecosystem structure and processes so that beaver are considered quintessential ecosystem engineers. Hood will broaden our understanding of beaver by describing their widespread presence in tidal river deltas and estuaries of coastal British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Early research shows that one of the consequences of beaver in tidal ecosystems is a quadrupling of low-tide pool habitat in tidal marsh channels, which supports three times the density of juvenile salmon as low-tide shallows. Low-tide beaver pools are likely areas of low salmon predation, high feeding, and long residence time — all leading to improved growth and survivorship of juvenile salmon.
About the speaker: Greg Hood is a senior research scientist at the Skagit River System Cooperative with expertise in estuarine ecology and geomorphology. He has worked in the Skagit Delta since 2000, but has studied Pacific Northwest wetlands from the Columbia River to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta since 1989, with occasional excursions to Chilean tidal marshes. His main research focus is developing predictive models of tidal channel geometry and vegetation distribution in support of habitat restoration design and planning, but lately he has branched off into the study of tidal beaver.
Thursday, Feb. 12 - 4:30 p.m.
“Puget Sound Kelp Forest Conservation and Recovery”
Presenter: Jeff Whitty, Northwest Straits Commission
Topic: Puget Sound kelp forests provide vital habitat to numerous marine species, fuel food webs, and are important to the lifeways of many local cultures. However, kelp forests are declining in regions of Puget Sound due to human and climatic-induced stressors. In this talk, we will explore these topics, as well as efforts to conserve and recover these forests, including the Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan, a collaborative tool that provides a research and management framework for coordinated action for kelp conservation and recovery.
About the speaker: Jeff Whitty is an ecologist with academic training in marine science and a special interest in the conservation of imperiled species. As the kelp program manager at the Northwest Straits Commission, he coordinates the Puget Sound Kelp Conservation and Recovery Plan and the Marine Resources Committees’ Floating Kelp Monitoring Project. Collaboration and community-based approaches are central pillars in his work.
Thursday, Feb. 19 - 4:30 p.m.
“Port of Bellingham climate resiliency”
Presenter: Adrienne Douglass-Scott, M.Sc., sustainability program manager, Port of Bellingham
Topic: What is the Port of Bellingham, and how is it working towards climate resiliency and sustainability over time? Adrienne will speak about her current work to ensure long-term energy needs are forecasted and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
About the speaker: Adrienne Douglass-Scott is the sustainability program manager at the Port of Bellingham. She joined the Port in 2017 and has since built the program, which includes the Port’s Climate Action Strategy, energy policy development and providing input on cargo movement, equipment procurement and capital projects throughout the Port. Currently, her focus is on energy resiliency and planning for future activities in a time of uncertain funding and fuels.
Previously, Adrienne studied soils, forestry and wildfire, before spending over a decade performing sustainable forest management audits and greenhouse gas accounting for various industries in Canada, the U.S. and Indonesia. She has seen the field of sustainability develop over time and understands the importance of sharing her optimism for the work she does. She is a lifelong aquatic enthusiast, spending most of her free time on, in and around the Salish Sea.
Register with The Foundation for WWU & Alumni to attend “Port of Bellingham climate resiliency.”
Thursday, Feb. 26 - 4:30 p.m.
“Linking Samish Culture to Restoration and Science in the San Juan Archipelago”
Presenters: Todd Woodard, Andrew Delaney, Scott McIntosh and Elena Fisher, from the Samish Department of Natural Resources
Topic: This panel discussion will provide a brief overview of the Samish Department of Natural Resources activities and how their work links to Samish culture and Indigenous scientific knowledge. The speakers will then take a deeper dive into the formation of their Scientific Dive Team and emerging Cultural Burning activities by way of in-depth examples.
About the speakers: Todd Woodard, Andrew Delaney, Scott McIntosh, and Elena Fisher are from the Samish Department of Natural Resources, which is charged with preserving, protecting, and restoring natural resources important to current and future generations.
Thursday, March 5 - 4:30 p.m.
“Puget Sound Energy’s Transition to Cleaner Energy”
Presenter: Liz Purdy, Puget Sound Energy
Topic: Washington State’s Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), passed in 2019, set the trajectory to decarbonize the state’s electricity supply by 2045. As Washington’s oldest and largest utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is now working to implement this transformation through the acquisition of renewable energy at an unprecedented scale and pace. Having achieved the first benchmark of eliminating coal from its electric portfolio at the end of 2025, PSE continues to work with customers, emerging technologies, and communities throughout the region to reach upcoming milestones. In this presentation, Liz Purdy will outline the policies, projects, and opportunities that are building toward this clean energy future.
About the speaker: Liz Purdy has worked for PSE since 2021. As the manager of community affairs, she focuses on community partnerships to drive solutions for the clean energy transition. She holds a master’s degree in sustainable development from SIT Graduate Institute and is an alum of Gonzaga University.
Thursday, March 12 - 4:30 p.m.
“The Sea Remembers Us: Living Indigenous History and Stewardship at STOLȻEȽ (San Juan Island)”
Presenters: Josiah Feld, PKOLS (Preserving Knowledge of Land and Sea), and Erin Audrey Corra, Friends of Lime Kiln Society (FOLKS)
Topic: In this collaborative presentation, Josiah Feld and Erin Corra share how Indigenous history, language, and community stewardship come together on STOLȻEȽ (San Juan Island). Josiah tells the living story of his Coast Salish and Paiute ancestors — families who carried law, ceremony, and reef-net teachings through centuries of erasure. Erin shares how the Friends of Lime Kiln Society (FOLKS) fosters public connection to this same landscape through education, partnerships, and creative outreach. Together, PKOLS and FOLKS demonstrate how cultural and ecological restoration intertwine — reminding us that to care for the land and sea, we must also honor the stories they hold.
About the speakers:
Josiah Feld is the vice president of PKOLS (Preserving Knowledge of Land and Sea), a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Indigenous place names, stories, and relationships across the Salish Sea. He is Straits Salish SENĆOŦEN W̱SÁNEĆ and Pyramid Lake NUMU Paiute from STOLȻEȽ (San Juan Island). His work brings together family lineage, community organizing, and language renewal to bridge generations separated by borders and colonization. Through storytelling, ceremony, and environmental education, Josiah uplifts ancestral teachings that remind us the land and sea are living relatives — carrying memory, law, and love.
Erin Audrey Corra is the founder and executive director of the Friends of Lime Kiln Society (FOLKS), a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring stewardship and connecting people to the cultural and ecological heritage of Lime Kiln Point State Park. With over 30 years of experience as an educator and naturalist, Erin believes awe is the root of stewardship — her mantra: “Inspiring awe into action.”
Learn more about this quarter’s speakers and talks on the Environmental Speaker Series website. Register with The Foundation for WWU & Alumni to attend in-person or via Zoom. Missed one or just want to see more? You can watch dozens of archived talks in this Vimeo collection.
The Salish Sea Institute at WWU is dedicated to the study and conservation of the Salish Sea ecosystem. The Institute collaborates with regional universities, government agencies, Indigenous communities, and non-profit organizations to conduct scientific research, develop sustainable management strategies, and educate the public about the environmental, social, and economic importance of the Salish Sea.
WWU’s College of the Environment addresses today’s environmental issues and prepares tomorrow’s interdisciplinary problem solvers by integrating outstanding educational programs, faculty-student collaboration, applied research, and professional and community service. Since its establishment in 1969, the College of the Environment has won national and international recognition as a premier institution with undergraduate and graduate programs.