This week, the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (NW CASC) hosted 50 collaborators from the National CASC and nine regional CASCs for the network’s annual meeting. Traveling from the Pacific Islands, Alaska and across the lower 48, CASC staff gathered in Seattle to connect, share lessons learned from regional and national CASC programs and areas of research, and advance efforts to evaluate and communicate the impact of the CASC program.

This meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on the strong relationships and trust across the network, which has been built over the program’s 16 years and has been key to its impact and longevity. At the end of the week, attendees traveled to Mount Rainier to hear from NW CASC-supported researchers, including former NW CASC Research Fellow and UW doctoral student Allie Howell, whose NW CASC project focused on restoring trampled subalpine meadows in a warming climate, as well as UW researcher Sarah Converse, who is leading a NW CASC project evaluating climate-related threats and conservation strategies for the endemic Cascade red fox.