Club Corner
Environmental Science Club
The Environmental Science Club (ESC) is a growing group of driven, environmentally conscious students from a wide range of majors. Under the leadership of the club co-presidents Lindsey Schnelle and Emily Hogan and faculty advisor Kara Whitman, the club focuses on the implications of mass consumption, sustainability-based outreach, and community projects to inform and reduce the amount of refuse entering waste streams.
In the last two years ESC has successfully received funding from the Green Fund for three campus projects. The 2018 Green Fund Project OZZI To-Go Containers, now fully implemented at North Side Dining, WSU Pullman, eliminated all single-use takeout containers. In January 2020, ESC teamed up with the Shark Conservancy and International Development Clubs on a Green Fund project to implement TerraCycle boxes around campus, recycling single-use items that would otherwise end up in landfills.
The most recent ESC project was awarded funding in February 2020 to hold a Bokashi Composting Workshop that will provide personal composters to 144 students.
ESC remains involved in continuous projects, including Pullman Waste Watchers, a sustainability-based blog the club has run for over three years with more than 70 monthly readers. The club goes on several stream cleanups each year and is involved in many other campus-wide educational programs to spread awareness.
Forestry Club
The WSU Forestry Club is a student chapter of the Society of American Foresters (SAF), the largest and oldest professional society representing the forestry profession in the United States. Under the leadership of faculty advisor Mark Swanson and the governing student cabinet of Eli Loftis, president; Cole Shirly, vice president; Jonathon Turner, treasurer; Ariel Medeiros, secretary; and CJ Radawick, wood program manager, the club seeks to expand the forestry education of any student interested in the field, regardless of their major.
In the past year the club has successfully harvested timber from the Moscow, Idaho, area to aid in the firewood program that funds much of our operations, thanks to the generous offer from SoE professor Peter Larson to harvest trees from his property. In addition, the club had conducted several chainsaw trainings, woodcuttings, and other activities meant to provide our membership with hands-on experience with many of the tools they will encounter while working in the field in most natural resource based disciplines and careers.
We also have taken significant strides in expanding the club’s regional impact, including sending student speakers to the Idaho Family Forest Land Owners and Managers conference in Moscow, as well as holding joint meetings with our fellow SAF student chapter at the University of Idaho and increasing our interaction with the local Inland Empire SAF.
We continue our stewardship over Magpie Forest Ecological Reserve, having plans to very soon increase our presence and impact at the site, and we provide our membership recreational and social opportunities including our annual spring semester snowshoeing trip to Moscow Mountain and our very popular bonfires at the E.H. Steffen Center. Most recently our officers and many of our general members met with the committee representing the National SAF during their visit in February as part of accreditation process for the WSU forestry program.
Wildlife Society
The Wildlife Society at WSU is a student organization designed to allow people with an interest in wildlife to gain experience and connections; to learn more about the wide range of topics, activities, and people of wildlife; and to inspire, empower, and enable wildlife professionals to sustain wildlife populations and habitats through science-based management and conservation.
A proud student chapter of the International Wildlife Society, the club continues to fulfill its mission under the leadership of Devon Barbour, president; Eli Loftis, vice president; Jeffrey Lebo, treasurer; Madysen McCarthy, secretary; and Briana Tovar, event coordinator; with Lisa Shipley as faculty advisor.
A great deal of our activities outside of our twice-monthly meetings include some form of public service, be it our work to remove trash from around the South Fork of the Palouse River in downtown Pullman or our participation in “Animals of the Night” at the Palouse Clearwater Institute in nearby Moscow, Idaho, each October.
Last December, the club visited the Wolf Education and Research Center in Winchester, Idaho, where students received a tour from biologist and sanctuary director Jeremey Heft and assisted in feeding and watering Kuckuc, the female gray wolf housed there. In February, six members assisted the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in surveying pygmy rabbit burrows near Ephrata, Washington, and, while they did not see any rabbits in the flesh, they did locate multiple burrows and encountered a wayward snowy owl.
In addition to field experience and public outreach, the club provides seminars on topics ranging from feral horse management in relation to sagebrush steppe habitat to environmental impacts on marine invertebrates. The club’s Mom’s Weekend event is a perennial hit each April.
Shark Conservation Club
The Shark Conservation Club is dedicated to protecting all shark species, and the oceans they live in, through fundraising and donations, volunteering, and education. Now in our 3rd year of operation we continue to grow in membership and impact through events like our annual Shark Week, Mom’s Weekend Mocktails and Paint fundraiser, volunteer opportunities, and more. Under the leadership of the club’s president and founder, Amanda Krieger, along with co-vice presidents Carissa Maier and Ryan Mosher, the mission of the Shark Conservation Club is to destigmatize how sharks are viewed through education, and to place emphasis on their extensive benefits to the ocean ecosystems.
Our annual Shark Week is packed full of events, including presentations from members of the shark conservation community, an exclusive documentary showing, a stream cleanup at our section of the Pullman stream, and a 5k run/walk fundraising opportunity. This past Shark Week included a research presentation on sevengill sharks by Dayv Lowry, from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, along with a dissection to give members hands-on experience. Additionally, the SCC worked with the International Development Club and Environmental Science Club to secure funding through the Green Fund to distribute Terracycle boxes in key locations on the WSU Pullman campus.
This past April, the Shark Conservation Club was honored to receive a WSU student organization Award for Educational Event of the Year for our Shark Week in 2019. Additionally, we were recognized as a 2020 President’s Award recipient for the Registered Student Organization Category. The SCC is advised by Alecia Hoene of the School of the Environment, who has provided valuable guidance throughout the club’s three years on campus.
SoE: Connecting Earth and Life