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| Tanya Haddad, nominated by Connecticut Sea Grant
and currently with the Oregon Ocean-Coastal Management program, always had an
interest in science, but it was a love of sailing and a series of charismatic
advisors that focused her interests on coastal environments. When she was
sixteen, Tanya moved to Connecticut from Kuwait, which enabled her to spend
more time on the water, both in school and out. A biology teacher at her new
high school motivated her to pursue biology in college, where she ended up with
an advisor from Cape Cod. This much-loved professor took his students to salt
marshes or the beach any chance he could get, and converted hundreds of
students to the field. College was Tufts University in Boston, where Tanya received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Environmental Science. After graduation, she worked for a year for a non-profit public education foundation in Boston helping develop course work and producing a CD-ROM on environment and sustainability and global coasts and oceans for an annual conference. Following her year with the non-profit, Tanya attended Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment where she received her master's in coastal environmental management. Her thesis research involved gathering all the beach nourishment data obtainable for historic and current beach erosion control projects in New England. This undertaking resulted in a web site where regional beach nourishment data sets gathered and updated in 1996 and 1997 can be viewed and downloaded. Following graduation from Duke, Tanya worked for several months as a geographic information system (GIS) analyst with a consulting firm before being selected as a coastal management fellow. Her project with Oregon's coastal program involves the second phase of the Dynamic Estuary Management Information System (DEMIS), a project first begun by a former fellow, Chad Nelsen. DEMIS is a GIS that provides a framework for data collection, storage, and use that is transferable and specific to local users. Chad developed the prototype DEMIS using Coos Bay estuary. Tanya's task is to expand DEMIS to four other estuaries along the coast. Before starting work on a new estuary, Tanya first meets with the estuary's local watershed council to tailor DEMIS to their priority issues. Every basin along the coast has such a council, composed of local volunteers who meet regularly to discuss the health of the watershed. The input from the watershed council helps Tanya to frame the specific local issues in terms of the GIS analysis that might be done to address them. Through this process, Tanya develops a list of estuary-specific priority data layers. Each estuary usually has up to 60 different data types including wetland information, soils, elevation, geology, land use, and hydrology. Another goal of Tanya's project is to use the GIS to create an inventory of potential restoration sites for each estuary. The inventory will include such in-formation as to why the site is restorable, how much it will cost, who owns it, extent of past alterations, and land value. Tanya will not attempt to prioritize the restoration sites although local decision-makers may use the tool to do just that when they create community management action plans. Before Tanya leaves the program at the end of September, DEMIS will be completed on the four new estuaries. The information will be compiled on a series of CDROMs and results placed on the DEMIS web site. As far as Tanya's life after the fellowship program, she is not sure. She thinks she'll eventually end up on the east coast again, where much of her family lives, but she is not ruling out staying west for a while or taking a temporary coastal management job overseas. She has always been interested in the international angle and would like to experience it firsthand as a working professional. |
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| Zoë Johnson, nominated by Washington Sea
Grant and currently with the Maryland Coastal Zone Management Division, brought
a local coastal management perspective with her when she entered the fellowship
program. While an under-graduate studying urban and regional planning at
Western Washington University in Bellingham, Zoë began an internship with
Skagit County, one of Washington state's coastal counties. Through the
internship, she helped coordinate a citizen advisory council on aquaculture.
This internship led to a part-time position during college and a fulltime
position as the county's shore-line administrator immediately following
graduation. As the shoreline administrator, she was responsible for the overall
coordination of the shoreline program including the review and processing of
development permits and the drafting of various ordinances and management
plans. After four years in this position, Zoë felt that she was ready to
move on. Moving on meant graduate school at the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs. Her thesis research examined the policy and administrative aspects of incorporating climate change a climate variability information into coastal decision-making in the Pacific Northwest. Zoë's interest in climate change served her well when she was selected as a fellow with Maryland's program. Her fellowship project involves developing a sea level rise mitigation response strategy for the state. The project has three components: a shoreline characterization, a policy analysis, and education and outreach. This collaborative approach will ultimately result in a low cost, no-regret policy to address sea level rise in Maryland. The characterization Zoë is developing is based on a shoreline classification system combined with an analysis of historical shoreline change. She also is utilizing existing research to help categorize sea level rise impacts according to shoreline type and jurisdictional boundaries. The shoreline characterization will help the state determine where and how to focus its efforts when considering response strategies. Zoë also is conducting a policy analysis of state resource programs to assess the state's ability to mitigate adverse impacts as well as to identify potential avenues for enhanced planning. This analysis is a result of interviews, research, and involvement in the Governor's Shore Erosion Task Force. This task force is charged with recommending a comprehensive plan of action for shore erosion control in the state. Zoë is staffing the task force and is one of the primary authors and editors of the final report, which is scheduled to be presented to the Governor and state legislature in February 2000. Zoë has found her involvement with the task force very beneficial towards her own project goal. She feels that the best chance of success for the sea level rise policy is to tie it to initiatives already underway in the state, and since erosion is one of the most serious and prevalent impacts of sea level rise, there is a natural fit. Other public outreach and education activities Zoë is involved in include organizing a climate change issue forum to promote informed dialogue on issues to be addressed in the renewed Chesapeake Bay Agreement in the Year 2000. Zoë also participated on an advisory committee for the Maryland Coastal Bays National Estuary Program and is currently working with local governments to implement action items related to sea level rise. Zoë has also been an active participant on the advisory committee for the MidAtlantic Regional Climate Change Assessment. Zoë is confident that before she leaves the fellowship program in September she will have a published sea level rise strategy. Although that will be quite an accomplishment, she feels that the biggest opportunity the fellowship has given her has been relocation. Prior to this experience, she had never lived outside Washington. Learning about another part of the country and its culture, state infrastructure, and ecological resources has been a big plus for Zoë. Although she plans to move back to Washington, she'll take with her all that she has learned and experienced on the East Coast. |
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| Jennifer Reid, currently with the Delaware Coastal
Programs, undertook a somewhat unique graduate course of study from the College
of William and Mary in Virginia. Following graduation from Davidson College in
North Carolina with an undergraduate degree in political science, and then
working part-time for a year, she entered William and Mary's new joint Public
Policy and Marine Science program. After taking a year of public policy courses
at William and Mary's main cam-pus, she then took two years of courses and
research at the College's Virginia Institute of Marine Science campus. Three
and a half years later she received two Masters, one in Public Policy and a
second in Marine Science. By studying in two distinct programs, Jen was forced
to independently synthesize ideas in an attempt to bridge the gap between
science and policy. Her thesis work used GIS maps and economic techniques to
propose a cost-effective policy of reducing nutrients entering the Chesapeake
Bay. Jen's experience and interest with both public policy and marine science is what attracted her to Delaware's fellowship project. Her work at the state involves developing a dredging policy to ensure that all regulatory authorities at the federal, state, and local level are utilized in a manner which minimizes environmental degradation while maximizing public benefit. Currently, the state evaluates dredging permits on a site by site basis. This process lacks a consistent framework for addressing environmental and socioeconomic concerns, and Jen hopes that her fellowship project will improve the predictability and effectiveness of dredging project evaluations. Jen is not developing the policy in a vacuum. She is working with a group of twenty-five stakeholders including representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, and the state, as well as private citizens and academicians. The group has met a number of times and has developed a list of dredging-related issues. Jen does all the planning and leading of these meetings and prepared an issue characterization document developed through workgroup discussions. In early December, Jen organized a one-day symposium to engage and inform a broader representation of the stakeholders. Approximately 60 participants divided into focus groups and were tasked with developing and evaluating solutions and alternatives to address the dredging issues. Jen currently is working on the proceedings from this meeting, which will include the recommendations developed by each of the focus groups. The final step in the project will be to draft the actual language for the dredging policy. Jen and Delaware Coastal Programs staff, with assistance from the workgroup, will take the recommendations from the symposium to draft the priority dredging policy framework components. Jen is confident that because she has en-gaged the key stakeholders throughout the policy development, the final document will be more easily integrated into state dredging activities after she leaves. What her future career entails Jen is not sure. Her soon to be husband is in medical school at the University of Virginia, so she'll be moving to Charlottesville at the end of the fellowship. She hopes to find a policy related job there, maybe in public administration through the University. Even if she doesn't stay in coastal management, Jen knows that the facilitation, consensus-building, and public participation skills she learned through her fellowship experience will serve her well in whatever career path she chooses. |
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| At the Coastal Zone meeting this past summer in
San Diego, a new web site was unveiled. "Volunteering for the Coast"
is an interactive site designed to promote individual coastal stewardship by
highlighting model volunteer programs and opportunities in the coastal United
States. Developed in partnership between the Coastal Services Center and the
National Ocean Service's Special Projects Office, this web site features three
key components: a searchable database of coastal volunteer opportunities,
volunteer program success stories, and information on developing and managing
successful volunteer programs. The site directly bene-fits citizens who want to
volunteer and program coordinators who want to start a new coastal volunteer
program or improve an existing one. Make sure you visit the site at http://volunteer.nos.noaa.gov and tell your friends and colleagues about it. For more information or to receive a free accompanying video, "Taking Action to Save Our Coasts," contact Nina Petrovich at Nina.Petrovich@noaa.gov or via phone at 843-740-1203. |
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| On November 1, 1999, four new fellows entered the
program. Dr. Cinde Donoghue, from the University of Virginia, was placed with the Washington Department of Ecology. The primary goal of the project is to assure that decision makers and the general public have convenient access to high quality coastal information through the development of a Coastal Atlas. Cinde will evaluate potential models for a statewide coastal information system, assess the data needs of the coastal community, and assist in designing a Coastal Atlas. The Atlas will effectively use GIS and Internet technologies and will be able to easily accommodate new or updated shoreline data. Ms. Teresa Fleener, from Washington Sea Grant, was placed with the South Carolina Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. Project goals are to assess the technical capabilities and information needs of local governments within the coastal zone and establish an information distribution mechanism to effectively serve the needs of local governments by providing recommendations and findings from agency generated research. Tessie also will establish a planning information management system to aid staff in understanding and using in-formation about new and innovative coastal research; and develop a procedure and mechanism for integrating information into the agency's policy development and permit review processes. Mr. David Fuss, from Oregon State University, was placed with the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management. The project goal is to develop alternatives and recommendations that will clarify and improve the Division's current wetland mitigation policies. A second goal of the project is to develop wetland policy and management alternatives for the Atlantic White Cedar component of the Buck-ridge Coastal Reserve. David will contribute to the formulation and adoption of clear wetland mitigation policies that improve the protection of wetland resources and will contribute to the development of a final restoration plan in the Buckridge Coastal Re-serve. Mr. Kevin O'Brien, from the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, was placed with the Connecticut Office of Long Island Sound Program. He will produce a user-friendly sediment quality information database and GIS that will enhance management decisions with regard to sediment testing plans, selection of priority pollutants for testing, and evaluation of the suitability of sediments for open water disposal. The project also will make existing sediment quality and distribution information available to the public, including the academic community, in a useable format. |
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Based on recommendations from a Fellowship review
panel, convened for a one-day meeting in September 1999, the timeline for
fellow selection has been shifted to the spring so that selected applicants
will know if they've been placed prior to graduation. This also allows for
fellows to begin work with the states in late summer instead of in the fall.
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