Application Now Open for Future Rivers 2024/25

We are pleased to announce that we are extending our grant and offering our program at least one more year! Interested graduate students can get a jump start on preparing their application for our 2024/25 cohort by reviewing the Apply page on our website. Any current or prospective Masters or PhD student with an interest in freshwater science from any department at the University of Washington can apply. Application review and decisions will happen in late winter (Feb/March) 2024; applications received by the January 26 deadline will be eligible for funding consideration. Answers to additional FAQs can be found here.

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New Freshwater Science and Management Minor

The School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) Freshwater Science and Management minor is now open to all UW undergrads. Explore the physical, biological, and social dimensions of freshwater ecosystems to help solve the sustainability challenges of today and tomorrow!

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Science in Action: Dispatches from the Field

Future Rivers Trainee Sage Fox and PI David Butman recently traveled to Chile to support Sage’s research estimating the export of nutrient and ions to the coastal ocean of Patagonia. With collages from Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia (CIEP), and the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, they drove from Puerto Montt to Coyhaique meeting with citizen science collaborators that were responsible for weekly water quality sampling. This data and the calculated coastal fluxes are the first ever made for this region and will be used as the baseline conditions for what could become the first nationally supported water quality monitoring program in Patagonia. These rivers represent some of the most pristine systems remaining in the world.

Dispatches from the field

Summer “break” is relative around here. Incoming Future Rivers student Grace Brennan has been leading fish removals along the Washington coast, ensuring the safe capture and relocation of fish during culvert replacement projects. Her efforts are part of a statewide initiative to increase salmon returns and protect aquatic life. Another incoming trainee, Rachel Luther, is spending the summer in Olympia, WA working for the legislature as a nonpartisan research analyst for the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC). She is conducting a review of Washington’s recreational boating programs for a report that will be published by JLARC next spring.

Elwha Summer Institute Product

Year 3 cohort students attending last year’s Summer Institute studying the Elwha River in Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula recently completed their joint project. If you are on campus this summer or fall, stop by the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences building on Boat Street along the waterfront to check it out. In the lobby you will find a series of eight posters telling a story of what they learned across multiple dimensions as you travel up the river with them. A heartfelt thank you to our partner EarthLab in providing the graphic design work!

UW-WSU Collaboration and Yakima River Trip

This spring, University of Washington’s Future Rivers NRT teamed up with Washington State University’s Rivers, Watersheds, and Communities NRT to connect and share ideas, resources, and research grounded in a mutual focus of enhancing freshwater science in the state of Washington.

Facilitating Advanced Training

Current Future River student Emma Boudreau received support funding to participate in the CUAHSI Snow Measurement Field School in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire this past winter. In this course, she received fundamental training in making and analyzing snow measurements like depth, density, water equivalence, grain shape, stratigraphy, temperature, and hardness.

Future Rivers student wins 2022 AWRA Annual Conference Poster Competition

Future Rivers Outstanding Graduate Recognition

Building Community in Meaningful Ways

Future Rivers Elwha River Summer Institute

In late August, our 2022/23 Future Rivers trainees spent a week in the field learning about the Elwha dam removal and subsequent restoration efforts. The group shared toured the lower and upper dam removal sites, the mouth of the Elwha, and Lake Crescent; visited the Elwha Klallam Museum; watched and discussed the movie Return of the River with the Co-Directors; and heard from guest speakers representing the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, WDFW, NPS, and USGS. Participants are currently working to co-create a visual storytelling product resulting from their experience covering wildlife, revegetation, food soverignty, fisheries, and human health.