Over the past century, the environment of the Gulf of Mexico has been significantly altered and impaired by extensive human activities. A national commitment to restore the Gulf was finally initiated in response to the unprecedented Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Consequently, there is a critical need for an assessment framework and associated set of indicators that can characterize the health and sustainability of an ecosystem having the scale and complexity of the Gulf.

Natural Resource Condition Assessments (NRCAs) assess and report on park resource conditions and are meant to complement traditional issue and threat-based resource assessments. NRCAs report on current conditions, trends, and critical data gaps for a subset of natural resource indicators.

The world’s waters are threatened by a host of problems. Impacts from human activities like development and overuse are exacerbated by changes in climate and increased competition by different societal interests, putting vulnerable communities and ecosystems at risk. Creating a sustainable balance of water needs for both nature and people is challenging. It will require people that are competing for water resources to work together in new collaborations and partnerships.

This newsletter summarizes outputs from the initial stakeholder workshop to develop the Verde River Watershed Report Card. The objectives of the workshop were to: i) introduce the project and agree on expected outcomes; ii) begin the process of developing a report card; and, iii) define the geographic scope of the report card, indicators, thresholds, data sources, and communication plan.

In fulfillment of requirements of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change Act of 2015, this report provides updated projections of the amount of sea-level rise relative to Maryland coastal lands that is expected into the next century. These projections represent the consensus of an Expert Group drawn from the Mid-Atlantic region.

This technical document summarizes the methodology for the indicator calculations and scoring for coral reef status reports of the Pacific jurisdictions: American Samoa, Hawaiian Archipelago, Pacific Remote Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands.

Effective coral reef conservation cannot be accomplished without an informed and engaged public. The American Samoa coral status report is part of a larger effort to provide communities and decision-makers with information about managing and conserving coral reef ecosystems. The American Samoa status report presents the results of an analysis of indicators that were chosen to reflect key ecosystem processes and values.

Effective coral reef conservation cannot be accomplished without an informed and engaged public. The Guam coral status report is part of a larger effort to provide the public and decision-makers with information about managing and conserving coral reef ecosystems.

Effective coral reef conservation cannot be accomplished without an informed and engaged public. The Hawaiian Islands coral status report is part of a larger effort to provide communities and decision-makers with information about managing and conserving coral reef ecosystems.

Effective coral reef conservation cannot be accomplished without an informed and engaged public. The Northern Mariana Islands coral status report is part of a larger effort to provide the public and decision-makers with information about managing and conserving coral reef ecosystems.