Weber State University
ER-18: Sustainability Research Incentives

Weber State University has an Office of Undergraduate Research that awards funding and supplied mentoring for student projects. One example is the Rio Tinto funding, which support students and was used last year to send students to Mexico to collect data on American Avocets and Snowy Plover wintering there. It was also used this summer to pay a student to assist in translating ornithology material into Spanish for students in Mexico. It will also fund students working this summer on a research project. We are currently being funded through the UT Division of Water Quality to monitor shorebird eggs for both selenium and mercury contamination in Gilbert Bay of Great Salt Lake. USGS funded us to address the same questions at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Kennecott is funding us to study the potential environmental impacts to wetland bird populations if/when their tailings facility is expanded. CH2MHill, a consulting firm, hired us to examine bird use along the Kennecott tailings drain. The tailings drain has high concentrations of selenium and thus can potential impact shorebird reproduction if they are found nesting at the site. We were funded last year to examine how and where Snowy Plovers use the US Magnesium facility on the west side of the lake. That site is a candidate for listing as a Superfund site due to PCB and dioxin contamination. Finally, we are completing a multi-year study looking at the eutrophication of Farmington Bay. Sewage effluent and its high nutrient content has resulted in Farmington Bay being considered as an impaired water body by the US EPA. Consequently, we are conducting a multi-site study to compare the effects on the productivity, diets and condition of waterfowl, and shorebirds using this wetland. This study has been supported by a number of different entities including US EPA, UT Div of Water Quality but most recently by South Davis Sewer District. WSU also received Urban Migratory Bird Treaty funding we received through the USFWS. This is involving a large number of students from WSU. For example, an ecology class is working with Mound Fort Junior High to help their students create a schoolyard habitat for birds. All of these projects support students as researchers and technicians. Please see: http://faculty.weber.edu/jcavitt/undergraduateresearch.htm and http://departments.weber.edu/avianecologylab/aelprojects.htm