Dear Colleagues,

Ever since I first began work with the CRC in 2004 (as a research PI from a member institution and alternate Board Representative), I have gained increasing appreciation of the CRC’s importance to the CBP partnership. This importance derives not only from the science coordination, advisement, and career development work that it does through cooperative agreements with the EPA and NOAA, but also through the work it does to help educate and train the next generation of environmental leaders and to coordinate the involvement of the various CRC member institutions in supporting the partnership while meeting their own missions. Important examples of these activities are evident throughout this newsletter, including descriptions of climate-change resiliency and  science synthesis as important new STAC activities, an interview with a staffer in our Environmental Management Career Development Program, and a description of this year’s class of C-StREAM Fellows. We are especially happy to have seen this program more than double in size this year, thanks largely to additional support received from the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office. The C-StREAM program, which strives to provide multiple-year support to students from under-represented communities, is proud to be helping 11 C-StREAM Fellows in the summer of 2019. On the research front, there are news articles describing selected projects from each of our member institutions, and, as usual, we also highlight Collaborative Research around the Bay in our CRaB section. Importantly, I ask readers to pay special attention to the “Collaborative Research Opportunities” section, which highlights a “Dear Colleague Letter” about “Research Opportunities Related to Coastlines and People (CoPe)” from NSF.

Secondly, I have a few thoughts to share regarding my upcoming retirement. Although I find myself as committed as ever to Chesapeake Bay restoration and protection, I will be looking for new ways to do so, while also spending more time with family and friends on and in its waters. As of July 1, 2019, I will be transitioning to Emeritus Professor at Johns Hopkins and will thereafter be working with the CRC Board to transition my Executive Director responsibilities and role to a new successor. In this regard, I am pleased to report that the Board has received a large number of highly qualified candidates and, at the time of this writing, are closing in on a short list. I have informed the Board that, in the months ahead, I will remain flexible in order to facilitate the transition in whatever way serves the CRC and its new Director best. So although we hope to have a new director coming fully on board before the end of this summer (and perhaps as soon as July), you might still catch me supporting the CRC in various ways throughout the coming year, and especially in regard to our C-StREAM program and future CoPE-related activities, for which I hope to help the new Director in finding additional funding and support.

Thirdly, I’d like to alert readers to some recent social science research conducted by investigators in the Department of Geography at PSU. In their 2018 paper published in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Assistant Professor Jennifer Baka and colleagues describe their evaluation of the role of federal government-sponsored research in the process of formulating environmental rules and regulations. In the context of  the Bureau of Land Management’s 2012 proposal to regulate fracking on federal and tribal lands, the researchers found that stakeholders cited federal government-sponsored research more often than industry knowledge, trade group knowledge, or academic research supported by other sources.  I find the research especially meaningful to the CRC not only as a demonstration of relevant research contributions from our member institutions, but also because the message speaks directly to the vision and mission of the CRC, which is, simply put, to provide the science needed for management in the Chesapeake Bay and watershed system.

Finally, and as always: If you have any questions about any of the issues in this newsletter or wish to make contributions toward our next (August) edition, please feel free to contact us at CRC-Quarterly@Chesapeake.org. Also, if you have Bay-relevant expertise (of any kind) and have not yet registered yourself with our CBED expertise database, please register!

Cheers and warm regards to all our subscribers!

Bill Ball, CRC Executive Director