2016

For three years, SeaDoc has been working with REEF Environmental Education Foundation to use trained recreational SCUBA divers to monitor the undersea life of the San Juan Islands. Annually, ten invited divers stay at Friday Harbor Laboratories for a week and conduct 10 sub-tidal surveys each (2/day) over the course of 5 days. Divers use a scientifically approved technique called… Read Project SummaryTracking sea star wasting disease using trained recreational divers

This project was a continuation of a 2015 CREOi award investigating the impacts of reintroduced beavers on ecosystem resilience. Beavers are both ecosystem engineers and keystone species. As ecosystem engineers, they modify their environment through dam building to create wetland systems that reduce their predation risk and increase growth of preferred food types. Their role as keystone species results from their ability to transform a… Read Project SummaryThe Skykomish Beaver Project: Building educational opportunities for aspiring ecologists

Since mid-2015, Western Wildlife Outreach (WWO) has been working to create, launch, implement and coordinate a new program, Bear Smart King County, in order to reduce the number of conflicts between humans and black bears in the eastside communities of King County. These encounters can result in property damage and injury or death to humans, pets and domestic animals, representing… Read Project SummaryBear Smart King County

Of the 23 species of large brown algae native to Puget Sound, bull kelp is the largest (Nereocystis luetkeana). Reaching a canopy height of 60’ or more, this species provides an array of ecosystem services and holds great cultural and economic value to communities around the region. Aerial and dive surveys have been conducted by state natural resources agencies since 1989, yet a… Read Project SummaryCitizen Science Kelp Project: Mapping and monitoring the spatial distribution of local bull kelp populations

In 2016, CREOi provided Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center with a grant to study bird diversity and habitat use on the 240 acres of agricultural and forest land managed by Oxbow.  Data were collected from point counts, spot mapping and mist netting to provide information on bird species found in upland forest areas, lowland semi-natural forests, lowland areas where ecological… Read Project SummaryBird diversity, resource use and nesting success in restored and unrestored riparian buffers, Snoqualmie Valley, WA

This project is a continuation of a 2015 CREOi award. Historically, Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) played an important ecological and cultural role as Washington’s only native oyster. In 2012, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) and regional partners began a small-scale Olympia oyster restoration effort on the Reservation’s tidelands with the intention of eventually establishing self-sustaining populations that could act… Read Project SummaryRestoring an endemic species to native tidelands: Olympia oysters in Swinomish pocket estuaries