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 hosted the second quarterly meeting of FY2018 on September 11-12, 2018 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Annapolis, MD. This meeting included several updates from current activities in progress at the Chesapeake Bay Program, and featured a continuing discussion on ongoing STAC membership vacancies. STAC was also provided an update on Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) progress from the jurisdictions around the watershed. Presentations are available on the meeting webpage. STAC will host their third quarterly meeting of FY2018 on December 7, 2018 in Annapolis, MD.
On September 24-25, STAC hosted a workshop titled “Chesapeake Bay Program Climate Change Modeling 2.0” in Annapolis, MD. Presentations and more information can be found on the workshop webpage.
STAC will be sponsoring these 4 additional workshops in FY2018, listed here in order of anticipated date:
- Establishment of Multifunctional Riparian Barriers: How do we accelerate the path to 95,000+ acres with the greatest economic, social, and environmental impact? – November 13-14, 2018
- Assessing the Environment in Outcome Units (AEIOU): Using Eutrophying Units for Management – January 16-17, 2019
- Microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed: State of the Knowledge, Data Gaps, and Relationship to Management Goals – February 4-5, 2019
- Integrating Science and Developing Approaches to Inform Management for Contaminants of Concern in Agricultural Settings – TBD spring 2019
STAC released two reports in the past quarter:
“Integrating Recent Findings to Explain Water- Quality Change: Support for the Mid-Point Assessment and Beyond”, which reflects the findings and outcomes of a December 2017 workshop. Report accessible here.
“Factors Influencing the Headwaters, Nontidal, Tidal, and Mainstem Fish Habitat Function in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Application to Restoration and Management Decisions” , which reflects the findings of an April 2018 workshop. Report accessible here.
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. More information on recent workshop reports can be found on the STAC past workshop webpage.