The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) is administered by the CRC and funded through a cooperative agreement with the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Partnership – currently spanning the period 2016-2022. The CRC has had a long-standing role of administering all activities of STAC, an active committee with 38 members from academic and scientific institutions around the watershed.
STAC held its first quarterly meeting of FY2018 on June 20, 2018, via webinar. The one-day meeting featured presentations and discussion on several STAC business items, including the continuing development of a process for STAC coordination of ‘science synthesis’ projects for the Partnership, the drafting of STAC’s annual letter to the CBP’s Executive Council, and filling several upcoming STAC membership vacancies. Presentations and more information can be found on the meeting webpage. STAC will host the second quarterly meeting of FY2018 on September 11-12, 2018, in Annapolis, MD.
STAC hosted one workshop over the last quarter. On May 23-24, STAC hosted a workshop titled “Revisiting Coastal Land-Water Interactions: The ‘Triblet’ Connection” in Frederick, MD. Presentations and more information can be found on the workshop webpage.
STAC will be sponsoring the following 5 workshops in FY2018, listed here in order of anticipated date:
- Chesapeake Bay Program Climate Change Modeling 2.0 – September 24-25, 2018
- Establishment of Multifunctional Riparian Barriers: How do we accelerate the path to 95,000+ acres with the greatest economic, social, and environmental impact? – TBD November 2018
- Assessing the Environment in Outcome Units (AEIOU): Using Eutrophying Units for Management – TBD January 2019
- Microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed: State of the Knowledge, Data Gaps, and Relationship to Management Goals – TBD February 2019
- Integrating Science and Developing Approaches to Inform Management for Contaminants of Concern in Agricultural Settings – TBD spring 2019
Several workshop steering committees are in the process of drafting activity reports and other workshop outcomes that will be distributed to the Partnership over the next few months. For more information regarding recently published and upcoming STAC workshop reports, visit the STAC past workshop webpage. Information regarding recent and upcoming STAC workshops is posted when available on the STAC current workshop homepage.
No new technical reviews were initiated in the quarter, which has marked the end of the Partnership’s TMDL Mid-Point Assessment process. Seven reviews were completed in FY2018 and some of these are still being processed with regard to final Partnership response and implementation. Status of all seven FY18 reviews can be accessed at the STAC current review homepage.
Most recently, at the August 7 meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Executive Council, STAC has presented its annual letter to the Council members, with broad recommendations for the Partnership for the coming year. A copy of that letter can be found at the CRC-maintained STAC-publications website.