| "This site should be of interest to anyone who wants to know what barrier island communities are thinking and doing." | |
| Dr. Frederick L. Bach, Alliance for a Living Ocean |
|
States with barrier islands have unique coastal resource management needs. A New Jersey nonprofit organization is working to catalog the nation's barrier island communities and has set up an Internet-based information exchange to help support these management challenges.
"Our goal is to help barrier island communities live in an ecologically responsible manner," said Dr. Frederick L. Bach, science advisor for the Alliance for a Living Ocean (ALO), a nonprofit ocean conservation organization. "Barrier island communities share many of the same problems, such as water quality and dune replenishment, as do shoreline communities. We are working to provide a regular exchange of information so that barrier island communities can learn from each other."
ALO is providing that information exchange through its Barrier Island Ocean Watch Network (BIOWNET), which Bach administers. BIOWNET is an electronic bulletin board, to which coastal managers, scientists, government officials, and members of the public can send articles, information, questions, or announcements.
He said the U.S. Coast Guard, universities, and research groups have already shown much interest in the computer bulletin board. The bulletins are issued periodically when members post information or questions.
"This site should be of interest to anyone who wants to know what barrier island communities are thinking and doing. Coastal managers might want to make suggestions that would be helpful to us, or it may be that they don't like what we are doing and can make constructive criticisms. It's back and forth communication," he said.
Bach said the idea for the network originated two years ago when ALO staff "wondered what other barrier islands in the U.S. were doing and realized there was no one place to go to get that information." In fact, they discovered information about barrier island communities was not reported in any one central location. They began looking for barrier island communities in the U.S., and have made contact with 150 communities from New York all the way down to the gulf coast of Texas. "We are really just getting underway and we are still looking for communities," he said.
"Many of the things in which we are interested are the same as those of interest to coastal communities," Bach said. "There is a lot of information that can be shared, and the Internet is the perfect tool for creating this type of information exchange."
To receive information from the BIOWNET computer bulletin board, transmit the following e-mail message:
To: majordomo@igc.org
Subject: [leave blank]
In the body of the message type: subscribe biownet-l
Articles can be posted by sending them to env.biownet@igc.apc.org.
For more information on BIOWNET contact Dr. Frederick L. Bach at (201) 391-3902, or fbach@igc.apc.org.
