Summer Journeys: Wats Littman ’26, Human Impact Across Ecosystems

Growing up in Montana, Wats Littman ’26 developed a special connection to the outdoors, and a passion for protecting the natural resources that surrounded him. He was eager to spend last summer not just studying environmental science but doing “real work” in the field. With support from a Poole Grant, Wats traveled to San Juan Island for a two-week intensive immersion into environmental science, marine ecology, and conservation.

San Juan Island lies at the heart of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest. The island’s mountains, forests, rivers, estuaries, shore lands, and waters became a most extraordinary classroom for Wats.

“There was a lot of variation in our day to day in terms of location, what organisms we studied, and who we worked with,” Wats explains. “I was astonished by the connectivity between every organism existing in the ecosystems we studied.”

Each day, Wats and his peers spent nearly four hours in the field studying different aspects of the vast and diverse San Juan Island ecosystem. They also devoted two hours each day to analyzing the data they collected, and another hour on physical tasks related to shoreline restoration. Evenings included dinners with presentations by professional research scientists, ecologists, policymakers, and environmental advocates from places like University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories, the SeaDoc Society, and the U.S. National Parks Service. Each day closed with a period of written reflection.

During the first phase of the program, Wats was required to develop a research question that would allow him to apply what he learned on San Juan Island to work in his home environment. Throughout his time there, mentors helped Wats refine his inquiry and shape the work he would do when he returned to Montana.

“I examined the potential sources of a Cladophora algae bloom which has appeared year after year in the Gallatin Watershed, outside of Bozeman, Montana, from 2018 onward,” says Wats. “Through research I learned that septic discharge, rich in nutrients like nitrate and phosphate, were allowing this alga to blossom at an unprecedented rate. The culprit is septic tanks which are irregularly serviced or maintained. Cladophora algae is native to the river however in excess it consumes dissolved oxygen that both the fish and insects in the river depend on. This issue is critical as the fishing industry in Montana annually supplies more than a billion dollars to the economy.”

Between his time on San Juan Island and the research he conducted on the Cladophora algae bloom, one thing became clear to Wats: the depth, breadth, and power of human impact on our planet.

“At Lime Kiln state park on the west coast of San Juan Island there is a hydrophone which records all audible noises in real time. The west coast is habitat to the resident killer whales. As we listened closely, we could hear them calling—using echolocation in search of salmon—while all the sudden a shipping vessel started its engine in the marina more than a mile away and the whales' sounds were drowned out. If the whales are unable to use echolocation to find their food, they are forced to extend their search blindly. This goes to show all of the inadvertent effects we have in our precious ecosystems, and this is one of many examples of human impact we encountered. Moments like these taught me a lot about the powerful ripple effect we have on our planet.”

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Image 1: Wats’s last night in the San Juans looking out over the Harrow Straits on the US/Canada border.

Image 2: At Friday Harbor labs, Wats and his peers used an LED light to attract vertebrates and invertebrates from deep in the water column. They attracted hundreds of jellyfish, microscopic shrimp, and minnows.

Image 3: This was my favorite exhibit at the whale museum we visited on San Juan Island. It is the only know conjoined birth of harbor seals to ever exist.

Image 4: A glimpse inside Friday Harbor Laboratories. Here researchers and scientists travel from around the world to use the unique facilities. This is the only lab in the world which is capable of circulating seawater into their testing pools allowing the scientist to replicate the ocean’s exact pH and salinity at any moment without disturbing the organisms they are studying.

Image 5: The students used a quadrat—a tool used to measure samples living in a specific area—to record the percent coverage of seaweed living on rocks in the intertidal zone. The group submitted their findings to the University of Washington to add to their data bank.

Image 6: Wats and his peers toured the site of the last confrontation between the British and Americans in the19th century with archaeologist Emilio Santiago.

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Established in memory of Robert Keyes Poole ’50, Taft teacher from 1956 to 1962, Poole Fellowships are awarded each year to enable Taft students to engage in travel or in projects consistent with Mr. Poole’s lifetime interest in wildlife and the environment.