This poem was written on the last day of the 2015 Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Sciences (MEES) Colloquium held at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Annapolis, October 30-31, 2015, and hosted by the MEES goes to Annapolis … William C. Dennison … 31 October 2015 … A gathering of scientists of the MEES brand … From all over the state of Maryland … They developed a passion for understanding nature … For which there really is no cure.

Read more

Re-engineering the Mississippi River presents political as well as technical challenges. Advances in technology since the beginning of the industrial revolution have transformed both transportation along the Mississippi River and the river itself. The invention of the paddlewheel steamboat in the early 1800s offered a radical advance over previous, more primitive modes of river transportation. By the 1830s, steamboats regularly moved people and goods along the Mississippi and its tributaries.

Read more

On Friday, June 19th, Judy O’Neil, Suzi Spitzer and I had our final exciting stop on a three-day trip to New York City that so far had been lively, productive, and engaging. This was the day of the inaugural BOP STEM Symposium out at Governors Island, what was to be a massive gathering of middle and high school students, teachers, and partners on the STEM project. This event helped to finally put some faces (all smiles) to the work that we have been doing over the past few months.

Read more

On June 17th and 18th, Judy O’Neil, Simon Costanzo, Suzi Spitzer and I traveled north to New York City to attend a series of meetings and events leading up to the inaugural Billion Oyster Project Symposium. This very productive trip will be split into two blog posts, one for the first two days of events, talks, and meetings, and another for the official Billion Oyster Project Science, Technology,Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Symposium on Friday, June 19th.

Read more

I had the unique opportunity to discuss report cards with a couple of global crocodile experts based in Darwin. Grahame Webb and Charlie Manolis are active in crocodile management and conservation globally, and operate Crocodylus Park in Darwin, a crocodile farm and research facility. Grahame is chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Crocodile Specialist Group, and Charlie is Chief Scientist at Crocodylus Park.

Read more

I met Jane Hawkey in Brisbane May 18-19 to facilitate a synthesis workshop on floodplains research in Northern Australia under the National Environment Research Program Northern Hub (NERP Northern). Our goal is to piece together the larger story being told by individual research components.

Read more

On May 22 and 23, Heath Kelsey and I had the opportunity to travel to Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, the “top end” of Australia. The park covers some 20,000km2, making it Australia's largest national park. Our site visit provided the context for the project we were visiting Charles Darwin University for - to help synthesize and communicate the key findings of the National Environment Research Programme (NERP) scientists studying the Kakadu floodplains.

Read more

As part of our synthesis of research findings related to National Environment Research Programme (NERP) work on Kakadu National Park floodplains, I am interviewing scientists to begin distilling the key messages for the synthesis story. These researchers are contributing to the developing picture of the connections between the floodplains, water movement, and important natural and cultural resources.

Read more

As part of our synthesis of research findings related to National Environment Research Programme (NERP) work on Kakadu National Park floodplains, I am interviewing scientists to begin distilling the key messages for the synthesis story. These researchers are contributing to the developing picture of the connections between the floodplains, water movement, and important natural and cultural resources. Yellow Waters Billabong, Kakadu National Park. Photo credit:

Read more

This is the first of a series of blogs intended to begin synthesizing the key messages from Kakadu National Park floodplains research conducted as part of the National Environment Research Programme (NERP). When you put the many pieces together, the story that emerges is all about connections.

Read more