The 2009 Chesapeake Bay report card release was held at Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore City on May 18. It was a cold rainy day, and the intrepid folks who braved the weather huddled under a pavilion waiting for Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. This is the first time that the Chesapeake Bay report card produced by the EcoCheck team, a partnership program between NOAA and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), was released with elected officials.

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The grading system used in the EcoCheck environmental report cards is a simple, systematic ranking scale. The one hundred point scale is divided into five equal categories; A (80-100), B (80-60), C (60-40), D (40-20) and F (20-0). Furthermore, the grades have a plus and minus scale, so that the upper 5 points of the 20 point range results in a plus score and the lower 5 points of the 20 point range results in a minus score.

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Environmental monitoring is extremely expensive with recurring costs. In addition to supporting a field effort, the analytical costs of processing samples and the data entry, quality assurance and analyses incurs costs. Even if the labor intensive field sampling is reduced through remote sensors and automated sampling, the task of processing the data is not diminished.

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We have all been working hard this week trying to finish up our next book, entitled "Integrating and Applying Science: A handbook for effective coastal ecosystem assessment." Here's a little sneak peek at the book. We have structured it around the information in this triangle: It covers collecting and analyzing scientific data, through to integrating that into information and knowledge, and how to apply that knowledge to change society and solve environmental problems.

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Last Wednesday, IAN went out with the Chester River Association on one of their weekly water quality monitoring trips on the Chester River. You know what they say - a bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office. And this was a great day in the field! Chester River … The Chester River Association measures a suite of water quality parameters (dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, etc.) at a range of sites both upstream and downstream from Chestertown.

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The report card gives the Maryland Coastal Bays a C-plus for ecosystem health in 2008. The study measured distinct differences in ecosystem health throughout the shallow bays behind Ocean City and Assateague, with southern regions such as Chincoteague Bay ranking higher than western tributaries such as the St. Martin River and Newport Bay. The Coastal Bays Report Card provides a scientifically robust – and geographically detailed –assessment of ecosystem health.

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