H₂OSU is available at http://water.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/.
February 2006

In the News

"Floods can pose risks to fish, researchers say" (The Oregonian, 1/29/2006) A wet winter may seem like good weather for fish, but flooding can pose dangers to aquatic life because of development along rivers, researchers say. Historic natural river systems were complex, with multiple channels that spread the impact of the flooding, slowed down currents, and created holding places for migrating and resident fish. Now dams, development and the transition from forests to pastures and housing tracts have eliminated that complexity from many river systems, said Oregon State University ecologist Stan Gregory.

"Policy would trim catch of salmon" (The Oregonian, 1/26/2006) - Saying it makes little sense to eat imperiled salmon, the Bush administration on Wednesday revealed plans to cut back the catch of wild Northwest salmon and shut down hatcheries that churn out competing but inferior fish.James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, told fish biologists in Portland that the administration is shifting its focus from merely keeping protected Columbia River salmon from extinction to ensuring they recover. Read more... Connaughton spoke at the "Salmon 2100: The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon Conference", an event organized by Bob Lackey, from EPA and a courtesy professor in the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and Denise Lach and Sally Duncan, from the OSU Department of Sociology.

Upcoming Events

Thursday, February 2 4:00PM. Managing the Engineers: The Importance of Ecosystem Engineers for Conservation and Restoration (Botany and Plant Pathology Seminar Series). Speaker: Dr. John Lambrinos, Department of Horticulture, OSU. Held on campus at ALS 4001. FMI: Peter McEvoy (737-5507).

Wednesday, February 8. Histories of Ideas in Ecological Research at the Andrews Forest (The Andrews Forest 8th Annual Symposium). The morning session will be presentations and discussions about the history of research ideas at the Andrews by Jerry Franklin, Stan Gregory, Sherri Johnson and Julia Jones. Lunch will be provided (by OSU LTER) followed by a poster session highlighting research affiliated with Andrews Forest program. Please submit an abstract for posters you would like to present and register for lunch! Held on campus at Memorial Union. FMI: http://www.fsl.orst.edu/lter/new/new.cfm?topnav=4.

February and March. University of Washington College of Forest Resources has produced atwo-part series on Water Supply and Storm Water Issues in the Pacific Northwest. The programs will air on University of Washington Television in February and March and can also be viewed via streaming video. FMI: http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.asp?rid=3033 .

Getting Involved

Join Agua Caliente, Tuesdays at 11 am. - Join students, faculty, and other hydrology related professionals to discuss research, exchange information about classes and seminars, and any other water related activity. Agua Caliente will meet Tuesdays at 11 am, at the E Cafe, located in the Kelley Engineering Center. Agua Caliente is organized by Hydrophiles and is an effort to bring the intellectual, professional, and social components of those in the hydrological community together.

Graduate students, enter the poster competition for the Water Resources Graduate Program Open House - The event will be held in Memorial Union on Monday, February 27 and a cash prize will be awarded. View details in event announcement (pdf format). FMI: Mary Santelmann, 541-737-1215, gradwater_director@oregonstate.edu .

Research News

Call for Participants for OSU Proposal to the Superfund Basic Research Program - The SBRP program is funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and has an April 2007 deadline. The OSU goal is to create a multi-project, multi-disciplinary center that integrates basic biomedical research with related ecological or engineering projects. The emphasis for the OSU application will be on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Centers must focus on multiple levels of investigation including, but not limited to: mechanisms of action, environmental fate, transport, biomarkers, complex mixtures, epidemiology, and remediation. OSU investigators interested in participating should submit a one-page pre-proposal consisting of tentative project title, description, significance, and specific aims by February 20, 2006. FMI: Sandy Segna, Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Center, at sandy.segna@oregonstate.edu, 737-6530.

List of water-related external funding opportunities now available on the IWW website...opportunities are arranged by deadline and include short program descriptions and links to RFPs. see: http://water.oregonstate.edu/funding/externalfunding.htm

Featured Student

Stephanie Painter is a first year MS student in the new Water Resources Graduate Program. For her thesis she is working with the IWW and the Institute for Natural Resources to synthesize almost one-hundred years of water and water management data for theUmatilla County Critical Groundwater Taskforce. Umatilla County has experienced some very significant groundwater declines; water levels in some wells have dropped almost 500 feet over the past 50 years. In an effort to avoid future water conflicts, the Task Force is creating a “2050 Plan”. The historical synthesis document will serve as a foundation for this plan and help the Task Force, Umatilla County and their stakeholders understand the need for a long range water plan and design an effective scope and vision for the planning process. Stephanie comments, "I am very pleased be working on a project that is of great importance to many people in the Umatilla Sub-basin. My chief responsibility is to collect all of the reports that are pertinent to understanding the past and present of water and water management in the Umatilla Basin and to organize the information from these reports into a database that can be used to create an easy-to-read and well-illustrated historical summary."