It’s a turbulent time, waters once calm are now swirling, and footing is harder to come by. We can’t work in the usual way, can’t communicate in the manner we’re accustomed to, can’t assume that the trajectories of programs and efforts will continue on the same path. But we still have work to do, we crave conversations that matter, and we need to accelerate, not slow, our progress. How can we find that flow line in the stream where it is least turbulent, so that we can increase our speed downriver and our ease of movement, allowing our invested energy and work to get us further? Like a good rafting team, it will take all of us to discern that line, paddle to it, and move in it. Welcome to Streamline, the inaugural first edition of a newsletter intended to initiate the movement to that flow line.

Thanks to Bill Ball, CRC’s previous Executive Director, the initiation of a CRC newsletter began the process of gathering us together and letting us get to know one another, establishing knowledge and trust. But now it is time for the next step, where we come together to have the necessary conversations that illuminate the path forward through the wicked problems. It will take more than a few steps, analogous to a number of strokes to get to the streamline. Our new format is this: Streamline will increase its number of issues per year, from quarterly to bimonthly, in order to inspire a continuing space for discussion, and allowing us to continually build the necessary muscle for meaningful intellectual partnership. Each Streamline will be centered on a particular theme, identified by your needs as partners in the restoration effort, and will present a curated set of discoveries and colleagues at each institution relevant to that theme. This will allow a more efficient identification of potential colleagues and knowledge areas, catalyzing a series of networks built around issues. The newsletter theme will then kick-off one to three monthly webinar roundtables, to give us the space for further exploration, dialogue, and discussion. The roundtable time will be equally split between a few lightning-type talks to set the stage and facilitated, open discussion. The latter will provide training opportunities for our newest environmental professionals to sharpen their skills, as they enter a world in which the ability to elevate all voices is paramount, and allow them to assist all of us in enlarging the circle of ideas and innovations (these wicked problems require nothing less). In the future, we hope to add yet another space for conversation utilizing a social media platform (Linkedin). 

So what is our first theme, and how did we get here? After a bit of crowdsourcing in a session at this year’s Chesapeake Community Research Symposium 2020, plus some additional input from our member institutions, we’ve chosen discovery in the time of pandemic. All of us have been paddling all summer to find the streamline associated with accomplishing ongoing research as well as shifting to provide knowledge in new areas that have arisen. As a group, we have navigated fairly well, with institutions adapting ongoing research, finding new opportunities, and recalibrating the new normal (see main article). And the new areas of necessary knowledge are mind-boggling and energizing, from leveraging technology in fieldwork to utilizing wastewater to track the impacts of COVID-19. However, the creation of knowledge requires data, and unfortunately, the pandemic has added new things to the list of priority issues at every geographical scale, from township to region to state to partnership. What we have seen previously during such budget-challenged times is the reduction or cessation of environmental monitoring, both in the physical and social science arenas. We need to carefully consider these priorities, the associated consequences of having to re-allocate our resources toward them, and the consideration of new alternatives. The partnership formally recognizes the importance of continued progress on restoration and its connections to health and well-being of all (see inset). What may not yet be apparent is that meeting these priorities does not have to be a zero-sum game. I’m proud to announce that our first webinar will explore exactly that, with lightning talks from Ann Jennings, Lee McDonnell, and Matt Ehrhart on how we can make sound decisions regarding monitoring and the data that drives discovery, all in the context of the realities of the time. Please, please join us and help us paddle to the streamline.

All the best,

Denice