By Chase Puentes Originally published by the University of Washington College of the Environment Situated on an Arctic barrier island along the northwest coast of Alaska is the village of Kivalina, an Iñupiaq community of about 500 people. Colleen Swan, city administrator and coordinator of its volunteer Search and Rescue organization, is an advocate for her community and has always taken concerns about Indigenous health, environment and identity seriously, and works to seek out solutions. Recently, she was approached by a curious neighbor with a perplexing observation. “An elder in the community has gone outside every night of her life to look at the stars,” Swan says, “and she told me one day, years ago, that the stars have moved. How could that happen? What could cause that?”
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COMMUNITY-ENGAGED CLIMATE ADAPTATION: PARTNERING WITH SEARCH AND RESCUE IN NORTHWEST IÑUPIAQ ALASKA9/4/2023 by Charlie Hahn (Anthropology), Chase Puentes (Geography) and Ellen Koukel (Atmospheric Sciences)
This piece was originally published on PCC's website As part of their graduate research, Charlie, Chase, and Ellen worked collaboratively with a volunteer search and rescue group from the Iñupiaq village of Kivalina, Alaska. Their projects aim to build on the latest in climate science to produce knowledge relevant to both the academy and the community. This past winter, PCC Climate Solutions* funding allowed the students to travel to Kivalina to discuss with their collaborators proposals for better applying their research to community climate adaptation needs. Despite travel difficulties due to a strong winter storm, the team managed to workshop their proposals regarding a community sea ice monitoring portal, a safety focused digital storytelling archive, and a first responder training for search and rescue personnel. This trip proved critical in making concrete the more applied dimensions of their projects, an essential step in the continuously iterative process that is community-engaged adaptation research. *This piece was originally published through UW Currents and was co-written with Nicolette Worrell. It will be featured in an upcoming Macmillan Publishers textbook entitled "Race, Class, and Gender" (forthcoming). In the age of social media, it has become easier than ever to stay up to date with social movements and protests both domestically and internationally. The internet has created a new way for groups to tell their stories and provide information without a third party. The power of this information sharing can be seen throughout modern anti-pipeline movements around North America such as #IdleNoMore, #NoDAPL, and #StopLine3. Apps like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter have allowed frontline protestors and activists, who are primarily Indigenous land and water defenders, to share what is happening on the ground. Blogs and websites enable those within these movements to provide information beyond the immediate community to a greater audience. Of all the voices calling attention to violence against the land, special attention should be paid to the young people within these anti-pipeline movements. Indigenous youth have spearheaded the anti-pipeline movement through social media and have been leading the way to a land-honoring future. This article focuses on the impact of pipelines on Native land and communities, what Indigenous youth have been doing to combat them, and the significance of these movements. *This piece was originally published on UW's CoEnv website, August 2021 When people think of farms, they tend to picture tidy rows of crops growing under abundant sunshine on terra firma. However, it turns out that not all farms are on land, and in fact some flourish in the sea. You have likely heard of shellfish and finfish farming, but a new type of cultivation is emerging in our region: seaweed farming.
“In the Pacific Northwest, we have one of the most diverse assemblages of seaweeds on the planet, and there are probably more applications for those species than we know of now,” said Meg Chadsey of Washington Sea Grant. For many, the word “seaweed” likely conjures up images of decomposing plant-like matter cast upon the beach. Yet for others, like those in the Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative Network, seaweeds are much more, having been cultivated and used for thousands of years. Kelp, often referred to as seaweed, is a type of macroalgae that grows in cold, nutrient-rich marine waters. Under ideal conditions a single stalk of kelp can grow up to a foot in a single day, absorbing carbon dioxide in the process. Kelp forests provide essential habitat and nutrients for a variety of marine organisms like fish, sea otters and a host of invertebrates including sponges and bryozoans. Growing kelp also removes nitrogen from the ecosystem, which is helpful in reducing harmful algal blooms and the biotoxins they produce. Kelp also benefits humans in a variety of ways as well, with applications ranging from fertilizers and animal feed, to cosmetics, biofuels, bioplastics and nutritional products. *This piece was originally published on The Nature Conservancy's Washington Nature website, June 2021
I was slated to begin graduate school at the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs in September, but as the long summer began, I felt a strong desire to contribute to climate solutions before then. I just couldn’t wait that long to participate in meaningful environmental work! Thankfully, The Nature Conservancy posted an internship opportunity focused on researching the costs and co-benefits of different Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) as they pertain to Washington State, and I was lucky enough to secure a spot on the team looking at three fascinating watershed-related pathways. The idea behind Riparian Restoration, put simply, is to replant trees along streams and rivers. This replanting activity not only offers financial incentives to eligible landowners through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), but also provides myriad benefits to the watershed:
*This piece was originally published on UW's CoEnv website, June 2021 Chances are good that no matter where you live in the U.S., you’re somewhat familiar with crows. Perhaps you’ve seen them perching on a telephone pole, flying overhead, or raiding garbage. You can also likely recognize their caws. But have you ever noticed a crow letting ants crawl all over it, or sprawled out on the ground with its wings and mouth open on a hot day? If you’ve wondered what any of these behaviors are but didn’t know how to identify them, you’re in luck. There’s now an app for that. A married duo of University of Washington corvid specialists, John and Colleen Marzluff, in collaboration with children’s author Jonathan Tweet and game developer David Marques, have developed an app called Crow Scientist (Google Play Store, Apple App Store) to help people learn more about these animals. Corvids — the family of birds that includes crows, ravens, jays, and magpies — are master generalists that can survive in a variety of settings, including in urban areas amongst humans. The Crow Scientist app, which is free to download, is geared towards kids but is a viable source of information for anyone who wants to know more about crows in their own neighborhoods. “We wanted to come up with a way to get people, especially kids, engaged with birds and other local nature, and the app is a great way for them to learn more about crows in a fun, interactive format,” John said. *This piece was originally published on UW's Currents website, February 2021 Sherry Pictou is a Mi’kmaw woman, former Chief from L’sɨtkuk (known as Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia), and former Co-Chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples. She is an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, a member of the IPBES Task Force on Indigenous and Local Knowledge, and a Partnership Grant holder with KAIROS working on a project called: “Building Indigenous-Academic-Not-for-Profit Relations for Mobilizing Research Knowledge on the Gendered Impacts of Resource Extraction in Indigenous Communities in Canada.” I first heard Sherry speak last fall as part of the UW School for Marine and Environmental Affairs’ (SMEA) Environmental Justice Speaker Series, and was immediately struck by her sincerity and compassion. I became deeply interested in Sherry’s work surrounding recognition of gendered and racialized violence against Indigenous communities all over the world, and her determination to provide a platform for land and water defenders who risk their wellbeing to resist settler efforts to undermine and destroy their homes. Sherry’s work covers a range of topics including decolonizing treaty relations, social justice for Indigenous women, Indigenous women’s role in food and lifeways, and Indigenous knowledge and food systems. In this interview, Sherry talks about her journey from community work into academia, Indigenous Feminism, and the links between environmental, racial, and gender injustices. |