The trip around Savai'i Island passed through dozens of small villages that intercept the single road that largely follows the coastline. Each village had one to several large churches with immaculately kept grounds and a painted empty propane tank hanging out front. The propane tanks serve as the church bells to call people to the services.

Read more

A group called "Clean water, Healthy families" released the results of a poll of Maryland voters regarding Chesapeake Bay restoration. This poll provided some interesting findings. It was particularly gratifying to see that the public perception of the health of the Bay (average C-) matches EXACTLY with the EcoCheck report card (2010 score = C-). The grade voters give their local streams, creeks, and rivers is only a slightly higher C-Minus.

Read more

Samoa is broken up into American Samoa and Samoa (formally known as Western Samoa). The islands are volcanic in origin, formed by a 'hot spot' of tectonic activity below the Pacific tectonic plate which is moving from east to west. The last volcanic outburst was on Savai'i, the largest island in the archipelago, in the early 1900s. The volcanic soils are nutrient-rich, resulting in lush plant growth.

Read more

At the invitation of Drs. David Haynes and Tim Carruthers, I visited the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) offices in Apia, Samoa. I had previously met David Sheppard, the Director of SPREP, when he visited Washington, D.C., but David was away on travel when I visited Samoa. The SPREP offices formed a nice campus of separate buildings, joined by covered walkways. I met with various staff, gave a seminar and had a nice lunch in town with Tim and Tepa from SPREP.

Read more

Our IAN group likes to tackle large complex projects on iconic ecosystems, while working with interesting and knowledgeable people. We love the immersive learning that comes with challenging projects and good teams. The Gulf of Mexico report card project is one of those exciting projects on an iconic ecosystem with a good team.

Read more

As part of the Gulf of Mexico Summit, we had the opportunity to present our prototype report card. For the presentation of the prototype Gulf of Mexico report card, we assembled our six man report card team: Drs. Larry McKinney and Wes Tunnell from the Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Drs. Mark Harwell and Jack Gentile, Harwell, Gentile & Associates, and Drs.

Read more

The Summit … Earlier this month I got to participate in what everyone hopes is a seminal moment for the future of the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Summit 2011 brought together invitees from scientific, academic, government, industry, NGO, and environmental law communities in the region for 5 days in Houston, Texas in early December.

Read more

Holidays are when we really catch up with family, and the "How's work?" question is inevitable. If you're lucky, a few family members are even interested in your reply, but we all know that's rare. I'm excited about what we do at IAN, but most of the time only a few of my family really want to get into it.

Read more

During a recent cross-country trip, I noticed innovative measures that local governments are taking to become more sustainable. The most striking part of this is that local governments cannot do this without support (hence the title – public efforts need support from private businesses).

Read more

I read in the Washington Post that the Australian Government passed the Clean Energy Bill through the Senate on 8.11.2011. It was widely covered in U.S. media, with even a theme of anticipation in the lead-up to the vote. Some of the responses to articles were quite funny including “…those Aussies are going to have to heat their food up in the sun” and “I guess they will be eating their baked beans cold from now on”.

Read more