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Here are some interesting websites about dams in the northwest United States.

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On Saturday morning, 7 February: Students may attend either the liberal arts forum (9:30 - 12:00 in 1000 Library) or the Washington State Caucuses. Those attending the forum should come to class first. Class will meet on Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m. in 1050 Lab I), and we expect all students to attend. We expect all students who attend the Caucus to participate (you must have a valid voter's card and go to the proper site) and to write a 2-page paper on the caucuses as a political process, and your personal reflections about your own participation. See The Olympian for details about requirements for participation, and for caucus locations. The Seattle Times has an article on how the caucuses work. We expect that most students will choose to attend the liberal arts forum Saturday, and those students should first report to the classroom.

Presentations: We will meet in our usual Saturday classroom. I will bring one data projector and one computer. Those using powerpoint should have their slideshow on a CD. If your computer won't write CDs, you can do it in the computer room in the Library. Let me know as soon as possible if you have other needs.

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Questions: Please download and answer these brief questions. We'll discuss them in class, and they should be helpful to you in writing your self-evaluation.

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If you have the tree basal area data from our class exercise, please email them to me (kh).

Presentations: We will meet in our usual Saturday classroom. I will bring one data projector and one computer. Those using powerpoint should have their slideshow on a CD. If your computer won't write CDs, you can do it in the computer room in the Library. Let me know as soon as possible if you have other needs.

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Questions: Please download and answer these brief questions. We'll discuss them in class, and they should be helpful to you in writing your self-evaluation.

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If you have the tree basal area data from our class exercise, please email them to me (kh).

Students joining the program in spring quarter are asked to read The Control of Nature by John McPhee, and also to read a packet of essays that will be handed out at the first class meeting.

For spring quarter, our readings will include:

Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century World, J.R. McNeill. (selected chapters), W.W. Norton

Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities, Island Press, Edited by Paul H. Gobster and R. Bruce Hull

Tigers in the Snow, Peter Matthiessen, North Point Press

The Future of Life, Edward O. Wilson

What Are People For? Essays by Wendell Berry, North Point Press

Additional readings to be distributed in class include book chapters and journal articles on historical, social, and scientific topics relevant to human use of the environment. These will include selected chapters from Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 by Alfred Crosby.

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Read a concise article about the Columbian exchange of animals and plants between America and Europe after 1492, from the viewpoint of an economist. Read this for a brief discussion on food plants including herbs and spices.

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We have one student who does not yet belong to a project group. Are there any groups that would like/need another member? I prefer to add to a three-person group, rather than a four-person group. Please contact me (kh) if you'd like to add to your group, and give a one or two sentence description of your project. It would be even better if you posted a message to the online discussion group.

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The Spring Liberal Arts Forum on educating for social change will be held on Wednesday 21 April at the General Administration building in Olympia. Don't miss it!

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No worries: there is no environmental or population problem. Read Resources, Population, Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News by Julian L. Simon, Science 208:1431-1437.

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Read a debate among economists and scientists about extinction rates (Julian L. Simon; Stuart L. Pimm; John L. Gittleman; Gareth J. Russell; Thomas M. Brooks; Science 273:296-297).

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See this message if you're having trouble accessing those articles.

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You can get help with grammar at the Hypergrammar site at the University of Ottawa.

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The Thurston County noxious weed list has a good list of invasive plants, with some maps and information on biological control. Plants native to Washington are listed here, with some information on gardening with native plants (most of the listed "problem" plants are not native). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list is here.

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Parks are only the start of conservation, by David Suzuki. We're causing the sixth major extinction event in the four-billion year history of the Earth - what should we do about it?

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Has the Endangered Species Act been effective? Read this.

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Here's another invasive species: the amazing Giant African Snail.

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The population of the Pacfic Northwest is growing faster than the population of the world. You can download Misplaced Blame, a free .pdf book that offers a perspective on the issue.

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Science and policy, again: read about the recent decision on salmon populations.

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Read more about Capitol Lake in Capitol Lake: A Vision for the Next Ten Years (.pdf, 2.7MB). The weed control problem is discussed in the noxious weed fact sheet (.pdf, 416kB).
The Olympia City Council is considering the milfoil control plan.
And immediately downstream, there's the problem of healing Budd Bay.

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Water and Forests: a Festival of Events is scheduled for Thursday 13 and Friday 14 May. Jim Karr, Eugene Kozloff, and Billy Frank are among the speakers.

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The Evergreen State College invites the public to the Willi Unsoeld Seminar with guest speaker Dr. Jerry Franklin on Friday, May 14 at the college's Longhouse. The reception starts at 6 p.m. and is followed by Franklin's presentation at 7 p.m. on “The Effects of Globalization of the Wood Products Industry on Forests and Forestry in North America: The Scarcely Glimpsed 600-Lb. Gorilla.” The evening is free and open to the public.

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Please note: there are two articles that should have been distributed in class on Monday. They are available outside of Nancy's office, at B3108 Seminar II (the new one). Please read them before class on Saturday. One article, a report of urban sprawl in Seattle, is available as a .pdf file (click on the report).

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From Nancy: PLEASE pick up your group project papers immediately from the box outside my office (B3106 Seminar II). You will need the opportunity to fix problems that remain in the papers and presentations. 

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Why do we like what we like? Read a discussion of the evolution of human aesthetic preferences in landscapes and other contexts.

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The Ecological Society of America (ESA), an 8100-member nonprofit association of professional ecologists established in 1915 has just released the Ecological Visions Report: Ecological Science and Sustainability for a Crowded Planet. Other resources from the ESA include eleven reports on a wide range of issues in ecology. The annual meeting of the ESA for 2004 is in Portland OR from 1 to 6 August

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For your presentation on Saturday, we will provide a Macintosh computer for those who have slide shows. This computer does not have a floppy disk drive. We recommend that you bring your presentation on a CD. Even if you intend to use your own computer, having your presentation on a CD would provide a backup in case of hardware problems. We have had students who were unable to give their presentation because they couldn't get the projector to work with their computer.

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