Kristin Saunders, a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science at the Chesapeake Bay Program (UMCES@CBP) employee, organizes regular mini-retreats for the Goal Implementation Team chairs and Chesapeake Bay Program leadership. The Goal Implementation Team chairs included Sean Corson (Sustainable Fisheries), Christine Conn (Habitat), James Davis-Martin (Water Quality), Chuck Hunt (Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship), and Dave Goshorn (Enhance Partnering, Leadership and Management).

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Susan Williams. Photo sourced from UC Davis. On 26-27 Oct 2018, friends and colleagues of Susan Williams held a celebration of Susan’s life and impact. The 26 Oct event was held in the International Center on the University of California at Davis campus. Rick Grosberg, UC Davis faculty, served as the emcee. The event was in a beautiful room that opened onto a courtyard with people attending from all facets of Susan’s life.

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On 27-28 Nov 2018, Andrew Elmore, Alex Fries and I traveled to Sandusky, Ohio for the kick-off workshop for our Western Lake Erie and watershed report card project. We experienced some wonderful Ohio hospitality and had a productive workshop. This was the culmination of a project that I introduced in a previous blog about Lake Erie.

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As part of the Environmental Management of Enclosed Coastal Seas (EMECS) conference in Pattaya, Thailand, that I attended with Dave Nemazie, Bob Summers and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen, a study tour was organized to expose us to the ecology of the Gulf of Thailand. The Gulf of Thailand is commonly divided into two parts, the smaller inner Gulf (10,000 km2) and the larger outer Gulf (350,000 km2).

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On 4 Oct. 2018, NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold returned to Earth following his 197-day stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). After watching Ricky’s Soyuz launch on March 21, 2018, the Soyuz docking with the ISS, various space walks, and various interviews that Ricky made with various groups on earth, it was exciting to finally watch the live-stream of Soyuz capsule landing on the Kazakhstan steppe.

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As part of the 21st International Riversymposium, a study tour of the Parramatta River was organized by the Parramatta River Catchment Group. The Parramatta River is the major river feeding into Sydney Harbour from the west. They were deserved finalists for the Bert and Vera Thiess Foundation Australasia Riverprize. Sarah Clift, Executive Director of the Parramatta River Catchment Group (PRCG), and her capable staff organized a great study tour.

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The 21st annual International Riversymposium was held in Doltone House, Sydney, Australia 14-18 October 2018. I enjoyed the location right on the shore of Sydney Harbour and the food was superb. The theme of this year’s Riversymposium was ‘Embracing Innovation’.

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An annual highlight with the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is the WebStock event that its Creative Team organizes. This year’s event was the largest ever, and was held at the beautiful headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, overlooking Chesapeake Bay on 11 Oct 2018. WebStock is designed to communicate, collaborate, and educate the CBP staff and key partners about the activities of its Creative Team.

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The Marine Environmental and Estuarine Science (MEES) program is a multi-campus graduate education program within the University System of Maryland. Each autumn, a MEES Colloquium is hosted by one of the campuses that sponsor MEES. The 2018 MEES Colloquium was sponsored by the Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg, Maryland on 5-6 October.

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The final meeting of the Curriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science (CCERS) project--which the Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science was a partner on--took place on 27 Sept 2018. The meeting included a visit to the New York Aquarium to view a new exhibit under construction. This exhibit will feature results from our CCERS project and the Billion Oyster Project (BOP), based at the Harbor School on Governors Island.

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