This past November, IAN, in collaboration with its partners from WWF, Audubon Southwest, and The University of Massachusetts Amherst published a socio-environmental health report card for the Upper Rio Grande. The report card covers a section of the Rio Grande that stretches from the river’s headwaters in the Colorado Rockies to Fort Quitman, TX. Project members cast a wide net to retrieve relevant data that would allow us to analyze the region's environmental, social, and economic conditions.

This nexus of humanity and nature is exactly where IAN likes to work. We set the stage and facilitate discussions, and then we sit back and listen.

In early October, UMCES IAN hosted two Patuxent Stakeholder Listening Sessions as part of Phase 1 of developing a Patuxent River and Watershed Socio-environmental Report Card.

On a sunny Thursday in July, over 40 community members throughout the greater Frederick County in Maryland participated in the very first Potomac Watershed Open House.

It’s difficult to describe the feeling of finally experiencing something you’ve been anticipating for nearly three years.

After attending the planning meeting for a community-engagement open house at Hood College, we set out on an adventure throughout the Upper Potomac. Traveling along the river, we visited several idyllic locations that play significant roles in the watershed’s ecosystem and function.

The COAST Card team spent the day learning about various locations in the Potomac River Watershed to provide a historical context for the environmental assessment of the region.

This past Wednesday, on June 15th, we had the opportunity to take our first step in utilizing the COAST (Coastal Ocean Assessment for Sustainability and Transformation) Card framework on the Potomac watershed at Hood College in Frederick County.

In a large conference room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland, a panelist asks, “How many of you have had a black co-worker in your lifetime?” The conference room is silent. A few hands start to slowly creep toward mid-air. Everyone scans the room.

The 2021 Chesapeake & Watershed Report Card highlights unique findings in water and ecosystem quality compared to previous years. This year’s report stresses the importance of expanding how we make sense of the overall bay and watershed health as we start to look at economic and environmental justice indicators, such as: income inequality, housing affordability, social vulnerability to hazardous events, and walkability to parks.