Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Environmental Speaker Series
Bringing Land Use and Upper Watershed Processes into Focus
Brought to you by the College of the Environment and the Salish Sea Institute in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association
Land use regulations, non-point source pollution control, as well as "watershed and fish habitat restoration" efforts have disproportionately focused on the impaired water body with much less focus on the influences of uplands and upper watershed processes. Nonpoint pollution impaired waterbodies are a function of the condition of and services provided by the upper watershed. In the case of rural watersheds in northwest Washington, commercial forestry typically dominates. If these activities are compliant with federal, state, and local environmental regulations, there is a broad assumption made that these and other land uses have no impact on water quality or quantity. This assumption without objective analysis may lead to sustained nonpoint source pollution, changes to the hydrograph that relate to water supply, and further degradation of fish habitat creating a more severe cumulative impact when combined with continued climate change.
This talk will address these issues and summarize the novel work that the Nooksack Indian Tribe and collaborators have implemented in factoring in upper watershed processes and land use in overall watershed restoration practices in the Nooksack River watershed.
Environmental Speaker Series
Bringing Land Use and Upper Watershed Processes into Focus
Brought to you by the College of the Environment and the Salish Sea Institute in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association
Land use regulations, non-point source pollution control, as well as "watershed and fish habitat restoration" efforts have disproportionately focused on the impaired water body with much less focus on the influences of uplands and upper watershed processes. Nonpoint pollution impaired waterbodies are a function of the condition of and services provided by the upper watershed. In the case of rural watersheds in northwest Washington, commercial forestry typically dominates. If these activities are compliant with federal, state, and local environmental regulations, there is a broad assumption made that these and other land uses have no impact on water quality or quantity. This assumption without objective analysis may lead to sustained nonpoint source pollution, changes to the hydrograph that relate to water supply, and further degradation of fish habitat creating a more severe cumulative impact when combined with continued climate change.
This talk will address these issues and summarize the novel work that the Nooksack Indian Tribe and collaborators have implemented in factoring in upper watershed processes and land use in overall watershed restoration practices in the Nooksack River watershed.
