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.

For any inquiries, or to be added to STAC’s Interested Parties list, contact STAC Coordinator, Annabelle Harvey.

 

STAC December Update

 

STAC is accepting proposals for STAC-sponsored workshops for the STAC fiscal year 2021 budget cycle (beginning June 1, 2021). Workshops are convened to gather critically needed scientific or technical information related to protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.  Workshops funded through this RFP must be convened by May 31, 2022. The total amount allocated by STAC will not exceed $10,000 for each workshop activity. As an independent advisory committee to the entire Chesapeake Bay Partnership, STAC reserves funds for two categories of workshops. Please note, this year, we revised the categories. More information can be found in the attached RFP and Workshop Overview Document. Feel free to reach out to Annabelle Harvey if you have any questions regarding the Workshop categories.

The current STAC membership list can be found here. The RFP can be found on the STAC website here.

Proposals are due to STAC Coordinator, Annabelle Harvey (harveya@chesapeake.org) by COB February 16, 2021.

 

STAC held its final meeting for 2020 on December 14-15, 2020 over Zoom. STAC received updates from the Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) and the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC). All three advisory committees have continued to improve communication and collaboration, and this update gave STAC an overview of the committees’ current priorities and projects. Representatives from CBP leads of the Clean Water SRS Cohort provided STAC with the latest science needs for discussion and received feedback on filling these gaps from the membership. Along with this presentation, Breck Sullivan (CRC, STAR) gave a preview of the new Science Needs Database, which will allow STAC members to easily engage with the CBP science needs.

In STAC’s continued effort to better communicate with decision-makers and the public, Caitlyn Johnstone and Rachel Felver (Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Communications Workgroup) presented the various tools and products that the CBP Communications Workgroup can assist with developing for various STAC efforts. Day 1 wrapped up with a presentation from Rebecca Murphy (UMCES) and the CBP Integrated Trends Analysis Team (ITAT) on the tidal water quality long-term trend data. Day 2 of the meeting was dedicated to reviewing drafted sections and identifying key messages of the STAC Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR—formerly SGA). 

Materials and presentations from the December meeting can be found on the STAC December Webpage. 

STAC 2021 Quarterly Meeting Dates

STAC has approved the following dates for their 2021 Quarterly Meetings. If you are interested in attending any of these meetings, please sign up for STAC’s Interested Parties email list. 

March 23-24, 2021

June 15-16, 2021

September 13-14, 2021

December 7-8, 2021

 

FY2020 STAC Workshops: Approved Proposals

STAC will be hosting four workshops in FY2020, listed below. Planning is underway for these activities and details will be released as planning continues. 

  • Understanding Genetics for Successful Conservation and Restoration of Resilient Chesapeake Bay Brook Trout Populations
  • Advancing Outreach Effectiveness to Improve Conservation Practice Adoption

January 26-28. 2021, Virtual

This workshop will foster interactive discussions among farmers, outreach practioners, and experts in behavioral economics to improve outreach capacity and address farmer concerns about conservation practice adoption. Along with funding partners from the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR), The Nature Conservancy, and the Walton Family Foundation, this STAC virtual workshop will utilize facilitation to best understand barriers to implementation of agricultural practices and to provide guidance to overcome these barriers to reach restoration targets. 

  • Overcoming the Hurdle: Addressing BMP Implementation Through a Social Science Lens
  • Assessing the Water Quality, Habitat, and Social Benefits to Green Riprap

Information regarding past workshops, including agendas, presentations, and reports (as they become available) can be found on the workshop homepage.

 

STAC Recommendations Database

Development of the CBP requested STAC Recommendations Database has continued to make substantial progress this quarter. STAC staff has tagged each recommendation with keywords and categories, organized by the CBP Goal Implementation Team and workgroup structure. The CBP Data Team has released the test site, which is fully functional and is under Beta-testing by STAC members until February 2021. STAC Staff will then release the website to partners and present its functionality at various partner meetings throughout the beginning of 2021. The test website can be found here.