When 91̽»¨senior interviewed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an internship, she mentioned in passing that she was a life coach, in addition to her undergraduate work in environmental studies.

A few days later she got a call from the agency, saying they had a different internship in mind for Reid that would leverage her broad skillset and help them tackle a mounting conundrum — how to help employees stay energized and satisfied when their work as environmental professionals often defaults to doom-and-gloom scenarios.

When Reid accepted the internship as part of her 91̽»¨ capstone experience, she found out that the EPA’s Region 10, based in Seattle, has the lowest job satisfaction rating among all of the agency’s regional offices. Finding ways to change that became the focus for Reid’s internship, and she will deliver a final report with recommendations as well as a workshop for employees on gaining resiliency.

“There had been a decline in morale at the EPA, and now it’s part of a conversation that’s happening more widely,” Reid said. “I was focused on, given that satisfaction could be better, what can you do to increase that among employees?”

Reid, along with fellow students in her cohort of environmental studies majors, will present her at a symposium May 25 from the three-course . Every environmental studies major must complete the capstone course sequence, which includes an internship, research project and final presentation.

“We think of this program as a win-win for everyone,” said , a lecturer in environmental studies who leads the capstone courses. “It gives students the opportunity to get out into the workforce and test the skills they’ve gained on the university campus. For our host organizations, they gain interns who can infuse enthusiasm and bring new skills and ideas.”

This cohort’s is open to the public. The event includes a mix of student presentations, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the auditorium, as well as a poster session in from 4:35-5:30 p.m. Research topics range from environmental policy and sustainability to advocacy, outreach and education. Here are a few of the talks:

• Helping hens: How chickens can empower women and help create a more sustainable food system
• Barriers to waste diversion in hospitals
• Smart sustainability indicators for small communities
• Millennials’ integration in environmental advocacy and legislative action
• Off-leash dogs: A study of behavior, threats to health, and public perceptions
• Let the green games begin: Analyzing environmental impact data to obtain sustainability in sports
• Pharmaceutical waste streams: Current pitfalls and possible solutions

The environmental studies capstone shifted about five years ago from being solely an academic project to focusing on launching students into environmental and sustainability careers. Instead of completing a hefty research paper, the courses pair the academic component with job preparedness skills. Students write a shorter paper and also learn practical skills such as crafting resumes, job interviewing, networking, and communicating clearly through memos, social media and blogging.

Students complete their internships during the second quarter, then reconvene in the final quarter to focus on writing and presentations. Each student is required to turn in a report or analysis to their host organization, and often students’ recommendations get adopted by agencies and become the basis for additional work, McDonald said.

“One of the things I stress to my students is the organizations really value the work the students put in,” he said. “We’ve had students do work for agencies that has developed into policies.”

Some students are paired with departments or groups within the 91̽»¨for their internships, including senior Mallory Culbertson, who worked with to lay the foundation for bringing chickens to campus. In addition to writing a chicken-keeping handbook for the farm, Culbertson analyzed the role of chickens in agriculture and the modern food system. From her literature review and research, she found that chickens can boost women’s role in agriculture in developing countries in interesting and surprising ways.

“Urban agriculture will always be something I’ll practice and take interest in,” she said. “It’s really powerful to be able to pull information from geography, GIS, biology and chemistry classes together to get a good understanding of your project. I think the true root of environmental studies is just that — interdisciplinary.”

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For more information about the capstone, contact McDonald at psean@uw.edu or follow him on Twitter: . All of the project abstracts are available .

That’s one of the findings of the first major scientific to examine the broad, long-term ecosystem effects of geoduck aquaculture in Puget Sound, published last week in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s .

The study also found that under one scenario, geoduck farming in the main basin of Puget Sound could more than double before the ecosystem would feel significant impacts.

To reach these conclusions, a team of researchers from the 91̽»¨ and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center used a robust, well-established modeling tool that examines relationships among many types of organisms in central Puget Sound. The researchers incorporated field observations from five years of studying geoduck farm conditions, then used the model to predict effects on the food web over 50 years if geoduck aquaculture increased.

They found that farming activities altered the nearshore habitat, which in turn affected usual predator-and-prey interactions among species throughout the food chain in Puget Sound. The addition of thousands of phytoplankton-eating geoduck clams to the Sound didn’t actually affect the ecosystem over time.

The researchers also found that aquaculture impacts became significant when geoduck farming activities increased by 120 percent over current levels in central Puget Sound. In 2012, about 23,000 pounds of geoduck were harvested from that area, which stretches from the Tacoma Narrows up to the south end of Whidbey Island. That’s about 2 percent of the total amount harvested from the South Sound, which in 2012 was about 1.1 million pounds.

It’s the first time researchers have looked at both the effects of farming equipment and the presence of more geoduck clams on an entire ecosystem over time.

“This study allows us to start thinking about the broader impacts on the ecosystem,” said co-author , a 91̽»¨lecturer in environmental studies and a research scientist with aquatic and fishery sciences. “It also provides the tools for us to start thinking about a future expansion of the industry in a way that we haven’t been able to before, and it gives us a very short list of the key groups of organisms that we should be focusing on for future research and monitoring.”

This study, one of several funded by the state Legislature and overseen by , found that more than doubling geoduck farming efforts in central Puget Sound could negatively impact salmon, eagles and great blue herons. Small crustaceans and moon snails might also decrease. Surf perch and small crabs fared better in this scenario, probably because they can find refuge and benefit from added farming structures like plastic piping and nets.

Geoduck farming is a controversial activity in Puget Sound. Some residents and members of the community object to farming methods, which include rows of PVC pipes placed in the shallow water close to shore to allow the young clams to grow without being preyed upon. Harvesting geoducks involves injecting large volumes of water to loosen the ground around each clam.

Meanwhile, the shellfish industry and local tribes wish to expand geoduck aquaculture throughout Puget Sound, and the state’s Department of Natural Resources recently approved a pilot leasing project on state-owned aquatic land.

Most of the region’s current geoduck farming takes place in the South Sound. The researchers, however, analyzed central Puget Sound for this study because the best model for predicting broader future impacts was built for the central basin alone. A similar model is being developed for the South Sound by an independent team and when it’s ready, the researchers hope to compare results in order to consider impacts to the broader Puget Sound region.

Many of the animals and birds potentially affected in central Puget Sound also live in the South Sound, so it’s reasonable to expect some similar outcomes, they said.

“This is a starting point that can be used to help focus attention on certain aspects of the system, such as species of interest, to collect more empirical data and further test these model results,” said lead author , who completed the research as a scientist at Washington Sea Grant and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the UW.

Though these results show that Puget Sound can generally support more geoduck aquaculture, if effectively managed, the model can’t drill down to specific inlets or bays and predict how organisms would react at a finer scale to increased farming, researchers said. Further studies are needed to determine the potential impact of more aquaculture activities on specific areas of the Sound, they added.

Other co-authors are of Washington Sea Grant; of 91̽»¨mechanical engineering; and Northwest Fisheries Science Center’s , who developed the model.

This study was undertaken by Washington Sea Grant, in part with funding from a 2013 state proviso to study possible effects of shellfish aquaculture on the environment. Other recent publications from the research team cover the useful for addressing changes in shellfish management in the South Sound and .

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For more information, contact Ferriss at ferriss@uw.edu or 206-543-8960 and McDonald at psean@uw.edu or 206-221-5456.