Advanced undergrad or recent post-undergrad research fellowship at Friday Harbor

The University of Washington, a member of the Elwha Research Consortium, is soliciting applications for an intensive Elwha Project-related marine sedimentary processes study for Spring Quarter 2008:

"During spring quarter 2008 (March-June), we are teaching at University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories. We seek upper-level undergraduates or post-baccalaureate students to undertake research projects that will form part of the baseline studies prior to removal of dams from the Elwha River. The program will incorporate lectures, experimentation, field trips, and self-directed research. It is an intensive research experience and students receive support for living expenses. The web site for more information is: http://depts.washington.edu/fhl/studentApprentice2008.html"

Applications are due January 10, 2008.

The Monkey Uncle ('s not included on purpose!)

Unca' Jay chases Kate!

Kate's revenge...

Unca' Jay getting chased by Kate!

Let it snow!

Chris and I wandered around the Dungness all day yesterday (100 miles in the Jeep, who knows how much ground on our feet), looking for potential mini-weather station sites for our snow monitoring project. I seemed to have this amazing ability to find holes under the snowpack--this pic is of me after falling into one. Yes, I am waist deep in the snow and salal. Some of our sites were easy walking; some were a bear of a wade through snow, ice, brush, and fallen trees. But we found 7 sites during daylight, and it seems like we'll be able to sample them all in one day once we start the monitoring process. We weren't so lucky the last time in the field, where we found no real suitable sites and spent a discouraging day in the gloomy woods. Thanks to GIS (and the cool guys at Battelle), though, we could ID areas of open canopy, plug the coordinates into a GPS, and wander straight there. Well, as straight as one can in steep, forested terrain. (Never mind the holes.)

Finally, success!

Now all's we need is a sampling plan... and a bunch more snow!!!

I think it is time for my beating...

A long time ago, when I was living in the same town as my good friend DC and he was teaching me stick fighting, he gave me this cartoon. Probably gave it to me one day after my brain got full of new info, locked up, and got me smacked in the head (I have a killer "block punches with my face" defense).

Anyway, I have been doing muay Thai for 10 years now (but had only 1 ring fight in all those years, back when I was young enough to take it!), and I still block punches with my face. Yeesh. At least it is only in sparring and I have headgear on. But as I get older (and slower) I am starting to get back into sticks and various other weapons arts, not so much for the "martial," but as I mellow out with age, the "art" side of things. Siniwali drills, for example, are beautiful to watch but even better to be doing--kinda like moving Zen--and, if you lose focus, you could get a nice smack in the head or hand. But I still want to go to Thailand one day to train (hear that Will?!?).

I was thinking of all this cause DC sent this link to me not long ago: Karate lessons give child self-confidence to quit karate.

Someone at CNN gets it. :-)

Of Prizes, Nobel and Ig Nobel

Last Friday, Time Magazine called Al Gore's Nobel Prize a "Green Tipping Point." I've heard that some critics are pointing out that he shouldn't get to share the Peace Prize for his work, as what does climate change have to do with peace? I'm too lazy to track down the aforementioned critics (besides, it would be pointless--I already know they would have a stunted worldview from the ignorance of that comment), but Time's article concisely pointed out the link between climate and war. But what I liked best was the article's close:

""We face a true planetary emergency," [Gore] said. "The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a more and spiritual challenge to all of humanity." But Gore is wrong. Climate change absolutely is a political issue, the greatest political issue of our time, and it will only be solved in the political arena, with all the mess and compromise that entails. Environmentalists hate to hear this; they think that global warming is so important it should transcend politics, as the IPCC does, and as Gore himself has in many ways these past seven years. But the final war on global warming will be fought not with PowerPoint but with politics, and it will be fought in the halls of power around the world."

Too many times, we scientists think that research and facts will provide change; time and time again, they merely provide the opening salvos. Scientists who care about this world and the people and places that make it wonderful should spend more time communicating to public audiences--as Gore and the IPCC have--about the issues we study.

We humans have a long, long way to go on the issue of climate change, but I am happy to see it finally on the world's stage--if not center, at least out of the wings...

...

If all this talk of climate change leaves you feeling, ummm, indifferent, well, check out this site, on a guy who actually built a periodic table. Plus, I think getting the Ig Nobel Prize is probably more fun, overall. :-) Be sure to read why he did all this, too--it's a great story.

Are Salmon done for in the Lower 48?

I just read Sevan's recent blog on salmon recovery and factors other than dam removal that we should consider. It reminded me of a very interesting (and controversial) essay by Robert Lackey a few years ago called Pacific Northwest Salmon: Forecasting Their Status in 2100.

Lackey argues that while many efforts have been made to restore runs of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest, "few have shown much success. " He points out that:

"Society’s failure to restore wild salmon is a policy conundrum characterized by: (1) claims by a strong majority to be supportive of restoring wild salmon runs; (2) competing societal priorities which are at least partially mutually exclusive; (3) the region’s rapidly growing human population and its pressure on all natural resources (including salmon and their habitats); (4) entrenched policy stances in the salmon restoration debate, usually supported by established bureaucracies; (5) society’s expectation that experts should be able to solve the salmon problem by using a technological scheme and without massive cultural or economic sacrifices (e.g., life style changes); (6) use of experts and scientific “facts” by political proponents to bolster their policy positions; (7) inability of salmon scientists to avoid being placed in particular policy or political camps; and (8) confusion in discussing policy options caused by couching policy preferences in scientific terms or imperatives rather than value-based criteria."

He continues by suggesting that "Given the appreciable costs and social dislocation, coupled with the dubious probability of success, candid public dialog is warranted to decide whether restoration of wild salmon is an appropriate, much less feasible, public policy objective."

He closes with this assessment of the overall policy picture, as he sees it:

"It may appear that political institutions are unable to act, but, in fact, decisions are made daily by institutions (and individuals) on the relative importance of maintaining or restoring wild salmon compared to competing societal priorities. Although few people appear to be happy with the present situation and a strong majority publicly professes support for maintaining wild salmon, there is little indication that society is inclined to confront the root agents of decline (Black, 1995). Those causes deal with both individual life style and sheer numbers of people. Thus, it is likely that society will continue to chase the illusion that wild salmon runs can be restored without massive changes in the number, lifestyle, and philosophy of the human occupants of the western United States and Canada."

Lackey calls this view realistic, neither optimist nor pessimistic... After skimming his main points, I am now going back to read the (73 page) argument a little more carefully... because he might just have a very good point.

I can't wait to see THIS on campus...

A Wi-Fi Dectector T-shirt!

You can see all the fun details at http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/

Science education like it oughta be

A few months ago, A.J. Kroll shot a broadside into the foundering hull of academic wildlife science programs:While Kroll's advice was aimed primarily at graduate programs, it should be true for an science education program aimed at creating the natural resource professionals of the future, both inside and outside academe. Science education that simply provides "content" to the students should start getting formal audits from teams of professional scientists, and the results of the audits should be presented far and wide. Many of us who work with science professionals already know that there is an informal word of mouth reputation of various programs' graduates; I am suggesting we formalize this. The students will then be better served by their education--becoming both knowledgeable and employable.

I used to direct a wildlife management area north of Dallas, TX, and I often hired interns from the local colleges and universities. I found out quickly that the "farm kids" did better than the academic ones, even the graduate biology students. Too many students had plenty of "book learnin'" but not much skill or experience, and it took a considerable amount of time to get them comfortable applying their knowledge. Too many natural resource science professors have no real experience in the field, and pass that inexperience on to their students. It is past time that stopped--we can't keep teaching the way we were (sometimes poorly) taught if we are to remain relevant, in both education and in professional science. (No doubt I'll have to riff on that further in another post. Stay tuned.)

That being said, I know many (too many!) professional scientists who have no real idea how to use statistical analysis or mathematical models correctly. (To wit: a wonderful commentary in Psychological Science titled Editors can lead researchers to confidence intervals, but can't make them think: statistical reform lessons from medicine came out a couple of years back, with the same authors pointing out the same issues--albeit with a less-controversial title--inherent in conservation science a couple of years later in Conservation Biology.)

Really, we need both knowledge and skills to be effective professionals; too much of either leaves one stunted.

I'm happy to say I've been part of an effort to systematically integrate skills and knowledge throughout the undergraduate life sciences at Peninsula College and Western Washington University's Huxley-Peninsula program. Among other things, we host a Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (thank you, National Science Foundation!) that allows our students to work on the world's largest dam removal and fisheries restoration project, the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration Project.

This blog will detail some of the experiences of our program's efforts to provide a real educational experience for our students, as well as my various rants, raves, and commentary on science in this crazy country (which I happen to love dearly, in spite of its recent widely-seen separation with reality) and around the world...

You can also see what the students themselves think: www.protopage.com/elwhareu will keep an rss-feed compilation of all of their blogs--enjoy!