Events
Climate Change and Flooding In the Skagit Basin
The Skagit Climate Science Consortium hosted a workshop on November 28th, 2012 focused on the combined impacts of projected long-term increases in river flooding and sea level rise/storm surge in the Skagit basin. Presenters included Dr. Alan Hamlet, University of Washington Climate Impacts Group; Dr. Jon Riedel, National Park Service; and Dr. Eric Grossman, United States Geological Survey. Videos and PDFs of the presentations available here.
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Climate Change and Skagit Salmon Habitats and Populations
On October 17, 2012 the Skagit Climate Science Consortium, in partnership with the Skagit Watershed Council hosted a workshop on Climate Change and Skagit Salmon Habitats and Populations. Over 60 people attended the event. The intent of the workshop was to: 1) Improve the collective understanding of how climate change is likely to affect the salmon habitats and populations of the Skagit River; and 2) Provide guidance to members of the Skagit Climate Science Consortium on what additional information would be most useful to the Watershed Council sponsors as it considers its strategic approach, and also to individual member organizations as they take actions in support of salmon recovery in the basin. The presentations are available here.
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Response to KCTS July 18, 2012 Airing
Although the KCTS 9 piece that aired on Wednesday (July 18) was well done overall, in terms of accurate reporting of scientific information on climate change impacts to salmon, this piece was quite dismaying in several regards. With the help of regional experts (including members of the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group and the Skagit Climate Science Consortium), the writers did a good job of identifying and correctly describing the most of the important climate change impact pathways for salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and many of the basic impacts (increased risk of flooding, intensified low flows, and increasing water temperature).
That said, the credibility of the piece is repeatedly undermined by frequent misstatement of fact, and the injection of “sound bites” in the narration that attempt to paint the impacts of climate change on Pacific Northwest salmon in black and white terms. More details can be found here.
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Skagit Climate Change Discussion:
June 21, 2012
Skagit County Administration Building,
1800 Continental Place, Mount Vernon
from 9:30–11:30.
Dr. Alan Hamlet, Research Assistant Professor with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will lead a presentation that highlights the findings of the “Skagit River Basin Climate Science Report.” This report was developed for Skagit County and the Envision Skagit 2060 project. The report is available at under the “Reports” tab on the left side of the Envision Skagit Home page. The presentation will be recorded and can be viewed on TV21 and the Envision Skagit website. The PDF of the Dr. Hamlet’s Powerpoint presentation is available here.
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Fall 2011 Workshop for Elected Officials and Planning and Public Works Directors
In the fall of 2011, the Skagit Climate Science Consortium hosted a workshop for the City and County government elected officials and the planning and public works directors. The workshop also included Skagit tribal elected officials or their representatives. The day long workshop covered global climate models, down-scaling of climate models to regional and local scales, changes in temperature and precipitation, hydrology, glaciers, sediment, and sea level rise. The PDF of the Powerpoint presentation is available here.