Last month, several IAN staff members traveled to the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, to attend the Chesapeake Watershed Forum. The Forum is an annual regional conference hosted by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. This year IAN was represented by Caroline, Emily, Dylan, Vanessa, and Suzi. The 2017 conference theme was Healthy Lands, Healthy Waters, Healthy People.

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I recently traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil to help facilitate the Belmont Forum Plenary Meetings Week, November 6-10, 2017. The Belmont Forum is a group of funders that support international transdisciplinary research. This research provides knowledge for understanding, mitigating, and adapting to global environmental change. Prior to the meetings, IAN staff created materials for the event, including the agenda, a booklet, presentation templates, videos, a song, and banners.

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In 2002 The Integration and Application Network (IAN) was born. Based on a 2000 strategic plan formulated by the faculty of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), IAN was created because UMCES was concerned that its scientific effort was documenting environmental declines rather than helping create solutions to environmental problems.

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As we’ve pioneered new ways to develop ecosystem health assessments and report cards, we’ve learned a few lessons on what makes them successful and what does not. The most successful projects (those that continue on after our involvement, creating lasting impact) are those in which we’ve approached the process as a true partnership with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, and perspectives.

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The 2017 Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) Conference in Providence, Rhode Island had the theme "Coastal science inflection point: celebrating successes, learning from challenges." The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) always has a strong presence at CERF conferences, but because this was the first conference hosted on the East Coast since 2011, we had a particularly large delegation.

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I drive regularly between Ottawa, Ontario, where I live, and Chestertown, Maryland , where I grew up. My family still lives on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay . Over the 30 years that I have been making this trip, the landscape has not changed, but recently my perception of it has. Susquehanna River at Great Bend. Image credit here … One of the landmarks that I look for is the bridge where I-81 crosses the Susquehanna River at Great Bend, Pennsylvania .

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During the week of November 6th, Alexandra Fries traveled to São Paulo, Brazil to support our Belmont Forum colleagues while most of the rest of Integration and Application Network traveled to Rhode Island for the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Conference (CERF). In preparation for her trip, we wrote a song that she could use at the Belmont Forum workshop.

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As part of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation 2017 Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, Heath Kelsey and I were assigned two five minute ‘ignite’ style talks. In these style talks, you are required to have the slides automatically advance as you are speaking. I watched several people struggle to keep up with the slides as they advanced, and this made me nervous.

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The Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) holds a conference every alternating year. At this conference, coastal and estuarine scientists and resource managers gather to share knowledge. This year’s CERF conference theme was ‘Coastal Science Inflection Point: Celebrating Successes, Learning from Challenges’. The CERF 2017 Conference was held in Providence, Rhode Island, the third time that CERF conferences were held in Providence due to the popularity of this venue.

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I enjoy occasionally returning to Woods Hole to visit with the folks at the Sea Education Association. As a former student and a former Chief Scientist aboard the R/V Westward, it is great to check up on the program, such as when they created the new S.E.A. slogan “Adventure with a Purpose.” I always enjoy talking with the staff and current students. I am an Overseer with S.E.A. with such eminent colleagues as George Woodwell and John Farrington.

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