In the Media

Thursday, June 29, 2023 - Skagit Valley Herald

A new study is underway to identify the number — and types — of bumblebees in Skagit and Whatcom counties.

The study, which is led by Western Washington University graduate student Annie Jolliff, will also provide information about when the bees emerge from their nests each year.

Survey sites in the two counties are diverse. They include parks, a clear-cut forest area, the Western Washington University campus and Blanchard Mountain Farm in Bow.

Thursday, June 29, 2023 - Oregon Public Broadcasting

Paraffin is the most common wax produced worldwide, and it’s relatively common in cosmetics. But paraffin is made from petroleum, and a market has popped up for renewable alternatives to beauty products.

Researchers at Western Washington University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute hope they’ve found the next big thing: wax derived from algae.

Monday, June 26, 2023 - Atlanta Journal Constitution

For the better part of the last 20 years, Western Washington University environmental science professor Marco Hatch has had his hands in the muddy shores of the Pacific Northwest and Canada, digging for clams. 

Specifically, Hatch has dedicated his life's work to clam gardens and the cultural importance to the Indigenous people of the region. For centuries, they would place heavy rocks at the low tide line to build a short wall. The high tide would deposit sediment, creating the ideal habitat for clams to grow and thrive, and for other small marine species, like crabs and young fish, to find safe harbor. They managed and harvested the gardens, before colonization. 


Story first ran in the Cascadia Daily News, and can be read here:

https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2023/may/09/western-professor-works-to-revitalize-clam-gardens/

Monday, June 26, 2023 - Foreign Policy

The danger of a major policy change is that, in correcting for past errors, governments commit the opposite ones. The Biden administration is in danger of doing just that with its ambitious new industrial policy. In particular, by rejecting the model of trade negotiations that the United States championed for decades, the administration risks adopting an approach that excludes much of the world.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - Water Online

Algae that commonly grow on snow in the Pacific Northwest have been ignored in melt models, but their presence significantly increases snowmelt compared with clean, white snow, according to a study conducted on Mount Baker in the North Cascades, Washington.

Scientist Alia Khan at Western Washington University and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, is the senior author of the study. Clean snow reflects as much as 99% of incoming solar radiation, helping to protect Earth's atmosphere from warming.

Algae, usually a red color, often bloom on snow in the summer months in the Pacific Northwest. They cause the albedo, or reflectivity, of the snow to decrease by about 20%. That energy is absorbed rather than reflected to space because of the algae's darker color. Results of the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported study were published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment .

Friday, June 2, 2023 - Washington Post

A memoir that celebrates as much as it grieves, rages and broods, Jane Wong’s “Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City charts its author’s progress from the casinos of New Jersey to the college dorms of Upstate New York, to Hong Kong and Iowa and finally Bellingham, Wash., where she now teaches creative writing at Western Washington University.

Thursday, June 1, 2023 - Cascadia Daily News

Messages of resilience, joy and unwavering pride took center stage on Western Washington University’s campus on May 31, as LGBTQ+ Western held its annual Pride Month celebration.  

A few hundred students gathered beneath Western’s flag poles to hear from students and faculty on the importance of celebrating the university’s LGBTQ+ community.

Thursday, June 1, 2023 - UW News

Two grants from the U.S. Department of Education International and Foreign Language Education office will allow the Canadian Studies Center at the University of Washington to award eight to 10 fellowships each year to students studying French or an Indigenous language spoken in Canada.

The center received nearly $2.5 million from a National Resource Center Grant with the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University and a Foreign Language and Area Studies, or FLAS, grant.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - Grist

There’s a link between attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and climate denialism, said Cameron T. Whitley, an associate professor of sociology at Western Washington University. 

Friday, May 26, 2023 - Crosscut

Mentions a partnership between Samish Nation and Shannon Point Marine Center, which provides safety oversight to the Samish diving team and guidance on development their own program.