Each NWR within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) provides landscapes that contribute to conservation of wildlife and the habitats they depend on at local, regional, and national levels. The Integrated Pest Management Plan (IPMP) for a given refuge is a guide to how...
Riparian ecosystems provide critical habitat for a broad diversity of aquatic and terrestrial species. However, due to their connectivity along river corridors, and the tendency for people to build roads, infrastructure, and other settlements next to rivers, riparian ecosystems are vulnerable to colonization by invasive plant and animal species. Early...
Oregon possesses a diversity of natural resources from the dense rain-soaked forests of the Coastal and Cascade ranges to the deep, fertile soils of the Willamette Valley to the arid and semi-arid Snake River Basin. In the Willamette Valley, water resources sustain agriculture, municipalities, hydropower, fish and wildlife, flood control,...
This study explores the role of classroom use of live organisms as a pathway for the spread of invasive species. The overall guiding research question is “Are behavioral changes necessary to reduce the spread from the classroom pathway?” Using focus groups comprised of key educators, this study seeks to identify...
There are many different organizations and agencies which share responsibility for educating the public about responsible use of aquatic and marine resources. However, organizations specifically focused on particular dimensions of water use, such as Oregon State Marine Board (OSMB), often face challenges when attempting to recruit teachers to implement educational...
In 2019, a multi-cohort population of the typically estuarine burrowing shrimp Neotrypaea sp., was discovered approximately 7 miles offshore of Newport, Oregon. Morphological analysis of the offshore population, microbial sediment sequencing, and species distribution modeling was conducted with this new offshore population. In order to identify Neotrypaea sp. to the...
The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experience of students to discern the impact of their interaction with the food pantry. This knowledge may, in turn, influence future food pantry methods and wider policy, both at PNW College and more broadly. Not only does student hunger have...
The purpose of this grounded theory mixed methods study is to understand how new scuba dive students are creating meaning of their relationship to the marine environment and how that might be shaped by dive training and dive experiences. Eighty-one scuba dive students enrolled in a standardized entry-level dive course...
In the study of rebuilding and recovery after natural disasters in the United States, little attention is paid to understanding how and why people rebuild following recurring, small-scale events, like wildfire. Hazard and risk literature, instead, is focused on understanding how larger communities with greater resources, economics, and social capital,...
The spatial and temporal behavior of invasive species spread implies that optimal management strategies involve decisions over space and time. Dispersal and propagule pressure are two primary drivers of the spatial-temporal ecological process of species invasion. In the case of riparian communities, stream flow drives the dispersal of vegetation propagules....