Located approximately 35 miles south of Washington, D.C., Prince William Forest Park occupies 15,000 acres in Prince William County, Virginia. The park is the largest protected area in the region and is the third largest national park in the state of Virginia. It is also the largest example of a Piedmont forest in the national park system, and serves as a sanctuary for a diversity of plants and animals which are threatened by increasing development in northern Virginia.

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Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts is a 117-acre park located approximately 18 miles west of Washington, D.C. in Vienna, Virginia. Established in 1966, the park was designated as the first national park for the performing arts. The park provides a natural sanctuary for native bird, plants, and animal species in a developing region. The natural resources of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts were assessed using the Vital Signs Framework.

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This report card was produced in December 2015 by The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and represents a joint effort of graduate students and faculty in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences program at the Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg and the Integration and Application Network. The report card provides an assessment of stream health in the Upper Potomac Headwaters region upstream of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

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The aim of this report card is to provide a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of 2014 Coastal Bays health. Coastal Bays health is defined as the progress of four water quality indicators (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen) and two biotic indicators (seagrass, hard clams) toward scientifically derived ecological thresholds or goals.

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This companion document to the report card contains information about data sources for all indicators, summary of analysis methods, and scoring details for each of the six America’s Watershed Initiative goals, and for two watershed wide indicators. Additional information regarding the goals is included to provide greater detail and discussion than is possible in the report card document.

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The Department of the Interior Climate Science Centers (CSCs) and their managing organization, the National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey, have chosen the emerging climate science field of Ecological Drought as a research focus area. This newsletter highlights the outcomes of a two-day workshop held in Fairbanks, Alaska, as part of a series of meetings at each of the nation’s eight CSCs.

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This poster outlines the project objectives and goals, three areas of focus, and requests input from nontraditional monitoring groups.

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This poster illustrates some results from work on a climate change resilience index for Chesapeake Bay. One aspect analyzed in the index was coastal wetland resilience to sea level rise. Overall, coastal wetlands currently have good resilience but under future sea level rise rates coastal wetlands will have moderate to very poor resilience.

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The Report Card measured six broad goals for America's Watershed - Ecosystems, Flood Control & Risk Reduction, Transportation, Water Supply, Economy, and Recreation. The Report Card Measures how well we are currently meeting each one of these goals, using real data and relevant information that was identified by experts in these fields. Over time, as we adapt our management strategies for the Mississippi River Watershed, the Report Card can track progress in achieving objectives.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay. In 2014, the report card includes five water quality indicators and two biotic indicators. In 2014, the overall grade for Chesapeake Bay is a 50%, a C. This means the Bay is in moderate health. A fisheries index and climate change resilience index as well as trajectories of reporting region health are also presented. For further details, visit the Report Card website.

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