CZ09

July 21, 2009 -- Boston, MA

We've had a couple of busy days here at CZ09. Yesterday started with the Plenary session where NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenko led off with a pretty comprehensive talk about the challenges and opportunities before us as coastal resource managers. Her theme was "Seas the Day" and really provided a hopeful look toward the future based on the Presidential commitment to coastal management outlined on a recent National ocean policy memorandum. The mood amongst coastal managers here seems a lot more optimistic than it has in recent years and I think that is probably due to some positive signs in the administration about the importance of issues we all care about. I would have liked to hear her at least mention the Great Lakes. The Department of Interior speaker and the EPA speakers did though.

I had two main responsibilities on Monday. First was to moderate a 1.5 hour session with 4 presentations focusing on Ecosystem-based Management approaches on the coasts. Mostly my job in this session was to introduce the speakers, keep them on time and help facilitate the question/answer period. The speakers all did a great job with staying on track and made it pretty easy for me. The second session I moderated was one that Heather Stirratt from NOAA and I organized and dealt with Great Lakes climate change issues and strategies. We had three speakers including Heather, Patrick Doran from the Nature Conservancy and Jim Hurley from Sea Grant. They did a great job laying out some of the context and issues (Heather), conservation approaches (Patrick) and outreach/education examples (Jim). We then had a bit of time to try to have a discussion about opportunities, gaps, needs, etc. Unfortunately the huge room was not very conducive to a dialogue but we did have some good questions, suggestions, and responses between the panel and the audience.

The poster session/ reception in the evening allowed for some great time to catch up with old friends and colleagues and to meet new folks.

Today (Tuesday) is full of concurrent sessions and the challenge is to figure out what not to go to.