Communicating About Water Reception

“Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over”

Mark Twain

In Wyoming, water issues have dominated politics, community relationships, agriculture, natural resources and more.

The Creative Writing MFA Program, Wyoming EPSCoR, and the new Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG) invited students to participate in this ever growing conversation about water in our state through a writing contest.

Students will be reading from their winning essays on Thursday, May 1^st starting at 5:30pm in the Berry Center Auditorium.

By bridging the sciences and humanities through thoughtful dialog, Wyoming EPSCoR hopes to continue to grow these conversations about water and other natural resource issues throughout the state.

We invite you to join us for this evening to celebrate student writing and Wyoming water! 

Photo by Robin Rasmussen

2014 Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day

While many students are counting down the days to summer vacation or graduation, a select number of student scientists from the University of Wyoming and Wyoming’s community colleges are counting down their days until the Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day on April 26^th, 2014.

Over 360 undergraduate students from around Wyoming will gather to present their research to peers, mentors, faculty, family and friends. Undergraduate Research Day is a day of anticipation, excitement and celebration. It is the culmination of many hours, weeks and months of demanding research.

Student research projects vary, and encompass a large range of departments and subjects. Attendees will be able to see presentations or posters on topics including economics and finance, physics and astronomy, education, geology and geophysics, and many more. 

 "Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day is important because it provides a forum to showcase the wide-variety impressive research that is being done at the undergraduate level at UW and at Wyoming's community colleges," says Rick Matlock, Wyoming EPSCoR’s project administrator.

Wyoming EPSCoR supports undergraduate students through the Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, and these students will be among students presenting their research at Undergraduate Research Day.

EPSCoR encourages other students, faculty members, and staff to attend Undergraduate Research Day and support student researchers. Oral presentations will be held from 12 to 4 p.m. in the University of Wyoming Classroom Building. Poster presentations will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Family Room. A map of the University of Wyoming campus can be found here. 

“Quite simply, attending Wyoming Undergraduate Research Day allows you to witness the amazing things that happen at the University of Wyoming and Wyoming’s community colleges throughout the year,” says Rick. “The level of work done by undergraduates is just remarkable.”

For questions or more information about Undergraduate Research Day, please visit our website or contact Beth Cable at bcable@uwyo.edu.

By Robin Rasmussen

Summer Trainings Available for Wyoming Teachers

Imagine spending a week of your summer with University of Wyoming scientists, using state-of-the-art equipment to learn all about lakes, rivers, and streams. Picture yourself testing water quality, examining near- and sub-surface hydrology, and analyzing watershed ecology.

This summer, Wyoming teachers have the opportunity to take part in three separate teacher trainings, including the Field Research Campaign, where teachers will spend time on Fremont Lake, learning about near-surface hydrology, sub-surface hydrology, and how lakes work.

Teton Science School, Wyoming EPSCoR, the Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG), and the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center (SMTC) will be hosting these trainings.

“These trainings bring this real, exciting, and relevant science to classrooms in Wyoming,” says Gina Graziano, a graduate student assistant in the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center.

The trainings will cover separate topics, ranging from watershed ecology, to sub-surface hydrology, to water quality monitoring.

Combining Research and Education in Science Teaching (CREST) (June 26-29) is designed for middle and high school teachers who want to learn more about integrating water research into their classrooms.

The Wyoming Stream Team (July 13-18) training is a classroom and field based course that allows Wyoming teachers to learn more about water quality monitoring and opportunities for citizen science in their classrooms.

The Field Research Campaign (August 11-14) gives teachers an opportunity to learn about the process of near-surface and sub-surface hydrology through hands-on experience with University of Wyoming scientists.

“You can get your students involved in collecting water quality data near your school, wherever you live in Wyoming,” says Gina. “With Wyoming Stream Team, the data goes into a database and is actually used by decision makers, so it’s a great citizen science project.”

The fee for each course is $150, and participating teachers will be given a $200 stipend at the end of each training they attend. These trainings also provide Wyoming Professional Teaching Standard Board (PTSB) credits and University of Wyoming credits.

“These trainings are great opportunities for teachers to make learning relevant for their students,” says Gina. “It’s empowering and important for teachers to know how to teach their students about water. Once you have the knowledge, you can start to figure out the solution.”

To register for these trainings, visit the Teacher Learning Center. There is no registration deadline for these programs, but space fills up fast, so register early!

For questions and comments about any of these courses, please contact Leslie Cook leslie.cook@tetonscience.org or Gina Graziano at ggrazian@uwyo.edu. 

By Robin Rasmussen

Roundtable discussion sparks discussion about outdoor learning on the Wind River Indian Reservation

"We must teach our children
To smell the Earth
To taste the rain
To touch the wind
To see things grow
To hear the sun rise and night fall
To care”

~ John Cleal

In a spacious meeting room at the Frank B. Wise Business Plaza in Fort Washakie, Wyoming, a group of educators, community members and tribal leaders met with Wyoming-EPSCoR to discuss science education on the Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR). This is the second community-driven “Roundtable” hosted by Wyoming-EPSCoR, and one of many meetings and conversations this EPSCoR office has had with partners over the last year. The goal? To determine science education needs and expand learning opportunities on the WRIR about water-science topics such as hydrology and watershed health.

As individuals sat in-the-round conversing about science education needs, a key theme emerged: children need to learn outside. Many in the room stressed the need for an “outdoor classroom” that students and educators on the WRIR could use for water-science and natural resource education. 

Meeting on March 27, 2014.

This need was fully understood by Wyoming-EPSCoR staff. Education, Outreach, and Diversity Coordinator, Liz Nysson, stated, “By learning outside, students will be able to gain hands on experience and begin to view science as something that is all around us.” 

Outdoor education is not a new notion on the WRIR. 4-H educator, Jennifer Wellman, regularly takes groups of students outside for educational lessons. However, limited teaching resources and restrictions on access to outdoor spaces have limited some educators from being able to create and implement outdoor lessons. 

Other concepts discussed at the meeting coincided with outdoor education including creating science resource boxes for teachers, hosting community events about water, and working with partners to create internships in water-related fields for teenagers and young adults.

Notes from Meeting.

These conversations will help Wyoming-EPSCoR develop an education plan that is informed by needs and desires of the WRIR community. 

“It is important to EPSCoR that programs are community driven and supported by educators and community leaders,” Nysson said on Thursday March 27, immediately following the meeting. “Wyoming EPSCoR will continue to build partnerships and programs to expand educational opportunities for students on WRIR.” 

For more information about Wyoming-EPSCoR and WRIR community partnership, please email Liz Nysson at lizn@uwyo.edu.  

Spring runoff: What is it and why does it matter?

When the weather gets warmer, snow in the mountains begins to melt. This is called spring runoff, and it’s crucial that researchers measure and understand it.

“Spring runoff is that big push of water that we get from snowmelt across the state,” says Dr. Ginger Paige, a professor in the department of Ecosystem Science and Management. What WyCEHG is trying to do is get better numbers on predicting the amount of spring runoff that may occur, by measuring snow water equivalent.”

The information that WyCEHG and other researchers collect is an essential resource to people across the state of Wyoming.

“We need that information for watershed planning, for allocation of water in our basins,” says Dr. Paige. “It’s also important in terms of potential flooding. All of the emergency management offices across the state are looking at this information for mitigating flood damages. The information is also valuable for agriculture, for farmers and ranchers and irrigators who need to know how much water is available.”

All of the information collected by researchers is available to anyone who is interested. The National Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL (short for Snow Telemetry) website shows information about snow water equivalents and spring runoff all across the state of Wyoming. You can also find hydrologic information for Wyoming at the NOAA hydrology website. 

By Robin Rasmussen

Understanding how bark beetles are changing our forests

When you visit the Snowy Range in the Medicine Bow National Forest, you notice something—brown trees. Since 2008, this high alpine forest west of Laramie by way of highway 130 has undergone a considerable transformation caused by a bark beetle epidemic. 

There are many species of bark beetles in the United States, and uncontrollable bark beetle outbreaks are occurring in forests throughout the country. In the high alpine forest surrounding the Glacier Lakes Ecosystems Experimental Site (GLEES) near the Snowy Range Mountains, the spruce beetle is the dominate species of bark beetle present and tree mortality is noticeable in this Wyoming Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir forest. 

These photos show the changes in the forest near GLEES from 2003 to 2013.  

Photo Credit: John Frank

Spruce beetles aid in killing trees by exposing them to blue stain fungi which colonize the xylem of the attacked trees; thus, not allowing water to travel through the tree.  Although spruce beetles can be a part of healthy forest cycle, under epidemic conditions spruce beetles drastically impact forests by attacking large populations of larger diameter trees.

At GLEES, University of Wyoming scientists, including members of the Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG), have an ongoing partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to monitor spruce beetle impacts there and assess how this epidemic has changed forest conditions. 

Last Friday, UW doctoral student, John Frank, discussed findings from his research at GLEES on changes in the ecosystem due to tree mortality. John is not only working towards earning his Ph.D. within the Program in Ecology, but he is also an employee of the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. With support from his UW Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Brent Ewers, John discovered that to accurately model predictions of ecological conditions (ecosystem fluxes of carbon dioxide and water vapor) after disturbance from the spruce beetle epidemic, changes in tree physiology have to be accounted for in addition to the observed mortality of the trees.

To get to this conclusion, John evaluated six years of data which was collected during the progression of the spruce beetle epidemic. 

With WyCEHG scientists and partners examining impacts on forests from bark beetle disturbance, researchers and managers will be better able to understand how forest ecology is changing and how to predict ecological changes in the future. 

By: Elizabeth Nysson 

 

Sources used:

Interview with Dr. Brent Ewers by Elizabeth Nysson on March 4, 2014.

“How much does a spruce beetle epidemic alter ecosystem carbon and water processes?” Department of Botany Seminar; John Frank, Ph.D. Student, Botany Department, PiE; Friday, February 28, 2014.

“Ecosystem CO2/H2O fluxes are explained by hydraulically limited gas exchange during tree mortality from spruce beetles.” (IN REVIEW: Journal Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences) John M. Frank, William J. Massman, Brent E. Ewers, Laurie S. Huckaby, José F. Negrón; U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80526, USA; Department of Botany and Program in Ecology, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming, 82071, USA

“Western U.S. Bark Beetles and Climate Change.” Preparer: Barbara Bentz, FWE, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Western Bark Beetle Research Group (WBBRG). Accessed from: http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/topics/bark-beetles.shtml

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