Three teams of coastal scientists, engineers, and planners are going head-to-head to see who can come up with the best ideas for creating a self-sustaining coast for Louisiana. That's the challenge posed by the Changing Course competition. Selection of these teams this summer completed a year-long process [pdf] that started with screening applications from over 21 groups. The eight strongest applicants were asked to prepare detailed proposals, which were reviewed last spring.

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One of the interesting things that came out of attending the 17th Annual International Riversymposium was the opportunity to learn about several new relevant books. Last year at the 16th Annual International Riversymposium , I launched the IAN Press eBook 'Dancing with Dugongs: Having fun and developing a practical philosophy for environmental teaching and research' that I co-authored with the late Peter Oliver.

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The 7th biennial Education and Science Forum sponsored by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Educational Partnerships Program (NOAA-EPP) was held on the beautiful campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) during some spectacular autumn weather (Oct 24-26).

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What do volcanoes, floodplains, conversations, hops, a Sound, the Bay, and sea level rise all have in common? The Association of State Floodplain Manager’s annual conference in Seattle included every one. Even the hops. Puget Sound view of the Olympics and geoduck harvesters. Snow-capped Rainier in all its glory in February.

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I was asked by Mike DeLuca from Rutgers University to present a plenary talk at the annual gathering of the National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML), which was held jointly with the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. The meeting was titled 'Windows to the World: Networking field stations and marine labs to address environmental change'. OBFS-NAML 2014 Joint Meeting - Windows to the World:

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On October 9th, Bill Dennison, Caroline Donovan, and I traveled to New Rochelle, New York, for a meeting on the Long Island Sound Report Card. The Long Island Sound Study includes two working groups, the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), and the Science and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). These committees had a joint meeting on October 10th that we participated in, to further the progress of the Long Island Sound Report Card.

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Simon Costanzo, Heath Kelsey, Dave Loewensteiner, Judy O’Neil, Jane Thomas and I attended the 17th Annual International Riversymposium in Canberra, Australia, 15-18 September 2014. The theme of this year’s symposium was ‘Large River Basins’ which was quite topical for the IAN team completing the draft Mississippi River report card.

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As part of the release of the draft Mississippi River report card, we partnered with America's Watershed Initiative and Conversant to produce a short video that described both the process of producing the report card and the report card scores. This video did a great job of linking the riverboat paddle wheel with the report card graphic based on the paddle wheel.

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We recently (1-2 October 2014) launched the draft Mississippi River report card in Louisville, KY as part of the America's Watershed Initiative Summit. The process of developing the report card is depicted in the following poem I wrote for the occasion. We started out in St. Louis, Missouri … We set the goal--a watershed report card … We figured, it can't be too hard … But we were tackling the entire Mississippi!

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One of the things I love most about my job is that I’m constantly learning about different places, working with local experts that share their knowledge and passion for the place they live, and the science they do. Right now I’m learning about the Willamette River in Oregon, as the IAN team is working in partnership with Meyer Memorial Trust to develop an Ecosystem Health Report Card for the main stem of the Willamette.

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