Bill Dennison and I traveled to Boston, Massachusetts on September 12-14 to teach a one-day course, titled “Communicating Science Effectively”, for U.S. EPA Region 1 staff at their office in downtown Boston. There were about 25 participants. All were EPA employees, but their specialties and roles ranged from environmental scientist, drinking water specialist, biologist, physical scientist, risk assessor, enforcement officer to environmental engineer.

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Three years ago, IAN began a national-scale effort with the USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center (NCASC) to synthesize the impacts of ecological drought across the country. Workshops were held at each of the nation's eight regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers covering the following regions: Alaska, Pacific Islands, Northwest, Southwest, North Central, South Central, Northeast, and Southeast.

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In April, Emily Nastase and I had the opportunity to travel to Olympic Valley, California to attend River Rally 2018. River Rally, hosted annually by River Network, is a national conference for river and water champions. It brings together hundreds of people from across the United States and around the world who care about rivers and water issues. Participants this year included NGO staff and volunteers, academics, federal agencies, foundation representatives, and community leaders.

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In October, I attended the 13th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference. This conference was hosted by the Healing Our Waters (HOW) Great Lakes Coalition. The coalition consists of over 150 environmental, conservation, and outdoor recreation organizations all with one common goal: restoring and protecting North America’s greatest freshwater resources, the Great Lakes. The opening plenary of the 13th Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference. Image credit Brianne Walsh.

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During the month of April, I had an opportunity to present at Scientific Literacy: A conference for reform-minded science educators, hosted by graduate students at the University of Rochester Warner School of Education.

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In September, Simon Costanzo, Caroline Donovan, and I traveled to Edmonton, Alberta for a science communication course sponsored by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI). Participants had a diverse range of backgrounds and expertise, including researchers, planners, GIS analysts, communicators, and managers.

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Last month, while on vacation in Italy, I had the opportunity to visit the aptly nicknamed “floating city”, Venice. For thousands of years, life in Venice has centered around water, reliant on the sea, lagoon and canals for protection, transportation, and livelihoods, and today those waters threaten to engulf the city. During a walking tour of Venice, we were able to venture off the beaten path, and learn a bit more about the engineering, and problems facing this magnificent city.

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This blog is part of the Basin Report Card Initiative: a partnership between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) In March, Simon Costanzo and I traveled to Cambodia for the third workshop in the Linked Indicators for Vital Ecosystem Services (LIVES) Project, an initiative of the Luc Hoffman Institute. This five-day workshop brought us to the province of Kratie, a five-hour drive north of the capital, Phnom Penh.

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In March, Bill Dennison, Simon Costanzo, and I travelled to Norman, Oklahoma for a workshop on ecological drought, part of an ongoing project with the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. This was the third in a series of eight workshops to be held at each of the nation’s eight Climate Science Centers focusing on ecological drought.

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In December, Simon Costanzo, Bill Dennison, and I traveled to Fort Collins, Colorado for a workshop on ecological drought - part of an ongoing project with the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center. This was the second in a series of eight workshops to be held at each of the nation’s eight Climate Science Centers, aimed at collating our existing knowledge of the ecological impacts, resistance, and recovery from drought.

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