Biodiversity conference links Bay and global habitat issues
Karey Harris is the toxics subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the Chesapeake Bay Program office.
Imagine seeing a video of a frog in the Amazon that was
believed to be extinct until she was caught on this tape. You see her, abdomen full of eggs, struggle
to get to water to lay her eggs. What a
find! How exciting for that scientist behind the camera! Then you are told that she was ill, died soon
after the video was taken, and no other frogs of her species have been found
since. She is currently in a jar in the
Smithsonian. Just an instant after you
expect to hear a success story, you realize that you have just watched a
species go extinct from the planet. That
happened to me last week, and this little frog tugged at my heart like no amphibian
before.
I had the pleasure of attending the 9th National
Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment held by the National Council for Science and the Environment
(NCSE) at the Reagan Building in Washington,
D.C. on December 8-10. This year’s conference topic
was “Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World,” during which, among other
activities, I watched the frog go extinct.
So why tell the sad story?
As species go extinct worldwide, we are losing biodiversity as
well. Biodiversity
is lengthily defined as “the variability among living organisms from all
sources … and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes
diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.” Without all the
words, a place that has good biodiversity has many different species all living
in a small area. A coral reef is probably
the most vivid example, with its multitudes of coral, anemones, and fish. An environment with very little biodiversity
may be as bleak as a cornfield, all dominated by the same species with a few
others thrown in. Biodiversity is often
used as a measure of ecosystem health.
As biodiversity decreases, the ecosystem’s health and stability
decreases as well.
(Check out an
example of good biodiversity from MarineBio, versus an
example of bad biodiversity from Holistic Management.)
The three-day conference focused on ways to preserve
biodiversity worldwide. Topics covered
policy and legislation, scientific research gaps, and communication to the
public. Speakers who made their case for
making changes and saving biodiversity included the director of the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a Pulitzer Prize-winning
author! Each day after the speakers, various
breakout sessions were offered to give each participant an individual
experience. I could write pages on what
I learned in those discussions, and I have a stack of literature on my desk
that I still need to read!
In addition to new things, I heard several familiar
themes: less pollution, more preserved land, better land use, teach the public
how to be more environmentally responsible, and so on. Some of these are ideas we
focus on here at the Bay Program. Since
this conference had a global focus, we must not be so far off base in our ideas
of how to save our Bay. I hope that one
day the world, and the Bay, will resemble the thriving systems they once were,
in part because this conference had something good to say.
Estuary conference in Providence, R.I., worth the long ride
Liana Vitali is a Living Resources Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Some
people might say that riding a train for 12 hours from Annapolis,
Maryland, to Providence, Rhode Island,
and back to attend a conference about our nation’s valuable estuaries
demonstrates real environmental dedication. Others might say, “Take the plane!”
I, of course, traveled the route using the former method. Who needs to deal
with extraneous baggage charges and cramped seating when you can pay the same
amount to travel via train through the New England
countryside and view the fantastic fall foliage, while also having ample time
to catch up on that long-forgotten summer read? OK, in retrospect, I wish I
took the plane. But no matter what mode of transportation, hundreds of
participants from around the country gathered in Providence, Rhode Island,
last week for the 4th biannual Restore
America’s Estuaries (RAE) Conference.
The four
days of the conference were jam-packed with over 50 different sessions, workshops
and plenary discussions pertaining to all things estuarine. Most of the
sessions I attended were facilitated by organizations and speakers from outside
the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Working here at
the Bay Program, I often have a front-row view of how our
partners are working to restore and protect our Bay. However, I felt by
attending sessions led by, say, the Puget
Sound Partnership or Save
the Bay - Narragansett Bay, I might gain a different perspective on how to
approach our efforts here in the Chesapeake Bay
region.
This
strategy worked! For example, while attending a session called “Creating Public
and Political Will to Restore Our Coasts and Estuaries,” I learned that the
folks at People for Puget Sound
developed a fun, comprehensive social marketing campaign called MudUp. Almost since its inception, MudUp has
been a huge hit with the local community through convincing poster ads and an
endearing Mud Monster mascot that attends all MudUp events. Hmm, if the Chesapeake
Bay Program had a mascot, what would it be?
As a side
note, Providence
and nearby areas are real delights to visit. A few co-workers and I had some
free time to visit Newport,
which is just a must-see. The mansions and Cliff Walk are truly spectacular.
Oh, and you can’t leave Newport
without a visit to Flo’s Clam Shack; you would regret it if you didn’t go and try
their fish and chips -- so good!
All in
all, my trip to Providence was extremely
insightful (no matter how long the commute!), and I’m looking forward to the
5th biannual RAE Conference in Galveston,
Texas, in 2010!
Liana gets soaked by a wave as she enjoys Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at sunset in Newport, Rhode Island.
MAST students visit Bay Program office
Krystal Freeman is a Living Resources
Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the
Chesapeake Bay Program.
Yesterday morning, a group of college students from Hampton University’s Multicultural Students at Sea Together (MAST) program came to our office to learn about the Bay Program. We the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC)
staffers are generally only a few years removed from our Bachelor’s
degrees, making us perfect candidates to represent CBP for this
particular group.
As the group approached the Fish Shack, I couldn’t
help but think they looked very clean and well put-together to have
been sailing the Chesapeake for close to two weeks!
Everything about this group varied: one was a
graduate student and another will be starting college as a freshman
this coming semester. Majors ranged from marine biology to women’s
studies and political science. English is not the first
language of several of the students, and they allowed me to use my
Spanish with them as we continued discussing CBP during the break. The
students in this program create a fun and enthusiastic group — once
they started talking, you could tell that they would continue talking
about the summer of 2008 for a lifetime.
I and the rest of the CRC staffers were able to
share with the group many of the opportunities afforded us by working
here through the CRC Career Development Program: projects we have played a role in, people we have met, and volunteer activities we’ve completed. In
addition to information about the subcommittees we support, we shared
things from our own college experiences such as internships, research
projects, study abroad…even ID pictures and school spirit. It was
definitely a different feeling standing in the Fish Shack as the
“seasoned veteran” passing on words of wisdom.
Krystal speaks with MAST students in the "Fish Shack," the Bay Program's conference room.