The mission of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) is to provide a university-wide forum for Central Washington University (CWU) students, encouraging equity, diversity, and inclusivity, representing all disciplines and experience levels, to present their mentored research, scholarship, and creative works in a juried environment that meets professional conference standards and expectations.
The 2022 SOURCE program is hybrid. Pre-recorded virtual talks are colored green and can be watched anytime. Live/in-person sessions with Zoom access can be found in the daily schedule. Thank you for joining us!
To vote for the 2023 SOURCE poster, click here To learn more about SOURCE or give to support the students of Central visit, https://www.cwu.edu/source Connect on social media with @CentralWashU, @cwusource, #SOURCE2022, #CWUTogether
We started this project by asking the question of "How has Reecer Creek changed over time?". We decided to answer this question through Photo Documentation. Our experiment was part of our high school class's experiments to determine exactly how the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project, Ellensburg, WA has succeeded or failed to prompt ecological recovery through the years. We built our conclusions off of previous data from the same experiment, completed in 2011 and 2016 by our previous classmates in years beforehand. We went into the experiment looking for differences in vegetation, water levels, and creek water flow. To collect our data, we used gps pinpoints and previous data to find picture locations and capture new images. We used the same locations and procedure as previous groups to achieve the closest comparisons. After data was collected, we overlaid previous images on new pictures as close as possible to better see key differences between past and present. From our analysis, we determined that there were significant changes in vegetation area, wetland development, and introduced plant growth. Our results demonstrate the success of the Reecer Creek Floodplain Restoration Project in achieving regrowth and land reclamation. Besides our data, we also used assumptions based on the inaccessibility of certain areas due to plant growth to make these conclusions. These findings confirm the conclusions of our seniors who performed this experiment previously, who also found that plant growth in Reecer Creek is thriving after a secondary succession event. This experiment is repeatable and can be conducted in the future in order to determine further changes in the floodplain.
