The New Year is always a good time to reflect upon past accomplishments and plan for the future. This year in particular, with our calendars' change to 2000, seems an appropriate time to think about where we have been and where we are going.
We have attempted to do that with this special edition of Coastal Services. In it we take a region by region look at coastal management accomplishments over the past 10 years and look ahead to the issues to be faced in the coming decade. A guest editorial by Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission, examines the changing role of coastal managers, and there is a look at how new technology may benefit our shores.
As we interviewed representatives from coastal resource programs, special management and protection areas such as National Estuarine Research Reserves and National Marine Sanctuaries, and Sea Grant programs from around the country, what became clear is that our coasts have benefited in innumerable ways because of their work. Through their efforts, progress has been made on important issues such as coastal wetlands, public access to coastal resources and beaches, public costs of coastal storms and catastrophic events, nonpoint source pollution, species recovery, coastal erosion, educating the public about the importance of our shorelines and the need to protect them, and much more. I hope managers will take a moment to feel good about their accomplishments.
But the work is far from over. As we move to more holistic management approaches, we are beginning to grasp the inherent complexities and interdependencies of systems. Population growth along our coasts is increasing the pressure on our resources. The effects of climate change and invasive species loom large on many managers' horizons.
The key to addressing these issues, as many managers said, is sharing in both the burdens and the solutions by working in partnership. Together we will continue to make a difference.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
