Release_1973-1974_1974-364.pdf

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Part of News Release (April 19, 1974) Three student projects from TESC are among eight from Washington state that have been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation

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NEWS

The Evergreen State College
Olympia. Washington

for immediate release
April 19, 1974

Three

98505

for further information

Judy Annis, 866-6128

student projects from The Evergreen State College are among eight from

the State of Washington awarded National Science Foundation grants for studies aimed
at exploring environmental problems of the Pacific Northwest.
The three project directors --- Robert Denison, Corvallis, Oregon; Morton
Fabricant, Wilberham, Massachusetts, and Karen Oakley, Bellevue --- have initiated
and planned their projects in cooperation with other Evergreen students and under
the direction of Evergreen faculty members.

They will complete their research

efforts during the 1974 Summer Quarter.
Denison, a junior, was awarded $9,330 to measure the effects of acid rainfall
on nitrogen-fixing organisms in Western Washington Coniferous forests.

Fabricant,

also a junior, is project director for a $9,740 grant to study "Flour ide Levels in
an Ecosystem and Related Ecosystem Changes," and Ms. Oakley, a sophomore, is project
director for the $12,300 grant to study "Tussock Moth Damage as Related to Forest
Management."
Denison, working under the supervision of Faculty Member Oscar Soule, a
biologist, will collect soil, litter and lichens from normal and acid rainfall areas
in Washington, and measure their acidic and buffering capacities.

By so doing, he

hopes to thoroughly investigate the potential for damage to coniferous forests as a
result of acid rainfall.
-moreDick

Nichols.

Infor mat ion

Director
Services

·

t

Denison believes that the. shortage of petroleum "may well lead to increased use
of high-sulfur

t.

coal for power generation," and that the Pacific Northwest will be

the site of an increased number of power plants burning high-sulfur

coal.

Because

of these factofs, the Evergreen scholar feels the "capacity of the environment

to

absorb large amounts of acid is a critical and unresolved question" •..
-•..one for
which he hopes to provide some answers in the coming months.
Fabricant, a member

of

the

Ecology

and ChemistrY of Pollution study program,

has been working with students David Scoboria of Corbett, Oregon and Susan Southwick"
of Seattle and Faculty Member Michael Beug, a chemist.

Together they developed the

\

grant which will enable seven students to spend the sUmmer in the Columbia River
gorge studying the effects of flouride contamination on the diversity and density
of plant communities.

The Evergreeners will conduct an inventory study of the area

near an active aluminum plant at Troutdale, Oregon, sampling plants, insects and
aquatic life.

They will then examine the plant and estuarine communities on the

site of the proposed AMAX al.umtnum-p Lant at Warrenton, Oregon, near the mouth of the
Columbia.
Ms. Oakley, also a member of the Ecology and Chemistry of Pollution program,
is one of five students on the steering committee for the $12,300 grant.

Working

with her are Pauline Hessing of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Debbie Lev of Olympia,
Judith Hadley of Seattle and Martin Rousch of San Jose, California, and Faculty
Member Steve Herman, an ecologist.

Their grant will allow a total of nine students

to spend the summer conducting field research.
The steering committee is considering the possible relationship between forest
management practices and Douglas Fir Tussock Moth outbreak intensity.

They will

select study plots in each damage class identified by the U.S. Forest Service as
infested areas according to visible defoliation.
if relationships
of the area.

Evaluation of the data may reveal

exist between the intensity of Tussock Moth damage and the management

The three Evergreen study grants are part of the nearly $1.7 million
National Science Foundation

awarded to 115 colleges and universities

the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth
student projects receiving NSF awards

of Puerto Rico.

are from the University

Central and Western Washington State Colleges.
-30-

the

in 43 states,

Other Washington
of Washington,