Western Washington University will host its third annual "It's Your Arboretum Day" from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, June 5, at the Outdoor Learning Center, located on the Huntoon Trail in the western part of the Sehome Arboretum adjoining WWU's campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Students in the Sustainable Design Studio class at Western Washington University have investigated the sustainable design of shelters and village communities for Haiti, and they're set to present their sustainable development solution for such devastated communities from noon to 2 p.m. June 3 in Environmental Studies Room 100.

The students' presentation, which is titled "Haiti Housing Relief: Design Book," is free and open to the public.

University of California at Berkeley Professor of Integrative Biology Tyrone Hayes will speak on “From Silent Spring to Silent Night: A Tale of Toads and Men” as part of Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment speaker series at 3 p.m., Friday, May 21 at WWU’s Communications Facility room 125.

The event is free and open to the public.

Paul Stangl (Environmental Studies) recently co-organized a series of sessions titled “The European/Post-Soviet City” at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Washington, D.C. Nineteen papers were presented in the sessions by researchers from nine countries. Stangl presented his paper “Science & Technology in Discourse on City Building” during one of the sessions. He is currently working on co-editing a special journal issue based on the research presented.

John Miles, a professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University, talks about his book "Koma Kulshan" on the television show "ENW with Deb Slater," aired on KVOS TV-12 in Bellingham.

Maury Schwartz (Geology, retired) and Tom Terich (Environmental Studies) had an entry titled "Washington" published on pages 15 to 31 of "Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms," edited by Eric Bird. Schwartz also has four other entries in this encyclopedia: Virgin Islands, pp. 295-297; St. Martin, pp. 302-304; Libya, pp. 897-898; and Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, pp. 953- 955.

Troy Abel (Environmental Studies) presented "Coming clean with the TRI" April 7 at the American Petroleum Institute's biannual workshop on the Toxics Release Inventory in New Orleans. This presentation was a preview of Abel's forthcoming MIT Press book with Mike Kraft and Mark Stephan called "Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance" to be published later this year.

John Miles (Environmental Studies) was featured in a recent publication from Village Books in Bellingham. The bookstore's "Next Week @ Village Books" e-mail newsletter featured two of his books -- "Impressions of the North Cascades" and "Koma Kulshan" -- in its "Inside the Pages" column.

Jennifer Seltz (Environmental Studies) has had a book chapter published in an anthology on the comparative history of the United States' northern and southern borders. The book is Benjamin Johnson and Andrew Graybill, eds., "Bridging National Borders in North America" (Duke University Press, 2010), and Seltz' essay is titled "Epidemics, Indians, and Border-Making in the Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest."

William Dietrich (Environmental Studies) has had his new book, "The Barbary Pirates," published by HarperCollins. The book was released on March 30. It's the fourth in a series of historical thrillers featuring American adventurer Ethan Gage in the Napoleonic era, and it includes a hunt for the Mirror of Archimedes and the use of Robert Fulton's pioneering submarine, the Nautilus. Dietrich will have a slide show and reading at 7 p.m.

Troy D. Abel (Environmental Studies) presented a poster titled "Skewed riskscapes and environmental injustice from St. Louis to Seattle" at the Environmental Protection Agency's conference "Strengthening Environmental Justice and Decision Making: A Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts" on March 17 in Washington, D.C.

Western Washington University’s Urban Transitions Studio will present sustainable urban planning concepts from 7-10 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, in the Council Chambers in City Hall at 210 Lottie St. in Bellingham.

The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will include a concept proposal for revitalizing downtown Bellingham’s retail core and a proposal for transitioning single-use retail zones into New Urbanism neighborhoods.

Wendy Walker, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies in Huxley College of the Environment, will lead a discussion at 4 p.m. today, Feb. 11, about developing real-world projects for students. Walker's presentation is titled “Inviting the Real World to Help You Teach: Examples, Strategies and Rewards.” She will speak about empowering students to guide their own learning—where the final product matters to people and issues outside academia.

Faculty members from the anthropology, sociology and environmental studies departments are getting together from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, in Academic Instructional Center West Room 204 to discuss the recent earthquake and ongoing humanitarian situation in Haiti, says Scott Miles, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University.

Gigi Berardi (Environmental Studies) wrote the cover story for the February 2010 issue of Dance Magazine. The story traces the trials and challenges in the career of Brazilian ballerina Carla Korbes, from New York to Seattle.
 

The Environmental Studies Building at Western Washington University houses Huxley College of the Environment and the Geology Department. Let's take a look inside. Photos by Michael Leese | WWU intern

TVW's Author's Hour with host Terry Tazioli and guest John Miles and a conversation on his book "Wilderness in National Parks: Playground or Preserve?" Miles is a professor of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University.