Dr. Tanner’s Restoration Project in the San Juan Islands
September 5, 2025
Dr. Richelle Tanner, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Environmental Science & Policy at Chapman University, leads a research lab that explores how climate change affects both ecological systems and human communities. Her work emphasizes equity and justice in natural resource governance and examines how environmental uncertainty drives changes in ecosystems.
Recently, she wrote a column for Tide Bite, a University of Washington (UW) blog, titled “Local Chálem (Eelgrass) Restoration Starts a New Chapter With Ceremonial Blessing,” where she writes a first-person encounter detailing her latest project out of UW, where she and a team of researchers spent the day restoring the Chálem in the San Juan Islands.
(Pictured above: The Coast Salish Youth Coalition collecting eelgrass rhizomes and visiting with the extant subtidal eelgrass meadow at Picnic Cove. Photo courtesy of Dr. Richelle Tanner.)
