Our goal with Coastal Services is to help coastal resource managers around the country share information. But nothing is better than having managers in the same room discussing the results of successful programs and developing new partnerships. There will be a number of conferences in the next several months where managers will have just such opportunities.
One of the best venues for coastal managers to discuss ideas and work through common issues is the annual Program Managers' Meeting. This year's meeting will be held March 26-29 in Washington D.C. Staff from NOAA, state coastal zone management programs, National Estuarine Research Reserves, and National Marine Sanctuaries will have unprecedented opportunities to discuss their goals and agendas.
From April 24-27, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Council of State Governments are cosponsoring the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program's "Symposium 2001: Coastal Monitoring through Partnerships." This symposium, to be held at the Beachside Resort and Conference Center in Pensacola Beach, Florida, will present information on successful programs, and advance the science of monitoring and assessment of coastal resources. For more information about the symposium, point your browser to www.statesnews.org/EMAP/emap_symposium_2001.htm.
Also make plans to attend the largest coastal management conference in the country—Coastal Zone 01, which is being held July 15-19 in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information about this informative and inspirational meeting, see the article in this issue.
I would also like to thank all of you who attended GeoTools '01 last January in Charleston, South Carolina. More than 400 coastal managers attended this conference, which was hosted by the NOAA Coastal Services Center. The focus was on effective uses for technology in the field of coastal resource management. Tools profiled included geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, the Global Positioning System, the Internet, and other technology used by coastal scientists and managers.
My thanks to all the people whose hard work made GeoTools '01 such a success.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
