Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) scientists and managers rely on data collected by volunteers to study SAV and assess conservation and restoration needs. Although various citizen science initiatives currently survey SAV in the Chesapeake Bay, no standardized data collection protocol exists to ensure that all of these initiatives use the same methodology or collect the same data.

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Ecosystem based management (EBM) is a holistic and adaptive approach to developing effective policies for ensuring ecosystem sustainability, food and water security, and improved human health outcomes for future generations. Informed by science, it incorporates the entire ecosystem, including humans, into resource management decisions. Importantly, EBM explicitly considers tradeoffs in resource uses while protecting and sustaining diverse and productive ecosystems and the services they provide.

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Resource Assessments for Managements Strategies is an ongoing project aimed to identify the best opportunities to preserve the environmentally, culturally and historically significant resources within and across the National Capital Region parks. This assessment strategy is being implemented over two phases: Phase I is currently underway and focuses primarily on the status and management recommendations of park-specific resources.

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This project will help facilitate, assess, and produce the America's Watershed Initiative Report Card. The report card will describe the health of the Mississippi River Basin based on six main goals (water supply, flood risk reduction, economies, ecosystems, recreational, and transportation).

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Maryland's Coastal Bays, the shallow lagoons nestled behind Ocean City and Assateague, comprise a complex ecosystem. These estuarine bays, at the interface between fresh and saltwater, provide habitat for a wide range of aquatic life. But like many coastal systems, they face threats from intense development, nutrients, sediments, and other stresses associated with human activities.

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