Department of Environmental Sciences
College of the Environment
Western Washington University

ESCI 330 Natural History of the Pacific Northwest

Fall 2023
Wednesdays 2-3 pm at field sites; some meetings online via Zoom
Fridays 1-4 pm at field sites, see schedule below

Instructor: John McLaughlin	Teaching Assistant: Ellie Ryan
Phone: 360-650-7617	Phone: - -
E-mail:	E-mail: ryane7[at]wwu[dot]edu
( Please do not send attachments in proprietary formats.)
Office Hours: after class in person and by appt. in-person or via Zoom

Text: Mathews, Daniel. 2021. Cascadia Revealed: A Guide to the Plants, Animals, and Geology of the Pacific Northwest Mountains. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
In addition, the following field guide is suggested for more information about plants.
Pojar, J. and MacKinnon, A, eds. 1994. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Lone Pine Pub., Vancouver, BC.

Excerpts from readings listed below are assigned in in the course schedule.

Required Equipment: A sturdy field notebook with a waterproof cover and a writing implement

Prerequisite: BIOL 101 or BIOL 204 Intro. to Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity (or equivalent) or ESCI 225; OR instructor permission.

Course Description:

Fleischner (2011; pp.5-6) defines natural history as "a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human-world, guided by honesty and accuracy. Simply put, it is paying attention to the bigger world outside our own heads."

The structure and approach of this course support Fleischner's view of natural history as a process and a way of knowing, rather than simply an inherited body of knowledge. You will observe nature directly, and apply your observations to develop inferences about the structure, function, and composition of Pacific Northwest environments.

Each region on Earth is characterized by natural phenomena that form a unique set of patterns in space and time. These patterns range in scale from drought-tolerant traits on individual leaves to elevational gradients in plant biomass. The patterns can be organized by ecological, climatological, hydrological, and geological categories. Natural history is an effort to recognize and describe those patterns, and it is a prerequisite to understanding their origins and likely futures. The practice of natural history is essential to developing ecological literacy. To live ethically in a finite world, a person must learn something about the organisms and processes maintaining that world and our relationships with them.

This course is an introduction to the study of fascinating patterns characterizing our region, with an emphasis on ecological examples. The primary course goal is to inspire life-long practice of natural history and to help you develop observational and deductive abilities in support of that pursuit. Accordingly, most instruction will endeavor to help you observe nature directly and draw inferences insightfully.

After successfully completing the course, you should be able to do the following in our region.

1. Recognize and identify important ecological, climatological, hydrological, and geological patterns.

2. Identify many organisms found in various Pacific Northwest environments.

3. Observe diverse organisms and deduce what structural or behavioral traits help them survive.

4. Articulate basic ecological, climatological, hydrological, and geological principles that operate in the Pacific Northwest.

5. Develop observation skills sufficient to enter an unfamiliar area in the Pacific Northwest and determine what processes have shaped it.

6. Understand at a basic level human roles and positions within the web of Pacific Northwest ecological relationships, at personal and societal scales.

7. Recognize anthropogenic impacts and describe effects of those impacts on organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

This is primarily a field course, complemented by some online presentations, discussions, and activities. If you would find hiking on trails for three hours to be an unreasonable physical challenge, please see the Instructor or Teaching Assistant before the second course meeting. Although the schedule may change according to the weather, you should come to class prepared to be outside regardless of weather conditions.

Policies and Resources

COVID-19 Policies:
Please make your health and the health of others in your sphere your highest priority.
If you feel sick, stay home, take care of yourself, and do not attend course field trips. No penalty will be applied for classes missed for health reasons, even if your illness turns out to be a mild cold.
Seek medical attention if your symptoms become severe, particularly high fever or difficulty breathing.
If you have had close contact with someone known to have COVID-19, self-quarantine for at least 10 days and take a COVID-19 test 5 days after exposure. If you had close contact with someone known to have COVID-19 and you manifest symptoms, self-isolate for at least 10 days and get tested.
Please contact the instructor to arrange accommodations if you must miss multiple classes due to illness or self-isolation.

We will practice COVID-19 safety throughout the course.
(1) All in-person meetings will occur outside, at field sites. There will be no meetings indoors.
(2) All course participants must be fully vaccinated for COVID, as per WWU policy.
Vaccine boosters are recommended.
(3) Wearing face masks during in-person course meetings and field trips is encouraged. Masks should cover nose and mouth.
(4) Maintain at least 2 meters interpersonal physical spacing at all times.
(5) Please travel to field sites independently of others. Exceptions can be made for people from the same household.
(6) Refrain from hand-shaking, hugging, high-fiveing, elbow-bumping, or other interpersonal contact. Save those activities for the post-pandemic world.
(7) Please wash your hands before and after all field trips.

Information about COVID-19 symptoms, treatment, prevention, and safety are at the following.
WWU
COVID-19 exposure FAQ, WA DOH
WA Department of Health

WWU Course Policies: We will observe all university policies regarding academic honesty, disability accommodation, religious accommodation, and equal opportunity. Please review those policies at the following site. https://syllabi.wwu.edu/

In particular, reasonable accommodation for students with documented disabilities should be established within the first week of class and arranged through the Disability Access Center: https://disability.wwu.edu/
Students seeking religious accommodation should provide written notice to the instructor within the first two weeks of the course.

WWU provides resources for additional student needs.
Students with medical needs may find help at the Student Health Center.
Students with emotional or psychological concerns may find help at the Counseling Center.
The Office of Student Life can help with difficult personal or family issues and in navigating the university bureaucracy.

Students with challenging personal circumstances are encouraged to contact the instructor before those issues impact work in the course, or as soon as possible. I will not consider this as weakness or requests for special favors. We will have better opportunities to develop strategies to help you succeed if we begin early.

Readings:

Assigned excerpts from the following sources are available online.

Eissinger, A. 2017. Chuckanut Community Forest Baseline Documentation Report. prepared for Chuckanut Community Forest Park District, Bellingham, WA.
Giracca A. 2016. Into the Field. Orion Magazine 35(3):46-52. (May/June 2016)
Green HW. 2011. Field work as art and science. Science 333:1704-1705.
Halfpenny, James C. 1999. A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in Western America. NetLibrary, Inc., Boulder, CO. [electronic resource]
Keyes, C. 2019. The life-changing benefits of animal encounters. Outside Magazine, 16 Dec. 2019.
McLaughlin J. 2022. Sharing the river with salmon. AdventuresNW 17(3):16-20.
Montgomery, D. 2021. What is a River? Interview, The River Radius podcast, episode 19, hosted by Sam Carter. URL: https://www.theriverradius.com/
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC). 2020. State of Our Watersheds. NWIFC, Olympia, Washington, USA. [online] URL: https://nwifc.org/publications/state-of-our-watersheds/
Simard, S. 2021. Trees talk to each other. 'Mother Tree' ecologist hears lessons for people, too. Interviewed by Dave Davies, Fresh Air, Philadelphia, PA.
SFU (Simon Fraser University). 2021. Ancient Indigenous forest gardens promote a healthy ecosystem: SFU study. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C.
Sobocinski, K.L. 2021. State of the Salish Sea. G. Broadhurst and N.J.K. Baloy (Contributing Eds.). Salish Sea Institute, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA. URL: https://doi.org/10.25710/vfhb-3a69

Course Evaluation:

Grades will be based on a field journal, two natural history reports, a practical exam, a natural history portfolio, presentation of the portfolio to the class, and informed participation on class discussions and field trips. The value of recording natural history observations in field journals is extolled in Green (2011). Each item is due at the beginning of class on the assigned date, except the exam and the presentation, which will occur during class. Due to the difficulty of timely evaluation of weekly journals and other assignments, late work cannot be accepted.

Electronic submissions: Please upload your work in digital format to the course Canvas site. If electronic submission would be difficult for you, please contact the instructor by the second week of the quarter.

Please adhere to the following guidelines.
(1) Submit your work before class by the due date.
(2) For journal submissions, photograph or scan the relevant pages from your journal, and upload the image file to the course Canvas site.
(3) Sumbit your work in a non-proprietary format (e.g., PDF or ASCII text, not MS-Word or MS-PowerPoint formats). If you create your work using proprietary software, converting to a non-proprietary format should be easy. Simply save your work to an appropriate file format.
For information about problems with proprietary formats, including MS-Word, please see this list.

Assignments, weights, and due dates are listed below.

Professional portfolio of ESCI graduate, Logan Parsons