MCWC APRIL COMMUNITY MEETING (THURSDAY 4/7/22 AT 6:30PM)
What did the tidal wetlands of the Yaquina Bay Estuary look like 200 years ago? What might they look like a hundred years in the future? The estuary has always been dynamic, but this period has seen especially broad changes in these wetlands that are related to human impacts. In this presentation, we'll travel through time so you can visualize the estuary's past wetland habitats, how they have changed, and their potential future -- and we'll talk about what these changes mean to people and wildlife that live here and use the estuary.
Speaker bio:
Laura directs the Estuary Technical Group at the Institute for Applied Ecology, a nonprofit in Corvallis, Oregon. She enjoys developing and delivering solid science to support estuary restoration and conservation by coastal communities. Over the past 20 years, she's led field studies in nearly all of Oregon's major estuaries, including effectiveness monitoring at Oregon's largest tidal wetland restoration projects. From these projects, she and her colleagues have made exciting discoveries about how our estuaries work, leading to better mapping of estuary habitats and better data on valued estuary functions like carbon sequestration and fish habitat. Currently, Laura is collaborating with regional and national teams to apply this new knowledge and help improve estuary management across the U.S. Laura has worked with MidCoast Watersheds Council in the past, and was a lead researcher on the Landward Migration Zones study.
