Enewsletter articles for Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative: Integrating Citizen-based and Other Nontraditional Monitoring

Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative heads upstream to Carlisle, PA

CMC participants break for lunch in Carlisle, PAThe Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative met at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in June. Dickinson College is the home of the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM), a partner in this project. Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative envisions a Chesapeake community where all data of known quality are used to inform watershed management decisions and restoration efforts. This project is funded by the U.S. EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program and includes several important factors, such as training sessions for non-traditional monitoring groups, a database that incorporates a variety of non-traditional monitoring data, and assessment of the monitoring data (i.e., report cards).

IAN creates tidal water quality factsheets for volunteer monitors

CMC tidal water quality monitoring factsheetsAs part of the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative project, IAN produced 12 factsheets describing 14 tidal water quality indicators. These indicators are part of the CMC's tidal water quality Quality Assurance Project Plan and Method Manuals. The factsheets are intended for nontraditional and volunteer monitoring groups to include as part of their water quality monitoring programs as education materials for their volunteers. Additionally, IAN produced 20 matrices that illustrate the overlap between volunteer and nontraditional monitoring groups with the Chesapeake Bay Agreement's outcomes and goals. These products are part of the broader goal of the project to integrate volunteer and nontraditional monitoring data into the Chesapeake Bay Program's monitoring networks.

IAN shows support for collaborative public science

Caroline Donovan, Alex Fries, Suzi Spitzer stand in front of the Mississippi River Visitor Center in St. Paul, MinnesotaIAN staff Caroline Donovan, Alex Fries, and Suzi Spitzer attended the biennial Citizen Science Association Conference from May 17-19. Our work at IAN was well-represented— Caroline co-hosted a data communication workshop, Alex promoted the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative during the Project Slam, and Suzi presented results from her dissertation research. The conference was held in Saint Paul, Minnesota and was attended by citizen science researchers and practitioners from all over the country and across the globe. You can read more about our conference experience in several blog posts!

Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative presents at the Chesapeake Watershed Forum

Caroline Donovan recently presented a poster on the Indicator Effectiveness Matrix, which demonstrates overlapping objectives between the Chesapeake Bay Program's Management Strategies and volunteer monitoring groups at the Chesapeake Watershed Forum. The Watershed Forum is an excellent venue for networking as well as learning about a variety of management and restoration activities throughout the watershed. IAN staff attend every year and enjoy it thoroughly! This year Emily Nastase, Dylan Taillie, Suzi Spitzer, and Vanessa Vargas presented in different sessions, with topics ranging from art in science to collaborative tools for stakeholder engagement.

UMCES holds workshops for the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative

21 members of the data interpretation workshops pose for a group photo in a lobby near stairs.In the last month, IAN held two workshops for Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative (CMC) members and interested parties that focused on interpreting and visualizing data. The first workshop was hosted at the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase, MD and was a two-day introduction to data interpretation and visualization. UMCES developed a Data Interpretation and Synthesis Methods Manual for this workshop in order to assist students with the concepts introduced. The second two-day workshop, held in Annapolis, MD, provided advanced data interpretation to CMC groups and helped them to better communicate their monitoring data.

Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative's (CMC) Data Interpretation and Science Communication Workshop

Richmond, Viginia and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA. The CMC trained approximately 20 people in Data Interpretation and Science Communication in February. The free 2-day workshop is part of the CMC's training services and include hands-on, immersive training in data interpretation, conceptualization, storytelling, and design and layout. One workshop was hosted at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's office in Richmond, VA and the other was hosted by the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. The participants were asked to bring a spreadsheet of their data, as well as an idea for a science communication product that they could work on developing throughout the two-day course. There were a lot of impressive results from both workshops! Check out this blog for a more in-depth look!

Upcoming meetings and conferences

IAN projects and employees will be attending and presenting at a variety of virtual conferences this spring and summer, including:

Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative In-Person Meeting

On May 15th and 16th, Ann Foo and Sidney Anderson attended the in-person meeting for the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative in Richmond, Virginia, hosted by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. This project, entering its fourth year, is a collaboration among Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia aiming to support water monitoring across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and make that data accessible to those interested in it. Members from each organization gather once a year to assess upcoming goals, new ideas, and strengthen the cooperative team.

Insights from the Choose Clean Water Conference

Last month, Sidney Anderson, Ann Foo, and Nathan Miller attended the Choose Clean Water Conference in Ellicott City, Maryland. Each year, representatives from riverkeeper organizations, universities, environmental advocacy non-profits, and government agencies from around the Chesapeake gather to share new research, network, and exchange ideas over how everyone’s collective work can improve both the ecology of the Bay and the communities that live in its watershed. Plus it’s a chance for everyone to collect really cool swag! Sidney, Ann, and Nathan attended as the IAN contingent of the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative, which helps citizen scientists collect quality freshwater data in the Chesapeake tributaries. Their presentation, “Masters of Translation: Best Practices in Science Communication,” covered general principles of science communication and how to co-develop science communication products via stakeholder engagement. Attendees got the chance to practice their science communication skills during the presentation, as well through activities like “Conceptionary” and “Title Pursuit.”

Recent IAN publications

Check out some of the following publications we had last month:

19th Annual Chesapeake Watershed Forum

Every year, we attend the Chesapeake Watershed Forum in West Virginia. Our presence at this meeting solidifies our partnership with the Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. This year, Annie Carew, Ann Foo, and Alex Fries presented two workshops: one on stakeholder engagement, and one on science communication. Both workshops were well-attended, and attendees were enthusiastic and engaged about the material. We enjoyed getting to speak to people from across the Chesapeake watershed about our work and theirs.