Loving life at the GLC

Greetings! Its hard to believe I am in my fifth month here at the Commission.  I am lucky enough to be a 2013 Great Lakes Commission Fellow.  You notice I don’t say THE GLC Fellow. This year the Commission decided to take on not one but two fellows! The other fellow is from the state of New York and just finished law school.  We get along really well and are having a great time working together at the Commission. 

Things have been crazy since I began in June.  My time is divided between 4 main projects; the Great Lakes Phragmites Collaborative,  a Great Lakes Restoration Database website, a nutrient credit trading program and a coastal science strategy project.   For the purpose of this post I’ll just focus on the nutrient credit trading program or “Fox P Trade”.  The goal of this project is to develop a trading program in the Lower Fox River watershed, which is the main tributary to Green Bay.  The Lower Fox River and Green Bay have a large nutrient management problem. This project started just a few months before the beginning of my fellowship, so I have been able to help get the project up and running which has been a great learning experience.  My involvement with the project includes organizing and running various meetings and related webinars in addition to helping finalize the work plan.  We work with a wide range of stakeholders on this project to make sure everyone’s voice is represented.  These stakeholders include: Wisconsin DNR, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Oneida nation, and local wastewater treatment facilities among others.  In the upcoming months we will be finalizing a request for proposals and a potential scope of work for a study to determine the economic feasibility of nutrient trading in the Lower Fox. 

In September I traveled with several Commission staff to Milwaukee for Great Lakes Week.  This was an amazing networking opportunity and a chance to learn more about issues affecting the Great Lakes.  It was great to meet all of the Commissioners and discuss the specific problems facing each of their states and provinces.  The conference had also organized some really cool field trips.  I got to go paddleboarding in the Milwaukee Harbor with some of my colleagues where we learned about the local sturgeon population.  Overall it was a fantastic experience!

I'm really looking forward to the rest of my time here and I'll let you all know how it goes! 

Best,

Elizabeth
Great Lakes Commission Fellow
(6/2013 – 6/2014)
elillard@glc.org

On the Road with a Knauss Fellowship

            Fish might be one of the last truly wild animals that we hunt for food.  Because some of the most important fish stocks cross international lines or reside in the high seas, they must be managed by groups of nations acting collectively to preserve them for future generations.

As a Knauss Fellow in the Office of Marine Conservation at the Department of State, I recently joined U.S. delegations that traveled to separate fishery negotiations in Fukuoka, Japan and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.  The Department of State works closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, and stakeholders such as the fishing industry and environmental organizations to formulate U.S. policy on shared fish stocks.

International law provides a framework for nations to form regional fishery management organizations, or RFMOs.  RFMOs are generally made up of nations that have an interest in shared management and conservation of fish stocks, either because their coastal waters are home to the fish of interest during at least a portion of their lifecycles or they are so-called distant water fishing nations, whose fleets might travel many miles to harvest the stocks.

At RFMO negotiations, delegations receive presentations on the latest scientific information, and try to develop a common understanding of the science, and the condition of the fish stocks.  They develop and review conservation and management measures through a consensus-based process, and establish monitoring and surveillance mechanisms to assess compliance with those measures.

Nations sign treaties to participate in RFMOs; the collective decisions are considered binding on each nation.  But each nation has to develop its own domestic regulations to implement the measures agreed to through the RFMO process.  It’s all much easier said than done, sometimes.

This area of natural resource policy is completely new to me.  I’m thankful for the opportunity that being a Knauss fellow has provided to get a glimpse into a fascinating slice of marine conservation.

 Dave Gershman

Knauss Marine Policy Fellow

(2/2013 – 2/2014)

GershmanDJ@state.gov

Adapting to rising tides in Bay Area parks

As a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, I work on sea level rise adaptation through the Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Project. We work with all sectors of local government including cities, transportation agencies and utility providers but my work focuses on parks and recreation departments.

Leslie Knope jokes aside, shoreline parks are the literal and figurative frontline for sea level rise. These parks provide recreation opportunities for millions of Bay Area residents and are heavily used by windsurfers, swimmers, walkers, bikers and picnickers.  Park visitors can learn about sea level rise impacts and adaptation through formal and informal education.  During my fellowship, I have worked with park interpretive staff to develop sea level rise curriculum for field trips and adult education.  

Shoreline parks are exposed to sea level rise impacts and sensitive to increased erosion and salt water flooding.  East Bay Regional Park District is spending millions of dollars this year to replenish sand at Crown Beach Memorial State Park (see image).  Without expensive maintenance, the recreation and shoreline protection benefits of this park will be lost.  My fellowship project is focused on understanding park-specific vulnerabilities and developing sustainable adaptation strategies.  I am lucky to work on an experience team of coastal  planners-they are all jealous that my site visits are at parks instead of to wastewater treatment plants!

For more information on the ART project, please visit www.adaptingtorisingtides.org

Maggie Wenger

Coastal Management Fellow

(8/2012 – 8/2014)

maggiew@bcdc.ca.gov

Post fellowship re-cap and links to working waterfront resources

Thanks for checking back and apologies for the lack of blog posts during my busy fellowship!

I finished my Coastal Management Fellowship with the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program and Michigan Sea Grant at the end of August and wanted to share a summary of my experiences and links to new working waterfront resources.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in the Office of the Great Lakes (OGL) in Lansing for my first year and with Sea Grant Extension in coastal Traverse City for the second half of the fellowship. I really appreciate the valuable experience I gained in each office and the opportunity to build a diverse network and engage in both state wide and local initiatives and groups as a result of this partnership between OGL and Sea Grant. I also really enjoyed the opportunity to travel around the state to meet with planners and waterfront stakeholders in many coastal communities.

The fellowship offered me a tremendous opportunity to develop professionally. Some of the highlights include:

• Attending and presenting at numerous conferences
• Developing a comprehensive report and preparing case studies about working waterfronts
• Participating in the National Working Waterfront Network
• Advancing my understanding of coastal land use planning and Waterfront Smart Growth
• Convening and working with an external advisory committee. 

The fellowship project helped to advance understanding of local and statewide needs, opportunities, and challenges with respect to waterfront planning and maintaining the viability of water dependent uses. Partnerships that emerged from addressing statewide waterfront access issues and from this project are now engaged in preparing coastal planning and development guidance for waterfront communities as well as increasing the accessibility and presence of tools and resources for managing waterfronts.

If you are interested in learning more about Michigan’s working waterfronts, the economic value of working waterfronts, examples of best practices for maintaining water dependent and enhanced uses, and recommended next steps, please check out Michigan Sea Grant’s Vibrant Waterfront Communities webpage: http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/explore/coastal-communities/vibrant-waterfront-communities-case-studies/

To learn more about working waterfronts around the country and tools and resources available to support these valuable assets, please visit the National Working Waterfront network website: http://www.wateraccessus.com/.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

 Liz Durfee

NOAA Coastal Management Fellow
(8/2011 – 8/2013)
elizabeth.durfee@gmail.com

So long, and thanks for all the fish...

(Apologies for the Douglas Adams reference)

Hard to believe two years have gone by since I started the Coastal Management fellowship.  I had a valuable experience working with the NY Department of State (NY DOS) Oceans and Great Lakes Program.  I had the opportunity to work with lots of data on fish, marine mammal, and seabird distributions, and I was able to learn and apply various statistical modeling and GIS techniques to help "squeeze" more information out of limited data.  It's gratifying to see that some of the resulting maps made their way into the recently-released NY DOS Offshore Atlantic Study, available at http://www.dos.ny.gov/press/2013/atlantic7-10.html.  This study will help NY identify valuable offshore resources, for both recreation and industry, and intelligently plan for competing uses in an increasingly crowded offshore environment.

I also enjoyed working closely with coastal managers to help translate technical products for public audiences, while at the same time creating analyses that were supportive of public needs.  For example, I helped synthesize maps of commercial and recreational fishing intensity as depicted by actual stakeholders.   The fellowship program provided funds to present some of this work at local and regional conferences, where I was able to meet people from state, federal, and private sectors and gather a variety of perspectives on coastal science and policy.  All in all, I practiced interpersonal and technical skills, made valuable contacts, and created products in concert with my fellow Oceans and Great Lakes staff members that I'm definitely proud of.  I'm very thankful to Michigan Sea Grant, the NOAA Coastal Services Center, and NY State for providing this opportunity, and I plan on building on it for the rest of my career!

Zach Hecht-Leavitt

NOAA Coastal Management Fellow

(8/2011 – 8/2013)

zhechtle@gmail.com

A great learning experience

Six months in to my Knauss Fellowship and I’m still just as excited as I was on the first day of work. But time is passing very quickly.

The first few months were spent just figuring out how the Office of Marine Conservation at the Department of State functions and learning a wealth of acronyms that sometimes still seems like a foreign language.

At work, I’ve been learning quite a bit about the management of international fisheries, the implementation of foreign aspects of US domestic law, the Global Environment Facility, marine pollution and aquaculture. I also had a chance to attend a five-nation fisheries negotiation, where delegations agreed on the need to collaborate on scientific research and reached consensus on conservation and management measures.

The fellowship also provides a wealth of learning opportunities outside of work. I’ve attended Congressional hearings – including seeing Titanic director James Cameron testify on the need for deep sea exploration – briefings on the latest science and policy advancements – blue carbon anyone? – and countless after work receptions.

Two highlights were getting behind-the-scenes tours of the U.S. Naval Observatory and Natural History Museum. The observatory maintains official time for the United States and fellows had a chance to see Saturn and its rings through the observatory’s telescope. The museum has several oceans-focused rooms and we got a glimpse at some of the exciting research that occurs in the laboratories in the non-public portions of the building.

There’s so much going on, in fact, that it can be hard to focus on exactly what you want to accomplish by the time the fellowship ends. That’s my next task, and I’ve started to pursue some new interests and get involved in a few exciting projects. More on those later.

Dave Gershman

Knauss Marine Policy Fellow
(2/2013 – 2/2014)
GershmanDJ@state.gov

Decisions, decisions...

Just a quick musing on my future in this penultimate post as the 2011-2012 GLC fellow…

As I’ve started my final quarter and have begun to consider options for the next phase(s) of my life/career, I’ve found myself trying to decide whether policy or science is a better fit for me.  My time at the GLC has been my first formal exposure to policy work, and I have gained an incredible amount of information and experience thus far.   Moreover, I have been able to weave my knowledge of scientific processes, nuances, and argot into the work that I do here.  All in all, it has been a refreshing blend of the two realms.  However, the more thought and consideration I devote to the decision, the more I feel that science – or a position with a slightly heavier emphasis on research – is the right fit for me.  And, as one of my favorite aspects of being a biologist is finding opportunities for community outreach and education, my position at the GLC as only helped to further hone my skills in this regard!  In the last ten months, I have interacted with countless community members, stakeholders, researchers, natural resource managers, and politicians.  Each group has challenged me to exercise different muscles, to practice and perfect a different set of communication skills.  I now have a better understanding of how science is used to solve real-world problems, how to communicate technical information to policy makers and other stakeholders clearly, concisely, and effectively.  Perhaps most importantly – and what I’d really hoped to gain from this fellowship – I was able to see the bridge (or sometimes lack thereof) between the research and policy spheres from a new perspective.  There is a pipeline between research and policy that at times runs woefully dry.  Laws and regulations, subject to the surging tide of public and political will, may be passed into action with or without consideration of the best possible science.  Sure, environmental impact assessments and the like are mandated in the process of developing new regulations.  But what about the other research initiatives being conducted in the same field?  What do those objectives and methods reveal that can add to what we hope is an ever-growing knowledge base on all things Great Lakes?  My point is that in the sometimes hurried, compressed manner that politics operates, innovative and enlightening science may be easily overlooked.  The linkages among researchers, resource managers, facilitators, and policy makers are not always clear or even necessary.  It is impressive, however, how much progress stands to be made when we (<<puts on scientist hat>>) make the effort to partner with facilitating agencies like the Great Lakes Commission, that can quickly, effectively, and powerfully disseminate technical results with elevated relevance.

Sorry, did I say a quick musing?  I guess I meant a moderate rambling.  Take home message?  I have seen the gap from both sides now (cue Joni Mitchell…).  I have new knowledge and skills that will allow me to continue to work to keep the pipeline flowing between science and policy.  Research, in all its tantalizing muddiness, is certainly pulling me back in its direction.  But with my enhanced communication and facilitation skills gained at the GLC, who knows where I’ll end up? I can see this morphing into some personal musings about what I still keep on the table for what I want to be when I “grow up” (Broadway star, roadside veggie merchant in Tibet, dinosaur-specific children’s lit. illustrator, professional badminton player, etc.), but that could easily get out of hand.  Anyway, stay tuned for a final update at the end of May!



The cover illustration of the Book Le Vingtieme Siecle by Albert Robida, depicts futuristic means of transport flying above a city.
© Leonard de Selva / Corbis
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Origins-of-Futurism.html#ixzz1rBYdgPlv

-Cassie Bradley
Great Lakes Commission Fellow
(6/2011 – 6/2012)
cassiebradley@gmail.com