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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMay 2025 NPC MRC First DRAFT Meeting Summary NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 1 May 20, 2025 NPC MRC Draft Meeting Summary The Tuesday, May 20, 2025 NPC MRC meeting took place at the Peninsula College in Forks, WA and by Zoom connection from 4:04 PM to 6:04 PM. Appointed committee members present at the meeting were Maggie Bockart (Hoh Tribe Representative), Chris Butler-Minor (Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary [OCNMS], ex officio), 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), Rebecca Mahan (Clallam County Representative), Ian Miller (UW Sea Grant, ex officio), Tami Pokorny (Jefferson County Representative and NPC MRC Coordinator), Alice Ryan (Citizen Representative, Clallam County – Recreational Groups) and Jill Silver (Citizen Representative, Jefferson County– Conservation/Environmental Groups). A quorum was present at the beginning of the meeting. Guleed Ali (Stonybrook University), Rebekah Brooks (Rebekah Brooks Contracting), John Calambokidis (Cascadia Research Collective), Roger Creel (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Elizabeth Davis (Research Geologist), Nancy Messmer (Northwest Clean Coast Alliance), Roy Morris (Northwest Clean Coast Alliance), Hung Nguyen (University of Illinois), John Shaw (Grays Harbor MRC), Florence Sullivan (Coastal Oceanic and Seabird Survey Team [COASST]), Mark Tagal (Tagal Oceanic), Megan Tuttle (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW]), Christine VanDeen (OCNMS), and Alex Vanderzee (Cascadia Research Collective) were also in attendance. Introductions Public Comments Wendy Feltham said she was pleased to view the films from the Film Festival through the link. She called the films fantastic, inspiring, hopeful, and distressing, and hoped to see full films for the two that had only trailers. She asked a contact with the Peninsula Environmental News to provide the link as well. Alice Ryan announced that Quileute Tribal School took first place at the Navigator level of the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) competition. It was the youngest team she had ever brought to the competition. Ian Miller and Jennifer Hagen both attended part of the competition and said it was very well done. Additions to and Approval of the Agenda The agenda was accepted by consensus with no changes. Approval of the April NPC MRC Summary The April NPC MRC Summary was accepted by consensus as written. Announcements There were no announcements. NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 2 Old Business There was no old business. New Business Project applicants presented their proposals. Project applications are due 6/9/25. • Alex Vanderzee, research biologist with Cascadia Research Collective, a non-profit based out of Olympia, presented: Insights into Ship Strike and Entanglement Risk to Humpback Whales on Washington’s Outer Coast. The Collective conducts research on blue, humpback, and grey whales on the West Coast and in Hawaii with an emphasis on abundance, distribution, and movement. They also look at anthropogenic impacts and stranding response. Cascadia Research Collective has over 280 peer reviewed publications, they host long-term photo identification catalogs of whales on the US West Coast, and they work with and for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, WDFW, and other state and federal agencies. With the increasing population of humpback whales on the coast, Washington’s outer coast was designated as a biologically important area. Humpbacks face risks of ship strike, entanglement, and disturbance, but knowledge gaps remain regarding demographic patterns. This proposal is for a study aimed at understanding humpback whale spatial use on the outer Washington coast, based on age, sex, and group composition, to inform ship strike and entanglement risk. Key questions of the project include how different groups of whales use the outer coast, and which areas are used by the most critical groups. The potential project area is from Grays Harbor up to the outer north Washington coast and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The proposal includes outreach to encompass the communities of Forks, Port Angeles, and Westport. The project aims to determine the spatial use of different groups and overlap it with human activities to support risk assessment, develop management strategies, and identify high risk zones. This will be done through a combination of old data (using previous surveys from 1994-2004), photo ID data, and additional data from seven new surveys over the summer of 2026. They wish to involve communities through local presentations to those who use and reside in the outer coast and trainings on entanglement risk reduction and marine mammal stranding response. The Cascadia Research Collective team includes two Level 5 entanglement responders and a stranding coordinator, in addition to researchers Alex Vanderzee and John Calambokidis. Deliverables include a report on the humpback spatial area use of outer coast, local presentations and trainings, and a final presentation. The project timeline is to begin in February of 2026, conduct summer field surveys, analyze the data over the fall and winter, do final outreach and reporting in spring of 2027, and end the project in June of 2027. The proposal aligns with multiple NPC MRC benchmarks, including marine life and habitat, sound science, education and outreach, and coastal communities. The new data is anticipated to guide and inform management and conservation. The project budget is $42,770. Tami Pokorny pointed out that the NPC MRC is not permitted to spend WDFW funding on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, so that portion of the project would need to be subtracted from the budget. Jennifer Hagen noted that there are no whale watching businesses out of the La Push area. Alex added that they were open to communicating with fishermen and to suggestions for community education on how to report when an entangled whale is spotted. NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 3 • Christine VanDeen, education associate for OCNMS and Olympic Region Coordinator for Olympic Coast ROV, presented on the Olympic Region ROV Workshop and Competition. The annual competition was just held on 5/17/25. The program held its first competition in 2017 and provides hands-on science to students on the Olympic Coast. Two levels were represented at the competition: the Scout level (beginner) and Navigator (advanced) level. This year there were 11 teams total, with seven Scout teams and four Navigator teams from Taholah, Forks, Quileute Tribal School, and the Quinault Valley School District. The program encourages community connections and learning, with the Olympic Coast ROV community actively supporting one another during workshops and competitions and bringing excitement about STEM topics relating to 21st century careers to students. Skills developed in the ROV program lead directly to community-based careers and opportunities, and students interact with volunteer judges form a variety of professional science and environmental fields. Past alumni include the Port Townsend Seadragons, who have been able to help an OCNMS research vessel locate and retrieve derelict crab pots. The competition location in Forks is very important to continue for coastal students, as the next closest competition is in Federal Way. The proposed budget is $10,000, and includes facilities and insurance, resources and learning materials, meal support, student and mentor recognition, volunteer support, and staff time. *Megan Tuttle suggested additional ways to engage students in outreach in river projects on the coast, such as filming fish underwater, and offered to connect the outreach team with Christine. *Alice Ryan volunteered to help make that connection in her ROV class. • Elizabeth Davis, research geologist, presented Natural Hazards Research on the Olympic Coast - Advancing Science and Training Students, a continuation of a project that started in 2018. The project aligns with NPC MRC benchmarks sound science, education, and coastal communities. Jill Silver offered Elizabeth office space and support, so if she is funded, Elizabeth will work out of the 10,000 Years Institute office. They have been collaborators over the years. The proposal is to 1: Continue coastal erosion monitoring at Rialto Beach; 2: Evaluate co-seismic landslides; and 3: support Quileute Tribal School research projects. Since 2018, other phases of this work have asked sediment supply questions about the retreating shoreline. Erosion is nearing the slope at some points and threatening Olympic National Park infrastructure. The project hopes to date the age of the coastal landslides and evaluate whether they are co-seismic. There is an information gap in earthquake data, but some of the new data points are from NPC MRC funded projects, research that Elizabeth would like to continue. The educational component includes mentoring three high school student interns from the Quileute Tribal School in scientific research projects, in partnership with the Culture and Geoscience Exchange at the University of Washington. A cost share with a University of Washington CRESCENT grant is available for that portion of the project. Anticipated impact includes scientific research products to contribute to publications, applied research products on erosion monitoring and coordination, and education and mentorship. Elizabeth would work with Alice Ryan’s science class to talk about research, identify overlap of interest, and conduct field work with students with the time left in the internship. The budget is for $8,000 for Elizabeth’s time, field expenses, and radiocarbon dating age samples. She may be able to continue to cost share with the US Geological Survey for the samples, which cost between $300 and $500 per sample. There are also opportunities to collaborate informally with Guleed Ali’s ICETREE team and their project. • Florence Anne Sullivan, marine ecologist and COASST science coordinator, presented Dead Birds Build Life Experience: A COASST Internship. COASST is a citizen science organization that is a collaboration NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 4 between passionate citizens and scientists. Volunteers conduct standardized searches that are repeated on a monthly basis looking for dead birds. Dead birds are useful data because there are a lot of them, they were once alive, they can be identified by anyone, they can be thoroughly examined, they are easily photographed, and they contain lots of valuable information. Over years of the program, they have established baseline patterns of causes of major death. COASST has been building relationships with coastal communities since 1998 and operates through several steps: 1: Recruit and train local citizens; 2: Give the protocol for surveys; 3: Allow for data input; 4: Final verification by experts; and 5: Data is analyzed and presented. Volunteers have a high accuracy rate after training. Over time, COASST has been able to document normal patterns of beach bird mortality. The data is being used in many applications, from climate impacts, oil spill modeling, harmful algal blooms, wind farm siting and impact monitoring, fishery bycatch and competition, disease outbreaks, and marine debris. Florence said COASST was proud to be a part of Alice Ryan’s network through the internship program. Being able to offer students a stipend makes it much easier for them to participate and build skill sets. Two cohorts have gone through the program now, and maintaining that momentum is important. Alice has students who are excited to apply for upcoming rounds of the program. Objectives of the project include creating a paid opportunity for coastal youth to explore STEM career paths by building life experience through hands-on field experience through a standardized survey design, specialized tools, applying the metric system, data entry, and computer skills. The program also builds communication and networking by introducing the interns to other students with nontraditional pathways to higher education at the University of Washington. They will also learn presentation skills and about environmental science careers. The project will recruit students with the help of community partners like Alice, and offer an initial COASST in-community training to which all are welcome. Students are recruited as teams, for a total of four interns for two teams of two. The teams will conduct 12 coast surveys: one per month over a year. The budget is $20,196. Alice pointed out the importance of the financial stipend for Quileute Tribal School students. Discussion followed on recruiting Peninsula College interns; Chris Morgan with the Natural Resources program (cmorgan@pencol.edu) is the contact. • Guleed Ali, with the Department of Geosciences at Stonybrook University, presented on project ICETREE, which aligns with NPC MRC benchmarks sound science and education and outreach. The project is about investigating the climatic evolution of north American ice sheets with tree rings and is a partnership between five geoscientists from different disciplines who are all starting their careers. Guleed showed a map of the world of about 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. The timing of the cordilleran ice sheet and the forming of the Olympic Peninsula region is quite interesting. At a regional context, the ice flowing south from coastal mountains split into two, with one part flowing south into the Puget lowlands, and the other turning west to the Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is a highly eventful time for regional geologic studies, involving glacial deposits, mass wasting hazards, and unusual but extreme outburst flood events. The reported ages are also unusual and suggest that the ice reached its maximum almost 10,000 years after the eastern ice sheet reached its maximum. Global carbon dioxide was increasing, and solar radiation was increasing, so this contradicts conventional wisdom about what controls ice sheets. This is a puzzling contradiction that has not been highlighted by past research. The precise dating of Juan de Fuca lobe of the cordilleran ice sheet has not had much work since 1970s. Questions remain about the synchronicity and dynamics of ice sheets, what makes them vulnerable to melting and collapse, and whether the cordilleran ice sheet may have advanced to its maximum on the Olympic Peninsula during a wet interval 16,000 years ago. Fragments of wood in glacial NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 5 deposits suggest this timeline, which corresponds with a wet interval in the Great Basin. To take this research to the next level, the proposal includes radiocarbon dating of wood embedded in glacial till from Rialto Beach to Cape Flattery over the spring and summer 2026, revising the cordilleran ice sheet chronology via radiocarbon dating in 2026 and 2027, and developing an annual time series of summer temperatures from previously collected sub fossil logs. The conventional method is to measure the tree ring width, but Hung Nguyen has developed a novel method to measure ring density via x-ray commuted topography. The project would also conduct science outreach through Quileute Valley School District curriculum development, active learning exercises, improving science accessibility, and connection with Peninsula College students. The budget is $23,000. There is also an opportunity for collaboration with Elizabeth Davis’s project. Guleed added that ICETREE is made up of five early career researchers, who are at the start of their professional careers. They all have geological backgrounds but with very different angles that provide a fresh take on an old field and are excited about the question of abrupt climate change, the stability of ice sheets, and how to push the science limit. Wendy Feltham shared a link to a book by paleontologist Elizabeth Nesbitt from the University of Washington and the Burke Museum: https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295752327/spirit-whales-and-sloth-tales/. Review of Scoring and Ranking Process: Tami Pokorny reminded voting NPC MRC members to please reach out with any questions on approaches to the project score sheets. NPC MRC on Social Media Tami Pokorny said that there was some administrative discretionary time left in the budget that needed to be spent by the end of June. There is currently a big push at the County to meet people where they are by using social media for outreach. *She asked if anyone had any thoughts about what kinds of messaging to post via social media, and if so, to please get in touch with her. Updates Coast MRC Update Chris Waldbillig was not present for an update. Washington Coastal Marine Advisory Council (WCMAC) The next meeting is scheduled for 6/4/25 in Grays Harbor with an online option and will contain an update on economic resiliency. Additional upcoming meetings are scheduled for 10/1/25 and 12/3/25. The agenda 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 5/16/25 and was virtual. Chris Butler-Minor gave an update. The meeting included a briefing from the national director of the Office of Marine Sanctuaries; there are lots of moving pieces for future budgets, but appreciation was expressed for the OCNMS and community involvement. There was a presentation from Washington Department of Natural Resources on kelp and eelgrass resources. Washington coast is one of the most diverse areas for kelp, second only to Japan. There are early forays into aquaculture and long-term data sets of ocean conditions off the coast. The next meeting is scheduled for 7/18/25. Tami Pokorny asked about funding and staff concerns. Chris said there were many changes happening frequently, which made it hard to anticipate ultimate staff levels, but the current understanding was that the programs most at risk are those that are not mandated by legislation. The expectation for fiscal year 2026 is that there will be a third less funding than in the previous two years. This will be finally decided by congress. Chris welcomed people to Port NPC MRC 5/20/2025 DRAFT Meeting Summary 6 Angeles this weekend or during the weekends in June to visit the Olympic Coast Discovery Center on the second floor of the Wharf (115 E Railroad Ave, Suite 208). West Coast Ocean Alliance Jennifer Hagen said that the Alliance was still working on a governance document; the deadline is the end of the month. A delegation will be going back to Washington D.C. with tribal leaders. There are meetings between agency leaders who are trying to bring home the message that there are many people on the West Coast who care about the ocean. The main concerns have shifted from ocean wind energy to oil, gas, and large-scale industrial uses and commercial development. In April and May, wave buoys were set up off of La Push, to provide publicly available information in real time on the NANOOS website. They are also putting out Sanctuary moorings. There is a proposal to cut the program that funds NANOOS, so efforts to advocate for the maintenance of these programs are being made. Invasive European Green Crab Jennifer Hagen reported a trapping effort at La Push, where a few European green crab were found, but no more than last time. The Quileute Tribe plans to continue trapping and adapt their efforts as needed. Marine Debris Roy Morris announced a successful marine debris cleanup for the Washington Coast Cleanup. Nancy Messmer is working with people for better recycling practices. Climate/Fossil Fuels Related (All) There was nothing new to report. Administrative Update Tami Pokorny will be in touch with existing sponsors and final invoices, which are all due at the end of June. New project applications are due on 6/9/25, after which Tami will distribute score sheets to be filled out prior to the June NPC MRC meeting. Next Agenda (June 17, 2025): The next NPC MRC Meeting will be held on 6/17/25 and will include project ranking and recommendations and a presentation on Coastal Bluff Erosion at Kalaloch by Ian Miller. Public Comments/General There were no public comments. Adjourn at 6:04 PM Action Items *Megan Tuttle suggested additional ways to engage ROV students in outreach in river projects on the coast, such as filming fish underwater, and offered to connect the outreach team with Christine VanDeen. *Alice Ryan volunteered to help make that connection in her ROV class. *Tami Pokorny asked if anyone had any thoughts about what kinds of messaging to post via social media, and if so, to please get in touch with her. Draft summary compiled by Rebekah Brooks.