Dear Colleagues,
For those of us in academia, this is a busy time of year, in the midst of fall semester or quarter, and often with mid-term exams planned or underway. In addition, as this newsletter goes out, many of us are at the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation’s (CERF) 24th Biennial Conference (5 -9 November in Providence, RI). This conference includes more than 150 presentations related to Chesapeake Bay research and management. We have invited any Chesapeake Bay community Twitter users who are there to Tweet updates using #ChesBayCERF2017 so that they can stay abreast of each others’ happenings.
Planning for the 2018 Chesapeake Research and Modeling Symposium (ChesRMS18) is also underway. The event will be held for 12-14 June in Annapolis, MD. Proposals for sessions (1000 words or less) are being accepted now and should be submitted to Chesapeake Environmental Communications before November 30.
I hope to see many of you at both events!
Meanwhile, though, the topic of environmental literacy is currently on my mind for 4 reasons:
- I have just read Lara Lutz’s article, “Bay Journal EPA Grant Unexpectedly Canceled” in the October 2107 issue of the Bay Journal about the EPA decision to revoke funding for the publication mid-stream of a six-year grant. Given the credibility of the Bay Journal as an impartial medium for conveying accurate and timely environmental information to the public, EPA’s decision works directly against the mission of the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program partnership that EPA Administrator Pruitt lauded so highly in his confirmation hearings. And what “change of priorities” should stop EPA’s mandate (from the Clean Water Act) to provide “outreach programs for public information, education, and participation to foster stewardship”?
- At the October 30 quarterly meeting of the CBP’s “Principal Steering Committee,” this group of state-level agency heads and other principals agreed upon a finalized version of a new “Chesapeake Bay Program Education Directive” to better support the Environmental Literacy goal and outcomes of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Of particular relevance to the CRC and its member institutions is their stated commitment to “invite and encourage institutions of higher education and the private sector to become involved in environmental literacy efforts at the state and regional level to work towards improving pre-service teacher preparation in environmental education, providing training for in-service teachers, ensuring adequate career pathways in environment-based careers, and improving sustainability efforts on college campuses.”
- I have just returned from 2 weeks of several forums in China on low-impact development (LID), watershed management, and environmental restoration, at which I had the honor to present about our Chesapeake Bay Program partnership. (Many thanks to Rich Batiuk for sharing his wealth of slides toward my presentation!) China has recently “doubled down” (more than quadrupled) its focus on environmental efforts in a “top down” approach that has high, short-term effectiveness and efficiency. But China’s “5-year” plan does not focus heavily on developing environmental literacy or citizen involvement in long-term stewardship, and sustained maintenance for new infrastructure is always an issue. So although we in the U.S. are much less efficient and effective in the short term, our focus on environmental literacy might make us ultimately more effective at maintaining long-term advances. Such has been the case with the now 35 year-old Chesapeake Bay Program partnership (about which our Chinese colleagues were understandably anxious to learn).
- At recent meetings of the CRC Board of Trustees, much of our discussion has focused on ways in which the CRC might help coordinate the efforts of its institutions and other partners to develop a better “pipeline” of students, scientists, and managers with expertise in environmental science, engineering, and management. In this regard, increasing the environmental literacy of high school and undergraduate students is clearly a key component of what is needed, as well as an approach that provides sustained involvement and support for the most promising students.
In all these regards, but especially the last, I have begun thinking harder about how the CRC can work most effectively to help develop, foster, or imitate programs that enhance environmental literacy and prepare new groups of students for graduate study and environmental careers. I am especially interested in learning about your own experiences and knowledge about good undergraduate educational programs, both inside and outside of our region, that have strong representation from under-represented minorities. If you have ideas, the CRC is interested in working with you to develop programs that can link such students with on-going graduate-level research within our member institutions, and in developing better means of sustaining mentoring and support for some of our more promising students. So please contact me personally if you have input, suggestions or questions about any of the above as well as other matters with which the CRC might assist. In particular, I welcome
- Ideas about how the CRC can work most effectively to develop the network and funding needed for fostering environmental literacy, interest and academic pursuits among a larger and more diverse group of high school and undergraduate students;
- Proposals for scientific workshops or research projects for which you would appreciate CRC involvement and assistance; and
- Feedback on how the CRC might improve both the CRC Quarterly and our Chesapeake Bay Expertise Database (CBED). For both of these, please tell us: What features do you enjoy most? Where can we do better? How can we better use these tools to assist you?
Finally, and as always, we hope that you will send news from your institution to share with CRC colleagues, including news about newly funded research, results or events related to on-going projects, new publications of interest, and upcoming opportunities for students or faculty. Simply click here to submit your news and feedback.
Best regards and wishes for a happy Thanksgiving holiday,
Bill Ball
October 30, 2017