2011 News and Events

 

western gray squirrel Celebrate gray squirrels! Volunteers had an end of year get-together at the Pacific Biodiversity Institute on Thursday, December 1, to celebrate the 2011 western gray squirrel research season. Volunteers had a chance to share each other’s field experiences. View a gallery of the year's events here. For more information and links to videos, click here ...
harbor porpoise surveyors Harbor Porpoise Party! You are all invited to a party to celebrate our wonderful volunteers who have worked hard on the Harbor Porpoise Project and collected reams of great data. The Harbor Porpoise Citizen Science Observers collected over 150 hours of observations of harbor porpoise in the last 5 months. The party is at the Senior Center in Anacortes on Thursday, November 17th between 3 and 4:45 PM.
harbor porpoise surveyorsThanks to Lu Jac's Quest - and to Phillip Jensen for helping Aileen Jeffries retrieve the harbor porpoise acoustic monitor from Burrows Pass. They also helped her deploy it again several weeks later. This enabled Aileen to obtain some great acoustic data, which she is now analyzing. And thanks to Adventures Down Under - and Ron Akeson for loaning some of their charter time to the endeavor. You can learn about these two by clicking the image on the left or by going to: www.adventuresdownunder.com
Tres Amigas

Tres Amigas Hiking the length of South America - now trekking through the vast wildlands of northern Argentina

Learn about the wildlands at the southern tip of South America read about the exciting expedition of the Tres Amigas who are hiking the length of South America and collecting information on wildlands and biodiversity for PBI. More...

Craig Olson, PhD

joined the PBI Board of Directors this summer. Craig has worked in natural resource research and management for over 35 years in state and federal natural resource agencies in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. Craig received his PhD degree in wildland resource science/biometrics from UC Berkeley and his MS in Forest Fire Management from the University of Washington. Craig is an avid bird watcher, who also loves hiking, backpacking, and nature photography.

western gray squirrel

Western Gray Squirrel Research Project

Tussock moths and forest health in the Methow Valley

While people may worry that the tussock moth will defoliate trees, it is important to understand the ecology of our forests and the role the tussock moth plays. Tussock moths in the Methow Valley defoliate Douglas-fir trees, but do not harm ponderosa pines or deciduous species, which are usually the dominant trees in the privately owned areas. Douglas-fir trees have often grown into these forests, but are not naturally dominant here, and can lead to unhealthy forest conditions. Read more about the tussock moth and Pacific Biodiversity Institute's recommendations in this article in the Methow Valley News...

Asako Yamamuro, Ph.D., completes six month western gray squirrel internship.

Asako joined our research team in March, after finishing a Ph.D. at OSU, to pursue an interest in conservation ecology. Her work with the western gray squirrels involved the entire community and resulted in finding many new locations. More...

 

2010: Year of Biodiversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity announced that 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). This event was highlighted in a recent editorial in the journal, Science. Find out what you can do during the IYB.
 

Lizz Wandag - 2002 PBI Intern receives Fulbright Scholarship

Lizz, a PBI conservation science intern from the Philippines, has received a Fulbright Scholarship to begin a Ph.D. program at Northern Arizona University. She will be returning to the USA after seven years of teaching in the Philippines after her internship.

Ryan Hopkins and family 2009

Ryan Hopkins - 1999 PBI Intern visits with family

Ryan and his wife, Nikki, visited in early July with their new daughter. The family is looking great! Ryan has been head of the very successful outdoor education program at Central Washington University for the last four years.

Hans Smith making GIS maps

New York Times article refers to PBI's maps

Super high-quality maps produced by Hans Smith now adorn an innovative, new home in the Methow Valley and were mentioned in a recent New York Times article. Order your own copies today!

Santosh Gaikwad

Santosh Gaikwad - 2004 PBI Intern chosen as Chevening Scholar

Santosh, a PBI conservation science intern from India, has worked as a bio-informatics specialist in India after his return. He has just been selected for a prestigious one-year Chevening Scholar at the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, United Nations Environment Program, in Great Britain. More...

JP Kemmick - founder, Trek to Re-Energize America

Pacific Biodiversity Institute hosts Trek to Re-Energize America

On May 21-22, a group of young bicyclists visited our office after biking over the North Cascades along WA State Highway 20. They spent the night here and talked with us about their bicycle trek from Seattle to Washington DC to help draw attention to the need to improve our society's means of transportation so that there is less carbon pumped into the atmosphere and we make less of a contribution to global warming.

You can read about their expedition on their website:

http://trektoreenergize.org/about.html

Palouse River at Palouse Falls State Park, WA

Ecological Assessments and Rare Plant Surveys of 17 State Parks Completed

In 2008, Pacific Biodiversity Institute completed field evaluations on 17 Washington State Parks. The reports were completed for the for the Washington Parks and Recreation Commission. You can view the final reports from these surveys in PDF format by following the links below.


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