Grand Coulee Dam created Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake as part of the Columbia Basin Project. Located in northeastern Washington State, the Project provides economically important hydropower (19 billion kilowatt hours per year), irrigation (225,000 ha), flood control, and sport fishing ($5 to 20 million annually). A good system understanding aids in balancing these beneficial uses for the 230 km long reservoir. The reservoir's atypical 45-day mean residence time is much shorter than a typical lake, and much longer than for a riverine dam. The spring freshet requires drawdowns of 15 to 20 m for flood control—the driving characteristic of reservoir operations. A physically based two-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model, CE-QUAL-W2 Version 3.5 (Cole and Wells, 2006), is coupled with a fish bioenergetics model based on the Stockwell and Johnson model (1997, 1999) to examine the effects of hydrodynamics on the reservoir algae-zooplankton-kokanee food web. This model was applied and calibrated to Lake Roosevelt with model improvements of multiple zooplankton compartments and zooplankton omnivory. Calibration parameters included temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, algae, and zooplankton. The fish bioenergetics model is applied over the entire reservoir model space to generate a spatial and temporal fish growth potential distribution. The fish model refinements include sub-daily time-steps and an optimized vertical foraging strategy. The linked model suggests that kokanee fish growth potential is seasonally limited by both warm water and prey densities. While the lake ecology is significantly affected by the reservoir operations in general, the pelagic fish growth potential did not appear sensitive to minor changes in reservoir operations. However, the model suggests that the advantageous foraging locations shift seasonally and that optimal foraging strategies are dependent on fish size.

Mosses are some of the first colonizers to disturbed sites, yet their roles in early plant community structuring are not well understood. The primary succession zones of volcanoes provide opportunities to conduct natural experiments into how mosses contribute to early plant community formation, as well as how the unique environments found in such zones affect plant traits, particularly those associated with stress tolerance. Though plant community changes have been well-documented since Mount St. Helens (MSH) volcano erupted in 1980, the volcano's moss assemblages, their influence on other plants, and their potential roles in chemical-mediated competition and biogeochemical cycling have garnered little attention. Using a natural stress gradient from primary to secondary succession zones on MSH, and in control and nutrient manipulated test plots, I sought to elucidate how populations of three dominant moss species, Polytrichum juniperinum, Ceratodon purpureus, and Racomitrium canescens, respond to abiotic stress, as well as to provide life history and interaction data on establishment stages of these stress tolerant taxa. I first analyzed possible tradeoffs in survival strategies of four moss communities in test plots along an abiotic stress gradient. In P. juniperinum, seta specific density (mg/mm) increased significantly in response to nitrogen (N) addition. Differences in both vegetative and sexual reproductive morphological measurements were dependent on site and did not correlate with abiotic stress. In C. purpureus, the percentage of total spores germinated increased with N addition. Site dependent responses in nutrient allocation to vegetative and reproductive structures may be a result of phenotypic plasticity alone or may be a result of local adaptation. In mosses adapted to environmental stress, the allocation of nitrogen must be balanced between growth and survival. Efficient nitrogen uptake confers a competitive advantage if allocated to the higher dispersal of quickly germinating spores. Second, my results show the moss R. canescens may be able to inhibit the germination rate of co-occurring moss spores when spores were germinated in moss gametophyte infusions. R. canescens may also inhibit the germination of the co-occurring vascular plant Lupinus lepidus when seeds are germinated within intact moss patches. By uncovering chemical-mediated interactions between mosses on the germination and initial growth of neighboring mosses and vascular plants we can gain a better understanding of the mechanisms stress tolerant plants may use to limit resource competition. Such advantages offer insight into how mosses effectively colonize and affect primary succession landscapes.

This thesis represents one of the first systematic, detailed spatial analyses of artifacts at the mid-19th century Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver Village site, and of clay tobacco pipe fragments in general. Historical documents emphasize the multi-cultural nature of the Village, but archaeologically there appears to be little evidence of ethnicity (Kardas 1971; Chance and Chance 1976; Thomas and Hibbs 1984:723). Following recent approaches to cultural interaction in which researchers examined the nuanced uses of material culture (Lightfoot et al 1998; Martindale 2009; Voss 2008); this study analyzed the spatial distribution of tobacco pipe fragments for behavioral information through a practice theory approach (Bourdieu 1977; Ortner 2006). The analysis aimed to determine the role of tobacco smoking in the Village. It evaluated tobacco smoking as a significant and social behavior, the visibility of maintenance behaviors in the clay pipe distributions, and evidence of ethnic variation in tobacco consumption. Spatial patterning characteristics were compiled from the few behavioral studies of clay pipe fragments (Davies 2011; Fox 1998: Hamilton 1990; Hartnett 2004; Hoffman and Ross 1973, 1974; King and Miller 1987), and indications of ethnic specific behaviors from archaeological and historical evidence (Burley et al 1992; Jacobs 1958; Jameson 2007). Distributional maps examined three pipe assemblage characteristics: fragment frequency, use wear fragment frequency, and the bowl to stem fragment ratio, to define smoking locations on the Village landscape. Visibility of maintenance and refuse disposal behaviors in the size distribution of fragments was measured through the Artifact Size Index (ASI) (Bon Harper and McReynolds 2011). This analysis also tested two possible indications of ethnic variation: differential use of stone vs. clay pipes, and consumption rates as reflected through clay pipe assemblages. The commonality of tobacco smoking locations across the landscape suggests a significant, social, and shared practice between households. Analysis of maintenance behaviors and ethnic variation proved inconclusive. This study demonstrates the value of spatially analyzing clay pipe fragment distributions for behavioral information. The insight gained from examining multiple spatial patterns suggests future studies can benefit from analyzing the spatial distribution of diagnostic characteristics of pipes and other artifact types.

In 1937, Howe Sound Company built the town of Holden, Washington, to support its copper-mining operation at Copper Peak, located in the North Cascade Mountains, approximately 10 miles west of Lake Chelan. The operation produced concentrate from 1937 to 1957, during which time the town was home to a lively community featuring many families, a variety of organized recreational activities, and a public school. It was a company town, in which most property, business, organized activity, and public utilities and services were either directly or indirectly controlled by Howe Sound. After the operation shut down in 1957, the town was abandoned. Three years later, the property was donated to the Lutheran Bible Institute of Issaquah, Washington. It subsequently became Holden Village, an independent, non-profit Lutheran retreat center. Though different in purpose and character from the community that preceded it, life in Holden Village during its formative years (the 1960s and, to a lesser extent, the 1970s), and in the 2010s, was and is similar in a number of ways to life in the mining town. This thesis argues that Holden Village, too, might be considered a company town within a loose definition of the term. The many parallels between the two communities support this argument, and point to the role of the remote setting and the environment in shaping the lives of the town's residents.

Contested land-management plans make spatial data about values that people attach to the landscape necessary for federal land management. The study area for this project is the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, an area that is divided by a complex mosaic of land jurisdictions, including public lands administered by the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Washington State, as well as interspersed tribal and private landholdings surrounding the perimeter. During the summer of 2012, I collected map and survey data from visitors at fourteen popular destinations around the Olympic Peninsula, including visitor centers, campgrounds, trail access points, and a ferry. Three research objectives were evaluated in my thesis: 1) determine a general typology of visitors, 2) understand what values and activities visitors associate with places in the peninsula, and 3) compare visitor data with resident data from the Human Ecology Mapping Project (HEM), a collaboration between the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, the Institute of Culture and Ecology, and Portland State University. Analysis using ArcGIS included density and density hot spot calculations for a composite of the data as well as subsets based on types of visitors and individual values and activities. A majority of the participants were older males with higher education. Results indicate that visitors with different levels of familiarity spend time in different parts of the Peninsula. Aesthetic, recreation, and wilderness are the values most often included in the survey; hiking, non-cardio recreation, and sociocultural are the activity groups most often included in the survey. Visitors primarily mark places in Olympic National Park. Visitors, including those who live locally, responded in strikingly different ways than residents who participated in HEM. This research produced expected results that not only substantiate knowledge about specific places in the Olympic Peninsula, but also support theories about environmental cognition.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-84). / Estuarine density stratification may be controlled primarily by cross-shore processes (analogous to longitudinal control in narrow estuaries), or by both cross- and alongshore processes (typical of coastal plumes). Here field observations and numerical modeling are used to investigate stratification on the low-sloped, periodically inundated Skagit Bay tidal flats. Advection of stratification by the depth-averaged velocity, straining of the horizontal density gradient by velocity shear, and turbulent mixing are shown to be the dominant processes. On the south-central flats (near the south fork river mouth) velocities are roughly rectilinear, and the largest terms are in the major velocity direction (roughly cross-shore). However, on the north flats (near the north fork river mouth), velocity ellipses are nearly circular owing to strong alongshore tidal flows and alongshore stratification processes are important. Stratification was largest in areas where velocities and density gradients were aligned. The maximum stratification occurred during the prolonged high water of nearly diurnal tides when advection and straining with relatively weak flows increased stratification with little mixing. Simulations suggest that the dominance of straining (increasing stratification) or mixing (decreasing stratification) on ebb tides depends on the instantaneous Simpson number being above or below unity. / by Vera L. Pavel. / Ph.D.

As changing ocean conditions lead to declining fish stocks and movement of forage fish, sea lions on the Oregon coast are subject to the pressures of declining prey availability and increasing conflicts with commercial and recreational fisheries. An analysis of strandings of California sea lions, Zalophus californianus, and Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus, from 2006 to 2014, included cause of death, changing ocean conditions, and anthropogenic activity. Causes of death included disease, injury, and human interaction, such as gunshot wounds, fisheries net entanglements and boat strikes. Oregon and Washington strandings of California sea lions are primarily adult and subadult males that migrate north from California rookeries, while Steller sea lions are year-round residents and strandings are comprised of males and females of all ages. While the California sea lion population is currently at or near carrying capacity, the Eastern Pacific population of Steller sea lions was designated as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act until October 2013. Understanding impacts to these two pinniped species is vital to implementing effective management and conservation policies. Oregon and southern Washington strandings of California sea lions and Steller sea lions from 2006 to 2014 were analyzed spatially using the geographic information system (GIS), and temporally to identify possible correlations with prey availability and human interaction. Strandings were found to follow seasonal patterns from year to year: Steller sea lion strandings were highest from May to July, California sea lions peaked in September, October, and November. There was a correlation between significantly high numbers of strandings and the three largest commercial fisheries in Oregon: Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, and Dungeness crab. This analysis provides a format for continuing to monitor primary ecological and anthropogenic drivers of pinniped mortality in Oregon and southern Washington.

The overall main goal of this research is to assist with the planning and creation of an ethnobotanical addition at the Heronswood Garden, a botanical garden located in northwest Washington state recently purchased by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Methods included a three month long ethnographic study of Heronswood Garden as an official intern, and conducting a needs assessment that primarily employed participant observation and semi-structured open-ended interviews with all garden employees. Information revealed through the research includes causal issues behind a lack of community participation at the garden, elaboration on the solutions to various issues facilitated by negotiating and combining the views and opinions of the garden’s employees, and author reflections on the needs assessment report and the project as a whole. This research connects itself with and utilizes the methodologies and theories from applied anthropology, environmental anthropology, and environmental science to provide contemporary perspective into the subject of preserving or preventing the loss of biodiversity, language diversity, and sociocultural diversity.

A flood routing and stage prediction model is developed using the techniques of State Space and Kalman filtering. The governing equation is the physically based hydrologic method of flood routing with the output being an optimal estimate of stage given known inputs of streamflow. These equations are developed in state space and the Kalman filter is employed to estimate the flow and river stage. The model is applied to the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers in the State of Washington, where the stage is affected by a shifting bed elevation. With the deterministic inputs at Mayfield Dam on the Cowlitz and Tower Road on the Toutle, the optimal output of stage is predicted at Castle Rock on the Cowlitz River. Addition of the Kalman Filter improves stage prediction based on an application to an observed storm event.

The Ellensburg Formation of south-central Washington and north-central Oregon has been described by many workers from the time of the original description by Russell (1893) to recent work by Schmincke (1964). However, detailed information concerning the stratigraphy and petrography of the Ellensburg Formation in south-central Washington and north-central Oregon is not available. This study is among the first detailed studies made for a member of the Ellensburg Formation; it provides a specific comparison with the type Ellensburg of central Washington.