REGIONAL TEAM UPDATES: March 10, 2010

[Jessica Whitehead]

Post a few bullets here to update the team on your region's activities for February and early March, 2010.  Please post your updates by COB on Monday, March 8!

[Christopher L Conger]

Jess, Josh, and I were talking today and thought it might be useful and timely to spend some of the call discussing the new CCCAI proposal. We might consider making a new tab on the web-site for the CCCAI proposal and include whatever helpful information we can provide. We would, of course, clearly identify the site as a resource and not as a requirement. It might also make a great spot for the various projects to interface and discuss overlapping interests and programs.

Additionally, it could be used as a discussion board for the metrics, to help us all understand exactly what they mean and how they should be applied to the projects.

Lastly, Josh whipped up a little powerpoint slide that might be useful. Since the turnaround is pretty quick: May to October, it might be helpful to let programs know they don't have to take a project from start to finish, but could complete a portion of a new or ongoing project that fits into the requirements. This ppt slide is very tentative, but we can all think about it and decide if it is helpful as is, could be updated with different language/steps, or shouldn't be offered.

Best,

Chris

[Pam Rubinoff]

love this idea!

Also...for the call, it might be good to discuss if appropriate to link with some other initiatives, such as coastal smart growth coastalsmartgrowth.noaa.gov/. Working with EPA/NOAA/OCRM we also pulled out some resilience ideas related to smart growth.

[Jessica Whitehead]

I think that between this and the CCCAI discussion we'll probably fill up the call and skip the regional updates. I know that I've heard some concerns about the quick turnaround, so coming up with some responses will be a good use of our time.

J.-

Pam Rubinoff said:

love this idea!

Also...for the call, it might be good to discuss if appropriate to link with some other initiatives, such as coastal smart growth coastalsmartgrowth.noaa.gov/. Working with EPA/NOAA/OCRM we also pulled out some resilience ideas related to smart growth.

[Esperanza Stancioff]

HI Folks, Meeting with a community tomorrow and sorry to say won't be on call after all--have been trying to make this happen for weeks as part of our assessment phase on new NSF Adaptation Project, working with hydroclimatologist, etc.
UPDATE:
* developed and implemented a community based collaborative learning and community based social marketing in-house workshop with partners
* completed the new issue of our Maine Climate News--check it out!!!
* Full Report and summary report completed for our year-long Stakeholder Adaptation Comm--on Maine Climate News ; asked to be on new statewide Adaptation committee to develop Plan for state
* Working on assessment of stormwater issues of coastal comm.
* Developing new program on Phenology with many partners
ALSO:
I like Josh's graphic and could see it expanded a bit to be more of a concept map with options.

[Esperanza Stancioff]

Ok, sorry--this was Maine updates. The only update I would have for the region is the NART/SG Climate Literacy Training which you all probably already have the info on. It is coming together and has a communicating climate change module as well as the other science. I am hopeful that this will be a good training and one that might be helpful to other regions. We'll let you know.

[Pam Rubinoff]

I also had some update on RI. We are working on a climate change chapter for our Ocean Management Plan. Also, a new project working with a local land trust on climate adaptation (looking for examples of vulnerability assessment).

[Rochelle Sturtevant]

I'm losing the new acronyms - CCCAI?

[Jessica Whitehead]

Apologies - Mike Liffmann sent this to the directors and the old SG Climate listserv, so it may not have trickled down to everyone yet. The CCCAI is the National Office's new $1 million Coastal Communities Climate Adaptation Initiative (CCCAI).

[Mike Spranger]

Major regional activity is the planning for the "Sea Level Rise in the Gulkf of Mexico:: Awareness and Action Tools for the Climate Outreach Community of Practice.Workshop" that is set for 19-21 April, 2010. St. Petersburg Beach, FL. It's anticipated that 70+ Sea Grant and NOAA outreach, extension and education faculty and staff will be attending.. If you go to website, there is a compilation of documents related to sea level rise.
http://masgc.org/climate/cop/resources.html

Florida also will soon be hiring a climate extension coordinator to focus on marine/coastal issues. Position announcement should come out on 10 March. We also just hired person in Pinellas County (St. Pete area) who will focus county extension activities on coastal resiliency and climate variability and change issues.

[Joe Cone]

I appreciate Josh's 4-element "climate adaptation" slide, and as much as I admire simplicity, I'm reminded of Einstein's quip, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." From my experience, the four-step cycle is far too simple (alas!)
Without going in to changing Josh's model, I guess a question is, for whom would this slide be useful?
Joe

This ppt slide is very tentative, but we can all think about it and decide if it is helpful as is, could be updated with different language/steps, or shouldn't be offered.