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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 2025 NPC MRC First DRAFT Meeting Summary NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 1 April 15, 2025 NPC MRC Draft Meeting Summary The Tuesday, April 15, 2025 NPC MRC meeting took place at the Peninsula College in Forks, WA and by Zoom connection from 4:00 PM to 5:49 PM. Appointed committee members present at the meeting were Maggie Bockart (Hoh Tribe Representative), Eileen Cooney (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County - Economic Groups), Wendy Feltham (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County – Scientific Community), Rod Fleck (City of Forks), Jennifer Hagen (Quileute Tribe Representative), John Hunter (Citizen Representative, Clallam County – Conservation / Environmental Groups), Ian Miller (UW Sea Grant, ex officio), Tami Pokorny (Jefferson County Representative and NPC MRC Coordinator), and Jill Silver (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County– Conservation/Environmental Groups). A quorum was present at the beginning of the meeting. Guleed Ali (Stonybrook University), Robert Beck (Quileute Tribe), Rebekah Brooks (Rebekah Brooks Contracting), Roger Creel (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Elizabeth Davis (University of Washington), Molly Griffiths (Pacific Education Institute [PEI]), Nancy Messmer (Northwest Clean Coast Alliance), Roy Morris (Northwest Clean Coast Alliance), Dave Nightingale (interested citizen), Anne Schaffer (Coastal Watershed Institute [CWI]), Heidi Smith (PEI), Florence Sullivan (Coastal Oceanic and Seabird Survey Team [COASST]), Mark Tagal (International Business and System Solutions [IBSS]), Megan Tuttle (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW]), and Christine VanDeen (Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary [OCNMS]) were also in attendance. Introductions Public Comments Tami Pokorny reported a great Film Festival. Wendy Feltham asked if anyone had been affected by the federal funding cuts. Tami said that Nicole Harris had lost her job with OCNMS. Jennifer Hagen said that there were concerns that multiple ocean programs may be cut, but that so far they were putting one foot in front of the other as much as possible. Maggie Bockart noted a lot of indirect cuts, but no direct cuts yet. There was concern about future projects, and a lack of confidence in grant funds remaining available in the coming months. Anne Schaffer added that the CWI had hired a fish scientist who had been hired and then fired with OCNMS. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda Tami Pokorny asked Ian Miller if he would mind delaying his presentation until a future NPC MRC meeting given the number of project presenters that were present. The agenda was approved by consensus with that change. Approval of the March NPC MRC Summary The March NPC MRC Summary was approved by consensus as written. Announcements There were no announcements. NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 2 Old Business Film Festival The Film Festival was held in conjunction with RainFest over the weekend of 4/12/25 and saw a great turnout and support. A request was made for links to the films, which Ian Miller distributed: River and Ocean Film Festival. Ian said that it was nice to be back in person again. The film that was voted best in show was the Tsunami 11th Relative by Ocean Networks Canada; the runner up was The Melt by Brian Zigulich and Alex Rupp. New Business Coastal Bluff Erosion at Kalaloch The presentation by Ian Miller was postponed, but Ian shared a link to his presentation that he gave as part of the Olympic National Park Perspectives series: Coastal Bluffs Erosion at Kalaloch. Ideas for New NPC MRC Projects • Anne Schaffer, executive director of CWI in Port Angeles, shared a quick conversation about dialogues the Institute is having with the Makah Tribe about herring on the North Olympic Peninsula. Herring is the most abundant forage fish for the area, but nothing is really known about their historic potential spawning. CWI is interested in working with the Tribe and collectively with other First Nations in southern Vancouver with specific site visits to geographic regions. A full proposal will be submitted to the NPC MRC. CWI was first formed in 1996 as a place-based environmental non-profit with a mission to understand and protect nearshore and coastal systems. They have done a great amount of research in the area on nearshore and coastal environments in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the Elwha River, and on herring in the last eight years. Other than the high documented numbers of juvenile herring in the region, there is a gap in the knowledge on the North Olympic Peninsula. They are looking at ecosystem and regional linkages. Jill Silver asked if they would be looking at marine vegetation as well. Anne said they would not be doing so for this project; the focus would be on engaging with the Tribe and finding historic and current herring information. However, work in other areas of the North Olympic Peninsula has drilled into that forage fish and kelp dynamic. • Elizabeth Davis, University of Washington PhD graduate, discussed her proposal to continue the research on coastal erosion at Rialto Beach, looking into landslides and tectonic change and continuing the coastal retreat monitoring there. The retreat is about to impact Olympic National Park facilities and infrastructure, so she intends to step up communication with the Park. The erosion could impact the bluff and trigger larger landslides. She hoped to date the coastal landslides and determine whether they are co-seismic and if they overlap with the Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes, but added that producing this kind of data is slow by nature. Her proposal is to move north and collect more data, and to start community education and engagement, possibly through public art or handouts, field trips, or a digital resource. She is looking for partners and ideas. Maggie Bockart asked Elizabeth to elaborate on the types of erosion data being collected. Elizabeth explained that the data looked at Rialto Beach over time, identifying trees and locations for point-by-point erosion data sets. Her feeling was that the most erosion occurs when a tree is undercut and the root ball takes out the earth around it. Megan Tuttle asked about the types and ages of the deposits. Elizabeth said that they were unconsolidated deposits and that the landform was less than 600 years old. Roy Morris suggested collaboration with COASST, which Florence Sullivan supported. Jennifer Hagen recommended providing the Park with information about relocating the Park privy to more solid ground. Anne Schaffer suggested the perspective of looking at landslides as natural mechanisms that form our coastlines and deliver wood to those zones, rather than as disasters. NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 3 • Christine VanDeen, regional director for the Olympic Coast Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) program, noted that OCNMS had seen unexpected changes and employee turnover lately. She will still be applying for funds to continue the Olympic Coast ROV program, in which students are tasked with designing a ROV that can complete real world missions. The competition has several skill levels so students can build on their knowledge. The program has opened opportunities for interests and pride for students on the coast from Forks, the Quileute Tribal School, Neah Bay, Lake Quinault, Taholah, and occasionally Port Angeles or Port Townsend. There have been 60 to 75 students who participate annually. While there are other regional ROV competitions in more populated areas, this is a unique opportunity for students on the coast. The program also offers a student focused workshop, where students can share their experiences and collaborate with peers, and ROV experts are brought in. The Port Townsend SeaDragons, a team who competed in the program in past years, are now young adults who are still supporting ROV education in the real world. The group expressed appreciation for the continuation of the program and its relevance to future research. • Guleed Ali, with the Department of Geosciences at Stonybrook University, introduced Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute post doctorate Roger Creel and the collaboration they are part of. The project would support five scientists who are just starting their careers and faculty positions as they document ice age history in the region. The group is called “Icetree” and plans to use history and future predictions to investigate the climatic evolution of the American ice sheet with ancient tree rings. The North Olympic Peninsula is rich with these ancient trees, which are incredibly rare across the world, that help to tell the story about past, present, and future ice ages. A remarkable aspect of the current state of the glaciers is that modeling predicts that there will be no glaciers left by 2070, and climate change impacts might mean that that is a conservative estimate. Within one generation, these resources that are so important for the local environment and fisheries could disappear. Air temperatures exert dominant control on glacier mass balance, and air temperatures are influenced by sea surface temperatures. The group will investigate what propelled the growth and shrinkage of the Cordilleran ice sheet that helped to form the North Olympic Peninsula. Guleed noted that the Great Basin in the central United States was once filled with large lakes, but these areas are now quite arid. The timing of when the lakes rose to their maximum is interesting as they expanded abruptly about 16,000 years ago. This proposal plans to include hypothesis testing to discover if the Cordilleran ice sheet advanced to its maximum during the extremely wet interval now dated to 16,100 to 15,900 years ago. Their objectives include revising the radiocarbon dating of the ice sheet, mapping landforms, using subfossil trees to expand contribution to the radiocarbon calibration curve, and communicating the science to local schools. They have already connected with Alice Ryan and Chris Morgan to start conversations about providing students with a hands-on approach. • Florence Sullivan, marine ecologist and new COASST science coordinator, discussed the COASST program, which is a 25-year-old citizen science project where volunteers collect data in a rigorous way that has provided a dataset used by governmental and non-governmental organizations. The COASST intern project is now in its second year with NPC MRC. Interns work in pairs to complete surveys and also have the chance to pursue and explore career pathways, meet with students at the University of Washington, and tour the campus. The interns provided feedback on the first two years of the program. Walking on the beaches was a favorite part, but the experience inspired the pursuit of more citizen science opportunities and internships in the future. One student came to the program thinking that he was not interested in higher education, but realizing how science informs construction has made him consider an education in science. One of the parents called out the peer mentoring aspect of the NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 4 program. Many students in coastal communities are trying to help support families while they are in school, so a stipend makes internships possible and offers these students the opportunities to connect with their peers, consider other careers and higher education, and learn about science at the same time. Florence will have a full proposal at the next NPC MRC meeting. • Heidi Smith, associate director of communications and development at PEI, and Holly Griffiths, associate director of Puget Sound at PEI, explained that PEI is a statewide non-profit organization that trains teachers in outdoor play-spaced learning with a focus on natural resources and conservation. John Hunter is the coastal region coordinator. They had been in conversations with Roy Morris and Nancy Messmer about microplastics and were thinking about a proposal in two parts. 1: A two-day workshop on education in the region focused on marine microplastics and marine issues. They would integrate math, language arts, science, and other subjects around the task and look at existing citizen science projects. The workshop would also include a beach walk with local experts and community partner resources on mitigating the impact of microplastics. 2: Within the teacher cohort, they would commit to taking students on one field experience to gather data and the teachers twice, for a total of three data collections. The students would then analyze the data. A stipend would be offered to the teachers for the work. Molly pointed out that PEI focuses on ongoing change, embedding education year after year. Students can be seen impacting their communities in positive ways and learn how to identify changes that they can help to implement within their communities. Tami Pokorny asked about how this work might tie in with Lee First’s microplastics research and projects. Roy noted that the collaboration between the two programs had great potential. Tami added that Lee First’s microplastics resources can be found on the NPC MRC website. • Mark Tagal, senior aqua culturist at IBSS, said that IBSS was a federal contract company and that up until yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was their biggest client. The company has three educational and outreach programs that Mark thought might be of value to the NPC MRC. o 1: The Merroir of Seafood: A seafood aquaculture literacy program that provides tools for chefs and fishers alike and can be a good way to enhance the seafood experience. They have worked with shellfish growers in the area and would like to continue by shifting their focus to seafood out of Washington’s north coast. They have worked in informal learning centers, high schools, grocery stores, and festivals. o 2: Forage Fish: Their Forage Fish Friends program goes into schools to provide education about how forage fish interact with ecosystems and function as ecosystem indicators, and how to work out modern solutions for forage fish, including herring, smelt, and sand lance. o 3: Marine Debris: The agency also has a marine debris cleanup program in the Hawaiian Islands. Mark added that they would be submitting a formal proposal to the NPC MRC and that he has done a lot of forage fish work for the agency, including aquaculture, toxicology, and fish husbandry work. Anne Schaffer recommended that they connect with the Quileute Tribe, which has had difficulty getting their fish to market. Mark noted that IBSS helped the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe get their shellfish to market. Dave Nightingale requested Mark’s contact information. *Tami Pokorny said she would help with connections between project sponsors and the rest of the group. She noted that it was important for all sponsor applications to tie into the region of the NPC MRC on the north Pacific coast, and that the Clallam and Jefferson County MRCs were more specific to the Strait region. Updates NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 5 Coast MRC Update Chris Waldbillig was not present for an update. Washington Coastal Marine Advisory Council (WCMAC) The last WCMAC meeting was held on 3/19/25. The meeting included a review of the workplan and updates on offshore wind energy and the Washington Coastal Zone Management Program. The next meeting is scheduled for 6/4/25 in Westport with an online option. The agenda was still being developed, but it and other WCMAC meeting materials can be found on the Ecology website: Department of Ecology - Committees, Boards, and Workgroups (wa.gov). Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council The last meeting was held on 3/21/25. Chris Butler-Minor was not present for an update, but the meeting agenda included updates from the Department of Ecology on the Washington Coastal Zone Management Program. West Coast Ocean Alliance Jennifer Hagen said that the Alliance was in the process of creating a governance document to guide decision making and membership. It was uncertain whether the Alliance would be able to continue much longer given the federal funding cuts. There was a Summit held in February at Ocean Shores. Currently, the Alliance has another year of funding and an application for additional funds to go forward. Invasive European Green Crab Wendy Feltham said that she and Eileen Cooney were in their tenth year of involvement with the University of Washington Sea Grant European green crab team. The teams have started up again this month with refresher training and surveys. It is an excellent citizen science program. For ten years, the teams have done transects with shoreline descriptions of great detail, but now there are so many teams that that is not done anymore. They are still conducting molt surveys and have added the identification of invasive snails caught in traps. Maggie Bockart reported that she was working with the WDFW on a European green crab coordination group that meets once a quarter. She can send the contact information if anyone is interested. There is an upcoming European green crab workshop in July at the Shoalwater Bay Tribe. Marine Debris Nancy Messmer announced the upcoming Earth Day beach cleanup; registration is online at the CoastSavers website. The Western Strait cleanup is scheduled for 4/26/25. She advocated for the role of citizen scientists and said that the Northwest Clean Coast Alliance is trying to involve middle and high school students in citizen science. Tami Pokorny said that there was a beach cleanup on Raft River; Maggie Bockart added that there was also one at the mouth of the Hoh River. Jennifer Hagen noted that the Olympic National Park was sponsoring some of the stations. Climate/Fossil Fuels Related (All) There was nothing new to report. Administrative Update Tami Pokorny said that current project sponsors were sending in their invoices. Current projects have either concluded or are wrapping up. Next Agenda (May 20, 2025): The next NPC MRC Meeting will be held on May 20, 2025 and will include formal presentations from new project sponsors. NPC MRC 4/15/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 6 Public Comments/General Anne Schaffer shared her contact information: anne.shaffer@coastalwatershedinstitute.org and (360)461-0799. Tami Pokorny thanked John Hunter for attending the meeting in person. Jill Silver thanked all the project sponsors for their amazing proposals. Florence Sullivan asked whether it was best to propose a dream scenario and negotiate or to start off small. Tami explained that the grant was for two years, and that providing options can be helpful, but a full spectrum was good to see if the project was compelling. She encouraged sponsors to read the application thoroughly. NPC MRC members can send Tami any questions they might have for sponsors. Adjourn at 5:49 PM Action Items *Tami Pokorny said she would help with connections between project sponsors and the rest of the group. Draft summary compiled by Rebekah Brooks.