The Integration and Application Network annual retreat was held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center on Kent Narrows on May 31. Two dozen IAN staff spent the day introducing themselves to each other, discussing the IAN report card and the IAN brand. This annual gathering includes our University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Chesapeake Bay Program staff (UMCES@CBP).

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In April I travelled to China to discuss report cards with WWF China. Following the workshop (outlined in a previous blog), I was extremely lucky to be taken on a guided tour of the Three Gorges Dam that spans the Yangzte River in Hubei Province. Now this ain’t just any dam, it’s the biggest hydroelectricity generating dam in the world with a capacity of 85 terrawatt hours per year, or a 10th of China’s whole energy budget! Can you imagine?!

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Last June 5-9, 2017, I was fortunate enough to be selected to participate in SESYNC’s short course on Social Network Analysis (SNA) taught by Lorien Jasny, PhD, who was a postdoc at SESYNC but is now based at Exeter University in the UK. This introduction and crash course on Social Network Analysis was a great opportunity for me, as I will be using SNA in my dissertation research.

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The WWF-UMCES Partnership met at the UMCES Horn Point Lab Campus in Cambridge, MD on May 24 and 25 this year for our annual two-day retreat. This year’s agenda was, as usual, very ambitious, including the introduction of new people, discussions on branding the partnership, the incorporation of climate change indicators into the report card process, modeling for scenario development, and reviews of upcoming communication products.

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On April 24th, 2017, Dave Nemazie and I began our journey to Rio de Janeiro. Little did we know, instead of taking 18 hours to get there, it would take 30. We flew through JFK, and a delayed flight meant we missed our connection to Rio. After spending the day in New York, we finally arrived a day after we were supposed to. Despite our travel woes, we made it to Rio and had productive meetings with our partners, Guido Gelli and Marlus Newton.

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The theme for the 2017 Gulf of Mexico Summit is “One Gulf” … The theme of the State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit this year in Houston was “One Gulf” and was all about synthesis of science to create positive restoration outcomes. I served on a panel with Mark Harwell and Jack Gentile to discuss our work on the Texas coast Report Card project, and our larger ambition for a Gulf of Mexico Report Card.

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In April I travelled to China with Michele Thieme and Judy Takats from the World Wildlife Fund U.S. (WWF). The trip was planned to discuss with WWF China whether our report card process would work within the Chinese context. It was my first trip to China, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I discovered was a truly different, yet amazing country with friendly people, great food and amazing sights (I’ll talk more about my trip to the Three Gorges Dam in a following blog).

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“Let the data speak for themselves,” is a quote frequently attributed to Sir R. A. Fisher. Fisher was biologist who was drawn to the task of sifting through 70 years of data on crop yields and genetics accumulated at Rothamsted Experimental Station. The challenge of making sense of all this data led Fisher to develop a number of statistical tools that are used today by everyone who works with data.

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The cover of the 2016 Chesapeake Bay Report Card. Image credit:

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The plenary sessions for the CommOceans conference was in a 100-year old meeting hall. Photo credit: Heath Kelsey … At the recent commOcean2016 conference in Bruges, Belgium, I attended a short discussion session on effective science communication tools and strategies. Although the conversation was not exactly brisk, there was one exchange that triggered a new direction in my thinking about science communication, behavior change, and ecosystem health report cards.

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