Taxonomy and Specimen Managaement for the Elwha Biodiversity Pilot Project: Final Progress Report

Pietsch, T.; Anderson, Trevor

In March 2008, the University of Washington and its partner institutions initiated a survey and inventory of select taxa in the Olympic National Park's Elwha River Valley adjacent to two large hydroelectric dams, the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, both of which have begun demolition in early 2012. The Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992 (PL 102-495) authorized the Secretary of the Interior to acquire and remove the dams and fully restore the ecosystem and native anadromous fisheries. Because of the urgent need for collection of baseline data, and the scientific, educational, social, and political advanatages of a detailed biotic survey of the aquatic and riparian habitats of the Elwha River Valley the National Science Foundation commissioned a pilot study. The purpose of which was to survey and inventory the aquatic and riparian habitats along the Elwha River above, between, and below the dams, focusing on lichens, bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), fungi, spiders, and aquatic, soil-dwelling, and riparian insects. This bioltic survey and inventory had the following primary objectives: 1. Sort, dientify, and curate whole speciimens and tissues for future study; 2. Develop a database of collection localities, specimens, and taxa for use in later studies; 3. Make the immediate results of the survey--databases, written information, and preserved collections--available as quickly as possible to researchers around the world; 4. Create a multidimensional, interactive, and heavily illustrated Elwha River Valley "Web-of-Life" on the Internet, providing access to all project information, with a full-text database search-engine and an interactive geographic information system that will combine all specimen and locality data; 5. Partner with the Olympic Park Institute--a non-profit organization "dedicated to teaching science and environmental education in natiure's classroom to inspire a personal connection to the natural world and responsible actions to sustain it"--to provide monthly environmental education forays along the river for students and their teachers, grades 4-12, from Native American and non-tribal schools of the North Olympic Peninsula. The pilot study was funded for 2008 with an understanding of future support to continue the survey and finish processing the material already collected. This support did not materialize and it was necessary to seek funding from the park service to finish sorting and curating insect material that was by far the bulk of specimens collected and the most labor intensive portion of the project. Task agreement J8W07100003 provided this funding with the objective "to provide the next stage in sorting, curating, and specimen management for that matieral" and gettting this material into a permanent repository where it can be distributed to taxonomic experts and the work of species identification begun.