How is Chesapeake Bay doing?
Find out the answer when IAN releases the 2017 Chesapeake Bay Report Card Friday, June 15, 2018 at 10:30 am- 12:00 pm at Hyatt House Washington D.C./The Wharf (725 Wharf St SW, Washington, DC 20024).Submit your videos to IAN for the Chesapeake Film Festival!
IAN is asking folks to send short videos of Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. See this flyer for the submission details- deadline is June 29, 2018!
The Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers: Developing a Report Card Stakeholder Workshop Newsletter
Earlier this year, Bill Dennison and Brianne Walsh traveled to Concord, Massachusetts to initiate a report card for the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord Rivers with OARS, a non-profit whose mission is to protect, improve, and preserve the rivers, their tributaries, and watersheds. This workshop newsletter highlights two stakeholder workshops held at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge on February 28 and March 1, 2018. The initial workshop elicited what stakeholders value about the rivers, and subsequent workshop focused on how to measure those values, and where to find data. IAN will continue to work with, and support the OARS staff as they work to develop the report card over the next 12-18 months.
Teaching the report card process in Ontario, Canada
Heath, Emily, and Jason traveled to Toronto, Ontario May 15-17 to teach Ontario's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) and their partners IAN's ecohealth report card making process. The provincial government of Ontario has developed a formal strategy and legislative mandate to address issues in the Great Lakes Basin, though they are seeking additional ways to engage stakeholders and evaluate Ontario's role in overall basin management and adaptation. The report card workshop presented IAN's process as a way to augment Ontario's current reporting and help to guide future iterations of the Great Lakes Strategy. While in Ontario, IAN representatives also met with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority to discuss a collaborative project to mark the 10-year anniversary of Lake Simcoe Protection Plan.
IAN in China
IAN visited China recently to assist The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) China Program with options for assessing watershed health. Dr. Simon Costanzo provided guidance to TNC on ways to assess the health of small watershed areas restored by the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau in Shaanxi Province. While in China, Simon also visited a number of locations along the Chishui River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River in China. This second part of the trip was for a new project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, aimed at strengthening the "River Chief" system and improving the overall health of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Simon met with a number of river chiefs from the three provinces that the Chishui River traverses, and is collaborating with the Yangtze Water Resources Commission to develop indicators that can be measured at the boundaries of these provinces to assess progress upstream, and report condition through a report card.
Course in Communicating Science Effectively at Northeastern University
Earlier this month, Bill Dennison and Brianne Walsh traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to teach a science communication course co-sponsored by the Northeastern University Marine Science Center and MassBays National Estuary Program. The 2.5 day course covered data visualization, storytelling, and narratives, and how to combine visual and text elements in effective presentations and publications. The 36 participants included academics, municipal, state, and federal employees, non-government organization staff, and private consultants. In addition to the workshop, Bill was invited to speak during an evening Science Cafe: a discussion on data visualization in Boston, an event sponsored by graduate students at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Save the date for our next course on river basin health report cards!
Starting in January 2019, IAN staff will hold a course on how develop an ecohealth report card for river basins from beginning to end. Check out this flyer for preliminary details.