A community science case study mapped heavy metals in moss in two industrial-adjacent neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, with a history of poor air quality, health outcomes, and racial inequities—yielding findings that have prompted short-term mitigation and follow-up instrumental air quality monitoring. Led by the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station, the study is the first of its kind in which residents, notably local youth, collected and prepared moss samples as part of an environmental justice investigation.
