Beach Watchers offer a public program by Dr. Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Fire District No. 5 Meeting Room, 1164 Race Road. The presentation will follow the Beach Watchers’ monthly business meeting at 6:30 p.m. and is open to all.
Dr. Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria, School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington, will discuss his research in the area of seagrass ethnobotany. Dr. Wyllie-Echeverria, with expertise the ecology and human uses of eelgrass and other seagrasses, has explored the connection between seagrasses and coastal people in North America, the North Atlantic and Western Europe for the last decade.
Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a marine grass, or “seagrass,” that grows along Island County shorelines. This and other seagrasses create underwater “prairies” that are important habitats for wildlife. Seagrasses have also been used in many ways by coastal peoples. Eelgrass seasonally sheds its leaves, which wash up on the shore. In the 18th and 19th centuries, dried eelgrass was commercially gathered and harvested in many coastal regions to be used as insulation and thatch. Dr Wyllie-Echeverria will trace this history and other uses of seagrasses and draw lessons for today.
During his multi-media presentation, he will explain the history of efforts to uncover the cultural connection between seagrasses and coastal people, discuss the significance of this investigation for conservation initiatives and describe the objectives of the Traditional Seagrass Knowledge and Wisdom Working Group that began at the International Seagrass Biology Workshop in Corsica in 2000.
With expertise in seagrass autecology, ecology and ethnobotany, Dr. S. Wyllie-Echeverria, Research Scientist at the School of Marine Affairs, University of Washington, has investigated this vital nearshore community at sites throughout the Northeast Pacific for the better part of 20 years. Recently he has also begun research projects with colleagues in Long Island, New York, Iceland, and Western France. Since 1995 he has served as a member of the International Organizing Committee for the ERIM Conferences for Remote Sensing in Marine and Coastal Environments and in the fall of 2000 was selected to participate in an international committee to design seagrass monitoring protocols. He also works collaboratively with colleagues on projects funded by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington Department of Transportation, The Salmon Recovery Funding Board and the Texaco Restoration Fund. In 1997, with colleagues from a variety of Washington State Agencies and NGO’s, he was awarded the Distinguished Environmental Achievement Award in Environmental Research by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Everyone is welcome. Call Beach Watchers at 679-7391.
