DNR weekend reading: We’re bothering the birds and the crabs, apparently

A seal swims past some of the toxic creosote-treated pilings that a DNR-managed project will soon remove from Budd Bay at Olympia.

Here are links to reading selections about climate, the environment and other science topics  published recently by science journals, universities, websites, and other sources:

Newswise: Exurban Residences Impact Bird Communities Up to 200 M Away

A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society indicates that impacts to bird communities from a single rural, “exurban” residence can extend up to 200 meters into the surrounding forest. The findings suggest that even isolated rural residences can have a negative affect on sensitive bird species, such as the hermit thrush and scarlet tanager, that prefer unbroken forests, while others, like the blue jay and black-capped chickadee, often thrive with human neighbors.  Read more…

University of Bristol: Ship noise makes crabs get crabby

A study published  in Biology Letters found that ship noise affects crab metabolism, with largest crabs faring worst, and found little evidence that crabs acclimate to noise over time. The team from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter found that crabs exposed to recordings of ship noise showed an increase in metabolic rate, indicating elevated stress, which could have implications for growth. Read more…

University of Oslo: Windmills at sea can break like matchsticks

Medium-sized waves can break wind turbines at sea like matches, asserts Professor John Grue at the University of Oslo, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on wave research. Grue says an inexplicable wave phenomenon called ringing, which is a special type of vibration that occurs when choppy waves hit marine installations, arises at the rear of the turbine. Grue is now looking for a general mathematical formula that can explain the special phenomenon.  Read more…

University of Colorado: Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU study

A team led by the University of Colorado-Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight — dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide. The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning.  Read more…

Science Daily: Loss of Wild Insects Hurts Crops Around the World

Researchers studying data from 600 fields in 20 countries have found that managed honey bees are not as successful at pollinating crops as wild insects, primarily wild bees, suggesting the continuing loss of wild insects in many agricultural landscapes has negative consequences for crop harvests.  Read more…

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DNR has history to celebrate this President’s Day

DNR Forester Jesse Steele with old growth Douglas-fir estimated to be 250-300 years old. Photo by: DNR

This Douglas-fir has seen a lot in its lifetime. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducted an old growth assessment on it and concluded it was between 250 – 300 years old.

We celebrate our country’s history of presidents today on the birthday of our first leader; United States President George Washington. When George Washington was born 281 years ago, this tree may have been already standing in the forests we see today.

Can you imagine what changes have taken place since this tree was a seedling over 250 years ago?

250 years ago - When this tree was young, Benjamin Franklin was conducting his kite experiment to uncover the complexities of lightning and electricity.

224 years ago - By the time George Washington was elected president in 1789, this tree was already as old as most of the ones you see in our forests today.

202 – 206 years ago – When Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, Washington State was already rapidly undergoing many of the changes that would shape it into the community we know today. Just four years before Lincoln’s birth the Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the area that is now Washington State. Two years after Lincoln was born David Thompson sailed down and completing the first formal mapping of the Columbia River.

163 years ago – Just 11 years before Lincoln was elected president in 1861, the area that is now Washington State had its first census conducted counting a population of 1,201. The population increase 865.4% in the next ten years.

124 years ago – The State of Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889. That year the U.S. government endowed the state with 3.2 million acres of trust land.

56 years ago – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources was established in 1957; just over 150 years after our first president began his term in office; by combining seven agencies and boards, including the Commissioner of Public Lands who administers the state trust lands, and the Division of Forestry, and the State Forester.

Over the next years, DNR was very busy transitioning the management of Washington’s resources.

48 years ago - The first formal DNR recreation sites were created in 1965.

42 – 43 years ago – In 1971, Washington State legislature stopped the sales of state tidelands and shorelands, and the State Environmental Policy Act was established. The next year, DNR was selected to manage our Natural Area Preserves and the first Natural Resource Conservation Areas were established.

DNR Forester Florian Deisenhofer with an old growth Douglas-fir estimated to be over 400 years old. Photo by DNR/Dan Friesz

Today, DNR manages 5.6 million acres of land. That’s over 3 million acres of state trust lands, 2.6 million acres of aquatic lands, and 145,000 acres of natural areas. We maintain 54 Natural Area Preserves, 30 Natural Resource Conservation Areas, and 143 recreation sites. DNR also protects 12.7 million acres of forest from wildfire.

Washington State has come a long way since the days of those first presidents. We can celebrate history and the accomplishments of our country and state today while remembering these majestic old growth trees that have seen it all.

Happy President’s Day!

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DNR weekend reading: Cooling trees, navigating salmon and more

DNR manages the 1,215-acre North Bay Natural Area Preserve in Grays Harbor County, Washington, to protect its high quality coastal freshwater habitat. Photo: Joe Rocchio/DNR.

Here are links to reading selections about climate, wildlife, the environment and other science news published recently by science journals, universities, websites, and other sources:

NASA: Pacific Locked in ‘La Nada’ Limbo
Sea-surface height data from NASA’s Jason-1 satellite show that the equatorial Pacific Ocean is still locked in what some call a neutral, or ‘La Nada’ state. This condition follows two years of strong, cool-water La Nina events.

Science Daily: Animal Magnetism: First Evidence That Magnetism Helps Salmon Find Home
A new study, published in this week’s issue of Current Biology and partly funded by the National Science Foundation, suggests that salmon find their home rivers by sensing the rivers’ unique magnetic signature.

University of Guelph: Biodiversity Helps Protect Nature Against Human Impacts: Study
A study by University of Guelph integrative biologists, published as the cover story in Nature, lends scientific weight to aesthetic and moral arguments for maintaining species biodiversity. It suggests that farmers and resource managers should encourage more kinds of plants in fields and woods as a buffer against sudden ecosystem disturbance.

BioMedCentral: Planting trees may not reverse climate change but it will help locally
Afforestation, planting trees in an area where there have previously been no trees, can reduce the effects of climate change by cooling temperate regions, suggests a study in the open access journal Carbon Balance and Management. Afforestation might  lead to cooler and wetter summers by the end of this century.

University of Washington: Salmon runs boom, go bust over centuries
Scientists have recognized that salmon stocks vary not only year to year, but also on decades-long time cycles. One example is the 30-year to 80-year booms and busts in salmon runs in Alaska and on the West Coast driven by the climate pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Now you see them; soon you won’t: Old toxic creosote pilings in Olympia’s Budd Inlet to be a thing of the past

Contractors transfer the first load of pilings from the barge to a dumpster on the shore of West Bay. Photo: Toni Droscher/DNR

This week, crews from Blackwater Marine began yanking old, defunct creosote pilings and docks from the waters of Budd Inlet, just north of the Washington State Capitol.

When their work is done, there’ll be 400 fewer pilings in the southern part of West Bay.

And, a dilapidated 7,000-square foot dock will also be history.

DNR is working with numerous partners on this creosote-removal project. To learn more about who’s involved and why we are working to rid Washington’s waters of creosote, read our news release.

Blackwater Marine, a private firm out of Kirkland, successfully bid on the job, which is funded by the 2012 Jobs Now Act. This is a great example of how special legislative funding is putting Washington to work AND cleaning up the marine environment at the same time.

Read an article The Olympian about the project.

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Tough crews work hard to restore water quality, one project at a time

 

Washington Conservation Corps creates an outdoor classroom at the Water Resources Education Center in Vancouver. Photo by Janet Pearce

Washington Conservation Corps and Puget SoundCorps crews are making great strides in restoring urban forests to improve water quality in the Lower Columbia River and the Puget Sound.

First, the Washington Conservation Corps is working with the Water Resources Education Center in Vancouver to create an outdoor learning classroom. The crew is creating the classroom in an area that was once made up of dirt, sand, and grass. They are enhancing the area with trees and vegetation that will include stations for kids to learn about their natural environment. They also will learn about the important benefits that trees and plants offer to our communities. See how the crew worked with volunteers on Martin Luther King Day to clean up Columbia River beaches and improve native forests through planting.

In Pierce County, the Puget SoundCorps is working along the Duwamish River and the Green River Trail in the City of Tukwila. The crew installed 8000 feet of erosion and sediment control in preparation for restoration activities in the riparian zone. They then cleared 32,000 square feet of Himalayan blackberry infestation and planted live stakes in the cleared space. In total, 650 whips of two willow species and 250 red osier dogwood were planted over an 8000 square foot area. 

WCC crew is creating an outdoor classroom for kids to learn about the natural world around them. Photo by Janet Pearce

The SoundCorps also is working in King County to rejuvenate rain gardens in the Bridle Trails neighborhood in the City of Kirkland. After clearing 4000 square feet of invasive, non-native plants, debris, and sediment from the existing rain gardens, they installed a wide variety of native plants, approximately 650 in all. Thirty-five cubic yards of mulch were spread and the swales of the rain gardens were reinforced with 12 tons of river rock, all laid by hand.

Both crews are working through the Urban Forestry Restoration Project that helps local governments improve the health and stormwater management capacity of their urban forests (parks, rights-of-way, open space, watersheds, etc.).

The project is funded through the 2012 Jobs Now Bill (Engrossed Senate Bill 5127) and is administered by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources’ Urban and Community Forestry Program.

For more information, visit the Urban Forestry Restoration Project online, or send an email to Micki McNaughton or call her at (360) 902-1637.

 

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Deadly Solomon Island tsunami highlights need for tsunami awareness here

In the news today are reports that magnitude 8 earthquake hit near the Solomon Islands, generating a tsunami that is reported to have damaged dozens of homes in the South Pacific island chain. At least five people were killed.

The location of the quake is in the region of the boundary of two major tectonic plates, the Australia and Pacific plates — the Australia plate is being forced (subducted) beneath the Pacific plate. For background, see today’s scientific summary report from the USGS

Another major subduction, known as the Cascadia Subduction Zone, lies just off the coast of Washington state, which is why tsunami awareness is a focus of natural hazards planning efforts here. DNR and its Geology and Earth Resources Division work with federal agencies and local governments to prepare maps of recommended tsunami evacuation routes for many coastal Washington communities. We also map earthquake faults and hazards. Local and state emergency officials rely on these maps, in addition to data and estimates prepared by DNR’s geologists and other sources to plan their responses to earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.

DNR’s interactive web portal also offers Washington State tsunami evacuation maps. We also co-developed a smartphone application that shows the danger zones and evacuation routes (in the future we hope to update the app. to provide alerts and other information).

More DNR tsunami safety resources…

2012 Jobs Now Act funding at work: Anacortes firm helps DNR remove old creosote floats from Burrows Island

These two large creosote-treated floats washed ashore on Burrows Island near Anacortes. Photo: Jason Wilkinson/DNR.

Last week, DNR led the removal of two large creosote-treated floats, each weighing about six to seven tons, from a beach on Burrows Island, west of Anacortes. The actual removal was done by Neptune Marine out of Anacortes. The project is expected to cost $8,000 and was funded by the 2012 Jobs Now Act, large debris removal fund.

Each of the two floats measured 10-feet 3-inches long by 6-feet wide by 3-1/2-feet height. These floats may be part of a large float system that supported a ‘submarine net,’ which once stretched from Fort Flagler to Port Townsend during WWII to prevent submarines from entering Puget Sound.

These floats turn up from time to time in the north Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula. Washington State Parks has a float displayed at Fort Flagler State Park with interpretative information near pilings that were also part of the structure.

The floats will be hauled to a special landfill site in eastern Washington that is certified to take toxic materials, such as creosote.

Reminder: Deadline for public comment on Quartermaster Harbor Mooring Buoy Plan is January 7

DNR staff post the first trespass notice on abandoned net pen in Quartermaster Harbor in October. Photo: Toni Droscher/DNR.

DNR’s plan for locating mooring buoys in Quartermaster Harbor has been available for public review for several weeks now. If you’d like to comment on the plan, the deadline is January 7. View the draft plan, along with the required State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) documents.

Thanks to everyone who have commented on the plan so far. We appreciate your involvement in this important project—especially those folks who came to our Vashon workshops over the past year and a half to help us identify existing buoys and provide us with more “local knowledge” about the area. We value your input!

In related news, this week, the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber published an article about the large net pen that’s been illegally anchored on state-owned aquatic lands in Dockton for about 20 years. Reporter Natalie Johnson took a boat ride to the net pen with some of our Aquatic Resources staff to observe as they posted a final notice of trespass on the abandoned structure. With no one claiming ownership, DNR will be removing the net pen for safety and environmental reasons–and to make room for new mooring buoys as outlined in the plan.

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Puget SoundCorps crew battles the elements to remove toxic creosote debris from San Juan county beaches

Puget SoundCorps crewmembers show some muscle–and teamwork–as they prepare to remove a creosote-treated timber from the lagoon at Neck Point on Shaw Island.

Last week, as high winds, cold weather, and rain all conspired to make life miserable, a hardworking team of one DNR restoration specialist and six Puget SoundCorps crewmembers braved the elements to clear creosote debris from two beaches in the San Juan Islands.

The crew removed about 10 tons of creosote debris from Neck Point on Shaw Island and an estimated 12 to 15 tons of debris from Jacksons Beach on San Juan Island, spending two days at each beach.

“Our team works all over Puget Sound, but we focus on sites with larger concentrations of debris to maximize our efforts,” said Lisa Kaufman, a restoration manager with DNR’s Creosote Removal Program. “Sites such as Jacksons Beach and Neck Point are natural areas for accumulating debris.”

Get away to the Mount Tahoma Snow Huts on DNR-managed lands.

Want to get away this winter? Enjoy a beautiful weekend snowshoeing or skiing to the Mount Tahoma snow huts.

Mount Tahoma Trails Association (MTTA) operates a winter trail system, several huts, and a yurt on and near DNR-managed lands in the Elbe/Tahoma State Forest in Pierce County. For more information about the trail system and to register for a hut, visit: www.skimtta.com/

You will need your Sno-Park pass to park for this amazing experience. However, the cabins are free aside from a nominal permit processing fee. Make sure you show up for your reservations and leave the cabins as you find them to avoid getting a penalty charge. Reservations are first come, first serve, so book today!

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