As part of the biennial gathering of Cooperative Ecosystems Study Unit (CESU) council members and directors at the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) near Shepardstown, West Virginia, the Integration and Application Network received the National CESU award for contributions to the national CESU network. This award was announced by Dr. Tom Fish, National Coordinator of the CESU network, as part of his State of the CESU address, and I accepted the award on behalf of the IAN team.

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As part of the Mississippi River report card process, we held a workshop at the Mayo Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma to discuss the Arkansas and Red River basins. I adapted the Rogers and Hammerstein classic "Oklahoma" to commemorate our workshop. Based on some karaoke singing in the evening of the first day of the workshop, we discovered some (not a lot, but some) singing talent within our group. We prevailed upon these karaoke singers to form a trio known as "J.D. and the River Rats".

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I attended the 2014 River Rally which was held in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My main reason for attending was to scope out this gathering as the appropriate venue to create the North American Riverprize. The International Riverfoundation which awards the Theiss International Riverprize every year at the International Riversymposium. The concept that has been gaining momentum over the past several years is to have a series of regional Riverprizes:

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Along with Caroline Wicks from the Integration and Application Network, I attended the release of the 2013 Baltimore Harbor report card on 28 May. The Integration and Application Network team developed the initial report card a couple of years ago, working closely with the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and Blue Water Baltimore and still provide data analysis support for the Baltimore Harbor report card.

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'Environmental literacy' series … The seven environmental literacy principles for the Upper Mississippi River are the following: • The Upper Mississippi River is regulated with a series of locks and dams, extending from St. Louis, IL to Minneapolis, MN. • The Upper Mississippi River watershed includes forests and lakes in the northern regions and corn/soy croplands in the southern regions.

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The 2013 Chesapeake Bay report card provides an important insight into how stormwater runoff affects the Bay. The contrast between the Upper Eastern Shore report card scores which are degrading over time versus the James River report card scores which are improving over time provides important insights. Both regions experienced intense rainfall in 2013, yet the report card scores responded differently.

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As a follow up to the Arkansas/Red River workshop in Tulsa, OK where we facilitated a workshop associated with the development of a Mississippi River report card, five of us traveled to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Nickel Preserve in Eastern Oklahoma. Jordy Jordahl, the Executive Director of America's Watershed Initiative, Patrick Brennan, the Sustainability Manager from Ingram Barge, along with me, Heath Kelsey and Bill Nuttle from the IAN team comprised the report card strategy group.

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As part of our continuing series of stakeholder expert workshops for developing a Mississippi River basin report card, a team of IAN Science Integrators and Science Communicators traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma on 14-15 May 2014. Heath Kelsey, Bill Nuttle, Bill Dennison, Caroline Wicks, and Brianne Walsh. Anthony Kung, the visiting graduate student from the University of Queensland, came along as an observer as well.

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On May 11, replicas of two of the three ships that Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean were at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. These replicas of the Niña and the Pinta were made using authentic materials and constructed with historically appropriate tools. The Columbus Foundation sails these ships to different port calls as "floating museums".

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'Environmental literacy' series … The seven environmental literacy principles for the Ohio River basin are the following: • The Ohio River is the major eastern tributary of the Mississippi River, traversing through a diversity of landscapes. • The Ohio River is the major water source of the Mississippi River, with its flow regulated through a series of locks and dams.

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