In 2009, Governor Martin O’Malley and Maryland’s General Assembly charged the State with developing a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan that will reduce greenhouse gases 25 percent by the year 2020. Working closely with staff at Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), IAN's first task was to produce a 14-page executive summary to provide an overview of Maryland’s Plan…

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The National Park Service is carrying out assessments of the natural resource condition (NRCA) for nearly 300 of the National Parks throughout the country deemed to have significant natural resources. This project, to assess condition of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, is a synthesis project aimed at collating and synthesizing all available data to assess current status and trend for key indicators, combining these into an overall framework.

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The primary objective of this project is to collate data, review indicators, and synthesize both to effectively report the health of Old Woman Creek in north-central Ohio. Old Woman Creek, on the south-central shore of Lake Erie, is one of Ohio’s few remaining examples of a natural estuary and is designated as a National Estuarine Research Reserve and a Ohio State Nature Preserve.

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The primary objective of this project is to collate data, review indicators and synthesize both to effectively report the health of Pipe Creek. Pipe Creek is a small tributary to Sandusky Bay on the south-central shore of Lake Erie. The Pipe Creek watershed is largely developed by a combination of urban and agricultural land uses.

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Local watershed monitoring groups use different methods for data analysis and reporting, which results in data that are of variable quality and report cards that are challenging to compare. This project seeks to create uniform sampling and data analysis protocols for non-tidal indicators, by developing consensus among members of the Mid-Atlantic Tributary Assessment Coalition (MTAC).

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EcoCheck has partnered with the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore to assess the baseline conditions of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and its watershed. EcoCheck will evaluate the current status of the Inner Harbor by evaluating water quality, sediments, biota, and other indicators. This baseline conditions assessment will be a starting point for an annual monitoring program that will support an annual report card for the Harbor.

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The Mid-Atlantic Tributary Assessment Coalition is a unique and growing group of watershed organizations interested in advancing the use of environmental data from local organizations and citizen scientists for use in report cards and assessments. Using data collected by concerned citizens, IAN has helped to generate multi-year report cards for nine rivers since 2007.

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This book aims to synthesize research pertaining to key background and drivers of the South Florida ecosystem. Eight chapters organize the main research topics: geographic setting, oceanography, water quality, coral reef and hardbottom, seagrasses, mangroves, some important biota, and some important management actions.

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This project seeks to establish a framework to coordinate efforts among watershed organizations using or planning to use report cards as outreach tools. This project also seeks to develop clear and consistent guidelines and protocols for the development and implementation of report cards by watershed organizations. Protocols will be developed and training provided for sampling and monitoring methodology, data analysis, and science communication.

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A partnership between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) has been formed to develop an effective monitoring strategy to evaluate and communicate the efficacy of the projects funded through the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund (CBTF).

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