A large contingent from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) participated in the Tennessee River Basin Network (TRBN) annual meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 15-16 Aug 2017. The contingent included Heath Kelsey, Dylan Taillie and Bill Dennison from the UMCES Integration and Application Network and Andrew Elmore and Eric Davidson from UMCES Appalachian Laboratory.

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On July 21, 2017, the Guanabara Bay Report Card was released in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the first ecosystem health report card in Brazil, and the second report card we have done in South America. The first report card in South America was for the Orinoco River in Colombia last year. For the Guanabara Bay Report Card, we partnered with PSAM (Environmental Sanitation Program of the municipalities surrounding the Guanabara Bay) with support from the Inter-American Development Bank.

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As I learn more about science communication at IAN, I have begun to observe the plethora of methods available for science communication. "Whirling disease," written by professor R. T. Smith of Washington and Lee University, struck me as a particularly mesmerizing and pertinent example. R.T. Smith is the current producer of the Shenandoah Literary Magazine, and often contributes to other literary journals.

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Environmental literacy principles for the Tuul River, Mongolia … • The Tuul River in northcentral Mongolia is a tributary to the Orkhon River. The Orkhon River flows through Lake Baikal, Russia via the Selenga River and into the Yenesei River, which is the largest tributary into the Arctic Ocean. • Water from the Tuul River is heavily utilized, mostly for domestic and industrial use in their capital, Ulaanbaatar.

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Several weeks ago, I attended a symposium for the Billion Oyster Project with Dr. Judy O’Neil. This marked my first time in New York City and my first oyster conference. On the day of the symposium, Judy and I walked to the ferry terminal, located in the Battery Maritime Building. My first thought was how pungently it smelled like a city. I grew up in the country, so I’m used to the earthy scent of woods and fields.

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Training Mongolians to Develop a Tuul River Report Card … After our field trip, Simon Costanzo, Michele Thieme and I held a two and a half day workshop in Ulaanbaatar, working closely with WWF Mongolia and key stakeholders in order to develop the skills and strategies needed to create a Tuul River report card. We structured the workshop around the five steps of report card development: Conceptualization, Choose indicators, Determine thresholds, Calculate scores and Communicate results.

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From July 2nd- 4th, 2017, Simon Costanzo, Michele Thieme and I took a day to walk around the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator) and two days on driving tours to see both upstream and downstream sections of the Tuul River. This blog installment provides the first part of a synopsis of these field trips in anticipation of our Tuul River report card workshop. Ulaanbaatar … Ulaanbaatar centers around a large public square. Behind this square is Parliament House.

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Before starting at the Integration and Application Network (IAN) in 2005, Jane Hawkey worked for Washington Sea Grant, and then as a research assistant for several different Horn Point Laboratory faculty. There, she attended research cruises, produced newsletters and helped with publication graphics. These skills and experiences helped her when she joined IAN. She rose to IAN Senior Science Communicator within a short time period.

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Dr. Don Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Image credit: Baltimore Sun … We had two very nice events to celebrate Don Boesch’s twenty seven year career as President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The first was held on June 1 at the Institute of Marine Environmental Technology in Baltimore with some 300 people attending. It featured many speeches and testimonials and was a grand event.

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The Biscayne Bay Marine Health Inaugural Summit was held at the Florida International University Biscayne Bay campus. I flew down at the invitation of Jim Fourqurean, my long time friend and seagrass colleague, who provided a very nice introduction. There were around two hundred people in attendance and my role was to provide a lunch time talk to relate some lessons from other locations that were relevant to Biscayne Bay.

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