Minnesota's North Coast

Why Duluth?

2010-03-26T09:58:00.004-05:00

Here is a link to a great movie about Duluth. It's part of the effort to get Google fiber, but it also does a good job of showcasing the attractiveness of the Twin Ports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KsvScO_gTM&feature=autofb

Sunday Google Fiber Fun

2010-03-22T12:47:00.008-05:00

March 21,2010 -- Duluth, MN
The Spring membership meeting for the Duluth Yacht Club was held at the Superior Holiday Inn Express on Sunday. Everyone is more than ready for sailing season to start. I told Steve about the liberties I took with a picture of his boat as part of the effort to bring the high speed Google fiber experiment to the Twin Ports. Fortunately he thought my adding crew to his boat and changing the name was great.

After the meeting T and I took the dog down to Park Point for some exercise. There was a yellow lab puppy in the Google Fiber movie scene from yesterday. It was so cute (and very well behaved). We wanted to go home to hug Pax yesterday after filming but it was so late by the time we actually got home that we couldn't get her outside to play very much. Today was a different story. The weather was fantastic and Pax really enjoyed splashing around in Lake Superior. There were lots of people and dogs on the beach so we had Pax on a 25' long check line. She did great retrieving the bumper from the water as long as she could keep her feet on the bottom. She's not so sure about heading into deeper water yet.

At one point another puppy saw me tossing the bumper and ran over to join in. As Pax ran to greet her she reached the end of the check line. The line happened to be tied to a loop on my jeans and I ended up on my butt half in the water. It had to be pretty funny to watch. After two hours of walking on the beach on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we all went home to crash.

GoogleFest

2010-03-22T12:32:00.006-05:00

March 20, 2010 -- Duluth, MN
Saturday we got a chance to be extras in a short movie being produced as part of the bid by Duluth and Superior to attract the Google Fiber for Communities experiment. It was part of the Google Fest celebration/rally that had 700 some people come out to show support for the effort to bring ultra high speed internet infrastructure to the Twin Ports. Check out Twin Ports Google Fiber for more details. It was, for us, 2.5 hours of being part of a crowd at an announcement by Mayor Ness. We both had very sore feet by the end. I don't know how folks do it in regular movies where they might be filming for days. Ouch. Watch for T and I in the movies. . .

CZ09

2009-07-21T10:02:00.003-05:00

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.

Boston's Waterfront

2009-07-20T22:12:00.007-05:00

July 19, 2009 -- Boston, MA

On the agenda for today was a whale watching trip out to Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Unfortunately when the +/- 50 people signed up for the field trip arrived at Boston Harbor at a bit before 10:00 a.m. we learned that the trip was canceled due to a boat being out of service or something. Argh.

So a group of us Minnesotans rescheduled ourselves on a sunset whale watching trip through the Boaston aquarium at 6:00 p.m. That left a fair bit of time to explore the historic waterfront district and look at sailboats.

The harbor front was bustling with activity after the moening started to wear on a bit. It was not easy to find anything to eat until after 11:00 a.m. but after that the place started to come alive. The boat traffic in the shipping channel went from busy to crazy busy. There were lots of sail boats and powerboats and a few mega yachts. The Harbor Walk was great, following the very edge of the old piers and wharves for the most part. There were lots of neat old buildings that have been redeveloped into very high end condos and a nice variety of public spaces mixed in. The boat slips looked mighty tight and I watched one big powerboat take about 15 minutes and several dozen attempts to snug itself into the little space where it was trying desperately to tie up.

I was off on my own after CJL and DG headed back to check out the aquarium and I meandered my way through Boston's North End for a while. I ended up at America's oldest restaurant, the Union Oyster House for a late lunch/early supper of 1/2 doz. oysters and a bowl of "chaadaa" (known as chowder in MN). Both were very tasty. There were a bunch of street performers in the open air market and I got pulled into a show put on by Jason Escape. I can now say that I've put someone into a straight jacket, wrapped him him ropes and hoisted him feet first 20 feet into the air. I hadn't had that on my lifetime to do list until now, but after today I can check it off.

I also saw Paul Revere's statue and The Old North Church, break dancers, guys doing remarkable percussion music on 5 gallon buckets and old metal pots, and scary clown/mimes.

The whale cruise took us out to see humpbacks on the Stellwagen Bank. We saw many spouts and got a few fairly close looks at a trio of whales feeding together.

The sunset was pretty amazing too.

Arrival in Boston

2009-07-20T21:51:00.003-05:00

July 18, 2009 -- Boston MA
My Flight left Duluth at 6:30 Central Time and with a brief stop over in Detroit, got into Boston’s Logan Airport at about noon Eastern time. By 1:30 CJL and I were checked into the room and ready to explore a bit. Since this was the only day I expect any substantial free time, we took a cab to the Museum of Fine Arts. Just as were were about to go in the door, a guy came up to us and gave us free tickets for admission. There was some sort of event there today and he either had some extras or didn’t need his. Whatever the reason, it saved us $17 each for admission. Since the place closes at 5:00, I was glad we didn’t have to pay the admission price.

Once inside we learned that the Japanese Arms and Armor exhibit is no longer on display due to some major construction underway. That seemed disappointing at first, but we discovered that the far eastern art they still have on display is more than enough to fill a few hours. There were at least a couple of pieces that I recognized from my recently purchased used textbook on the history of eastern art. That was cool. Some very cool, very old stone sculptures from that part of the world, a smallish sword display that focused mainly on tsuba (hand guards), a recreated room from a Buddhist temple with some very large statues, and much more. There was lots more, (including an exhibit on the architecture and furniture of Greene and Greene) but we didn’t, have the time to see it all before the place closed up for the day.
From the Museum we walked to an Irish pub (the Lir). CJL had Sam Adams Summer brew and the shepherds pie. I had a couple Smithwicks and the Cork fish and chips. The beer and food was very welcome by this point (you may have caught that we skipped lunch in favor of maximizing our time at the museum). The fish and chips were okay but on the plus side there was plenty of food to make up for missing lunch.
After that it was about a 1.1 mile walk back to the hotel according to CJL’s Blackberry/GPS unit. There I discovered it is almost $11 per day for internet access from the room. Ouch!

Sons and Shooting Stars

2008-12-01T12:06:00.003-06:00

1 December, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

Eldest Son was home for Turkey Day this past weekend. That was something to be thankful for. He and I got an unexpected gift along the long dark stretch of Hwy 210 somewhere between McGreggor (where his ride left him at the DQ) and Aitkin. The brightest shooting star I've ever seen went streaking across the sky in front of us, leaving a neon rainbow tail as it flamed through the atmosphere. It was ten times brighter than any shooting star I've ever seen before. Youngest Son, sitting in the back seat saw the sky light up but didn't see the color show unfortunately.

Here is a "Did you know?": The rock falling through the sky is called a meteoroid. The trail of light is a meteor. If a piece of the rock survives to reach the earth, that is a meteorite.

We picked up Youngest Son's ski gear from Continental Ski Shop last week. He should now be all ready for hitting the slopes. Skiing is not exactly a low entry cost sport, but we split the cost of the skis, bindings, boots, and helmet so it wasn't quite as bad a financial jolt as it otherwise would have been. I hope he enjoys it for quite some time. Now, where is all that snow?

Back from the Gulf

2008-10-27T12:57:00.010-05:00

October 27, 2008 -- Two Harbors, MN

Returning home from the Gulf Coast on Friday was quite a trip. Thinking about the time and distances involved, I am amazed that it is all so easy. Still, it was a long day. We left the hotel about 7 a.m., drove through the Gulf Shores area to Pensacola, returned the rental van, and made it to the airport for my 9 o'clock conference call, only a few minutes late. Then is was a wait in the airport for our 11:30 departure. We boarded on time but sat on the plane for a good 40 minutes before takeoff. We landed in Memphis with 10 min. to make our connecting flight. Sprinted through the airport wearing my laptop backpack. Then waited another 30 minutes before that plane was ready to go. Arrived in Minneapolis/St. Paul airport at around 4:00 p.m. thanks to an unusual tailwind. Picked up the car from the ramp and drove back to Duluth. Made it home by 8:00 p.m.

Thursday was the last day of the CSO meeting and the group approved (in concept) a draft of a bill for reauthorizing the Coastal Zone Management Act. We'll have to wait and see how far and how fast that goes given the political and economic climates, but it seemed important to try to be proactive on suggesting changes that could make for better coastal management in the future.

In the afternoon, after the meeting let out, my boss and I hopped in the rental and went to check out Gulf Shores, Fort Morgan and the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

First we stopped for lunch at Big O's Seafood Grill (for fried flounder, beet greens and steamed cabbage) before heading out to the shore. It was pouring rain and very windy so we didn't get a chance to get out and explore much. I was glad that were appeared to be visiting in the off season. Not too much activity going on right now but it sure looks like the place would be a crazy, people-packed circus during the busy season. The number of condos for rent and 10 to 20-story hotel/condo complexes right smack on the beach was amazing.

We also made a return visit to the Weeks Bay National Estuary Research Reserve. After a couple minutes on the boardwalk from their visitors center we were soaked and gave up the idea of walking and headed back to the hotel.

We ended up at Old Bay Steamer restaurant for dinner where the Thursday special was a pound of shrimp (Royal red shrimp) and a pitcher of beer for $16. Couldn't beat that. I also had a bowl of gumbo. Good stuff.

Gulf Coast Explorations

2008-10-23T07:42:00.002-05:00

October 23, 2008 -- Point Clear Alabama.

Yesterday we spent only a little time indoors talking about Maryland's efforts to address impacts of climate change and regional ocean governance reports from each of the regions. Then it was off on a whirlwind field tour of coastal resources in Alabama and Mississippi. Our first stop was 5 Rivers - Alabama's Delta Resource Center. It is a brand new facility on the water where Mobile Bay starts to feel more like a riverine wetland or estuary. It is the 2nd largest river delta complex in the lower 48 states.

I took a bunch of pictures of 5 Rivers and other sites we visited today. I'll upload them as soon as I can.

We had a nice box lunch at 5 Rivers and some time to explore the museum and theater as well as spend some time watching the river flow by and looking for wildlife. There were not too many critters around, but we did see some HUGE web spinning spiders, egrets, Great Blue Herons, Royal Terns, and Laughing Gulls.

As we traveled by bus into Mississippi we heard about rebuilding of bridges and other structures damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Ivan. There was a lot of damage here and along the way we saw evidence of many houses that were destroyed and not rebuilt. In one area they told us of relatively reasonably valued houses having tax rates of $2000/yr and insurance of $6000/yr.

Our next stop was the Grand Bay National Estuary Research Reserve. We drove through pine savanna habitat and did a turn around in what looked like a cool salt marsh area where they have a small boat launch facility. We stopped to talk to the reserve manager and look at the new building they have under construction. It is a 16,000 square foot building that will have two classrooms, labs, and offices. They are planning to receive a LEED Gold certification on the building.

We made our way to Biloxi MS to look at redevelopment issues along the coast after hurricanes destroyed the floating casinos along the shore. The new casinos are huge structures, built on shore within 800 feet of the water's edge. Shrimp boats still have a few places to dock here though and the Maritime and Seafood Museum operates the charter Oyster Schooners here. We got to sail aboard the Glenn L. Swetman, a 50 foot, 21 ton wooden schooner built in 1989. Unfortunately, it started to rain a bit when we got on board and the sail was cut a bit short.

After the sail we were treated to a wonderful meal of seafood by the staff of the Mississippi coastal program at the museum site on a pier out in the bay. It was great.

Coastal Alabama

2008-10-21T07:17:00.002-05:00

October 21, 2008 -- Point Clear Alabama.

Yesterday afternoon was the start of the Coastal States Organization Fall Meeting. It was a long stretch of annual budgets, dues discussions ($8174.00 for MN again in 2009), officer elections and so forth. We also got into a meaty discussion of the states' language for a proposed bill to reauthorize the Coastal Zone Management Act. It was a line by line review of where the draft bill is now in preparation for a detailed discussion later in the week. I thought it was a worthwhile session and I was pleased to see that much of what I had suggested in September had been incorporated into the new version.

After we wrapped up the meetings for the day we were treated to a reception at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The staff and volunteers put on a very nice reception with some great food at their new education facility right on the water. For pictures of the reserve check out their photo albums here.

Today we hear from NOAA about a variety of topics, have some work group sessions and Break-out sessions. Then we get into the discussion of re-authorization again. No field trips even though the weather beg us to get outside. Does that seem right to you?

Mobile Bay

2008-10-20T11:02:00.010-05:00

October 20, 2008 -- Point Clear Alabama.

Yesterday the boss and I drove from Duluth to the Minneapolis - St. Paul airport, met up with the boss's boss and flew to Memphis for a change of planes, then on to Pensacola, picked up the rental car and drove to Point Clear Alabama on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Straight-line distance 1150 miles. We are staying at the Grand Hotel Marriott, a pretty ritzy place. It is clearly the off season here though based on the room rates we are getting and the lack of traffic and general sense of quiet so far.

Last night we went for supper at Randy's Bar and Grill. I has the steamed "Ocean Platter" with shrimp, crab, oysters, red potatoes, coleslaw and corn on the cob. It was good, tasty food. The small platter was $14 for a good sized platter of seafood. Yuengling lager on tap was $2 each so that was nice too.

This morning we went into Fairhope Alabama and explored around just a bit. The best part was walking out on the 1400 foot long municipal pier and watching the fishermen cast nets or throw big double-hooked, heavily weighted rigs out in the bay for mullet or "white trout"

I took a bunch of pictures but unfortunately, I left my camera cable at home so no sharing of the pictures until I get home.

Here is a picture of the net thrower with his net full of "Shiners".

And here is the view from my balcony shortly after getting to my room.

More pictures can be found on My Photo Album on Picassa Web.

Invincible

2008-08-20T10:31:00.002-05:00

August 20, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

After surviving an incredibly busy several weeks at work I am taking some time off for a "stay-at-home-vacation". Just slowing down a bit has been a challenge but this morning I'm feeling relaxed and enjoying my time away from work. Last Night T stopped at the library and brought home a few sailing magazines and a newly published book about the Duluth Boat Club. It is Invincible: History of the Duluth Boat Club by Michael J Cochran. This morning I sat down with my cup of coffee to flip through it and look at the pictures. I was totally captivated by the remarkable history of the people and the city that created the "best and largest water club in America" in the early 1900's. It is hard to imagine the personal philanthropy of a guy like Julius Barnes that paid for much of the development, facilities and training of rowers in the heyday of the predecessor of the
Duluth Rowing Club. It is hard to imagine also the social structure of the time that created the need/opportunity for such an organization with social and recreational facilities at two places on Park Point, one up the river at Spirit Lake and one up at Pike Lake that eventually became the Auto Club and eventually the AAA's Pike Lake Golf and Recreation Club.

According to the author of Invincible, it was the automobile that doomed the Duluth Boat Club by reducing the need for close-to-home social and recreational opportunities. I wonder if our current energy situation and the direction we need to go with reducing the amount of driving we do will mean that the efforts to revive the Duluth Boat Club will meet with greater success in the near future. After reading this book, I had to hope that this would be the case.

Watching Eric

2008-07-25T11:14:00.003-05:00

Friday July 25, 2008 -- Two Harbors, MN

I'm here in Two Harbors trying to watch a sailboat race as it finishes up in Hawai'i. The 2008 Single handed Trans Pacific race from San Francisco to Hawai'i started 7/12/08. Lake Superior Sailor Eric Thomas, aboard his Olsen 30 is showing them how it is done. Go Eric!

See below for news and links:
Position Reports
Log Reports
Duluth sailor racing solo from West Coast to Hawaii
Singlehanded Transpac - Sailing from San Francisco to Hawaii ALONE!
2008 Singlehanded Transpac - Dogbark Sails to Line Honors

Spontaneous Addendum

2008-07-09T14:42:00.003-05:00

I ran across a quote that says what I was trying to say about last night:

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.
-- Walt Whitman

Enough said.

Spontaneous summer

2008-07-09T09:03:00.004-05:00

July 9, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

Sometimes spontaneous summer activities work out better than the planned stuff. Last night after work I put on a big pot of jambalaya and gave a call to a good friend just to catch up and say hi. She was waiting for her hub. to finish up work and they were going to head for home. I was just opening a bottle of wine and invited them to stop by or just wave as they drove past. They stopped. We had wine on the patio. T got home after her walk. The boys helped set the table. We all had supper together. B and I had a wee dram. The lovely ladies had a bit of port. We talked and laughed and had a great time.

Fourth on the water

2008-07-07T20:10:00.005-05:00

July 7, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

The whole family got to spend Independence Day cruising the Apostle Islands on Board Sweetwater, a very comfortable sailboat. She is a Pretorien 35 by Wauquiez The weather was great, the owners were fun to sail with and the wind was perfect for light cruising until lunch time. Then the wind dropped off, we bobbed on the lake eating lunch and then the wind came back up for a post-lunch sail. What a great day. The Apostle Islands are a wonderful place to sail too. We saw lots of other boats, including the racers out for a week of competition, but it wasn't so busy that it felt like a crowded mess.

Rhode Island wrap-up

2008-07-06T18:45:00.004-05:00

July 6, 2008 -- Duluth, MN

The whirl of my regular world swept me up as soon as I returned from summer camp. I had good connections and a short trip. Not like most of the other folks. It would have been an easy day had I had more than 2.5 hours of sleep. I can't complain too much though. We had a great time at the "final dinner" and then Bob and Virginia took us out dancing at the Narragansett Cafe where the band Chiva Bus was playing fun dance music.

T picked me up from the airport and whisked me off to the home of our good friends for an afternoon/evening of walking in the woods, games, great food and even better companionship. T took me home after I fell asleep in the chair.

So what do I say about the Summer Institute to wrap things up? What have I not said yet that might be meaningful now a week or so later? Here is a summary:

It was a great three weeks, fast-paced, demanding, intense, and full of global coastal issues presented in a way that allowed connection with opportunities for doing things better here.

I enjoyed the opportunity to get a bigger-picture view of coastal management challenges and tools, interacting with other practitioners including both the other participants and the instructors. The instructors have practical experience with program development and implementation as well as an academic understanding of coastal issues.

The accommodations on the URI campus were far from luxurious, and it was a long time to be away from home and the office but I had some really capable people back home to take care of things. And, after a few glitches, I was able to get fully connected to the Internet and my local network drives so I could stay on top of things for the most part.

The course gave me the opportunity to focus my attention on our upcoming evaluation and think about how to measure the impact of our work more broadly than I had been able to do in the past. I also came away with a pile of other tools and strategies for tackling challenges and a global network of new friends and colleagues that are all working on dealing with similar issues even if their places look different than the place I work.

I'd have to say it was well worth it.

Final Words at Camp Coastal

2008-06-29T17:24:00.002-05:00

June 29, 2008. -- Duluth, MN

I made it back home yesterday afternoon with relatively quick flights and easy connections. I don't expect that all of my new friends will be able to say the same.

I still have some thoughts and pictures to upload from Rhode Island. I'll do the wrap-up blog entry before long, but I want to post what is below sooner rather than later. The other participants asked me to speak on behalf of the group at our final dinner on Friday evening. It was fun to put together a different sort of presentation than I am used to. Fun too to be able to use a bunch of inside jokes. Here is the text of my speech:

Well!

Here we are.

Here at the end of a most remarkable three week experience. The 10th Summer Institute in Coastal Management, The 1st Advanced Summer Institute. It has been a wonderful journey has it not?

We have come together from across this precious world to learn together how to do the work of coastal management. Work that this planet so desperately needs.

We are, all of us, engaged in what may well be some of the most important work in human history.

Along the way we have learned much from our trainers. Glen, Don, Virginia, Pam, Brian, Stephen, Jen, Jim, Elin, and Lesley. Thank you.

We have learned from the people we have met along the way. From Perry and his oyster farm. From the generous Narragansett people. And from coastal managers in and around Rhode Island who gave of their time so we could learn from the lessons of your place and take them home with us. Thank you.

We have learned much from each other. From passionate coastal managers from all around the globe.

From Tanzania and Nigeria.
From the Philippines.
From Portugal, Italy, Sweden, and Spain.
From Taiwan.
From Trinidad by way of Jamaica.
And from America – American Samoa, Maryland, and Minnesota.

We have learned that despite the vast distances that may separate the places we call home, the work we do connects us in powerful ways.

We have learned that we need not feel isolated but that we can be wise and empowered and have bold ideas.

We have learned to look at coastal management issues through the lens of climate change.

And through the lens of livelihoods.

We’ve learned about evaluation and adaptation. About leadership and negotiation. And about communications, systems thinking and dissolving problems.

We’ve been given the gift of a safe place to challenge ourselves and along the way I think we’ve learned a bit about ourselves because of it. About our leadership styles and learning styles, communicating, how we work together in teams, and perhaps even where we could improve our skills in these areas.

Some have learned that the Italian word for zebra sounds a lot like “Cow”

We learned that sometimes we can do things and even though others say "cannot".
We learned to live together in a place we call “Chee-Fee” but really, a dry campus?!? Talk about challenging us. . .
“oh dear”
We learned that when Kim says “The van is leaving.” We better be on it.

And we learned the incredible value of laughing together with people who understand and share the challenges, and the vision for better coastal management. Laughing a lot helps eh?

Those of us who have had the privilege of participating in this 10th summer institute are very grateful to everyone who made it happen.

To folks like Luke and Theresa and Kim and the instructors who picked us up from the airport, drove us back and forth to the Bay Campus everyday and stayed over at Cheefee as our house mothers (and house fathers). To Cindy and the other CRC folks. To Bob who got us connected to the Internet when the URI system seemed designed to make us crazy. To Pam and Brian who opened their homes and especially their kitchens to us for wonderful social gatherings. Thank you.

Kim.
I’m not sure how you stay sane.

You have done a masterful job of logistical juggling, responding quickly and graciously to our needs and desires and have demonstrated high-speed adaptive management. Thank you.

We have a couple of gifts here for you to help you with the transition once we are gone. We have gotten you some chocolates, something sweet to help you remember us, and some wine to perhaps help you forget a little bit.

Glen and all the other CRC trainers and staff that helped us learn so much though the week, on behalf of all the participants please accept this plant, the group picture and some chocolates as tokens of our thanks. They are small things that we hope remind you of us as we head out again into our own places and challenges.

Well.

Here we are.

Here at the beginning of whatever comes next. We are taking away lessons learned and personal projects, text books and a big binder full of tools. More importantly, we are moving on to whatever is next with a new set of colleagues and friends who care about the things we care about and who care about each other.

Virginia forwarded me a poem that sums up a bit of our experience here together. It is from a recent Heron Dance newsletter:

Yesterday, up before dawn
I placed my canoe in the river
And pushed off into the current.
Trying to make no noise.

Wild waters sweep me along.
Shifting shafts of light, flickering leaves
Past wildflowers, through an avalanche of birdsong.
The sun rises,
Dappled patterns, light and leaf.

In quiet waters,
I stop paddling to watch the day unfold.
A dragonfly lands and rests,
on the bow of my canoe.

The river was here long before I happened by,
It will be here long after I’m gone.
The dragonfly
Even more temporary than me.
But today our lives touched.
Today the green river world
Both hers and mine.

Here at Summer Institute, our lives touched.
This coastal planet, both yours and mine.

Thank you all for this remarkable moment.

Manuia!

Measurment and evaluation and outcomes -- Oh Dear!

2008-06-24T19:27:00.004-05:00

June 24, 2008 -- Kingston RI

Today we got a chance to spend some significant time on our personal projects. The presentations and materials I have gotten from the CRC folks and the reading I've done over the past couple of weeks have helped me better conceptualize some of the issues I've been struggling with when it comes to evaluating the performance of Minnesota's Coastal Program. Most of the things we measure or assess, and almost everything included as a "finding", whether it was an "accomplishment" or a "suggestion" for improving the program from the previous review falls into what Stephen classifies as First Order Outcomes, those types of things that can be considered minimum "enabling conditions" for a program to function. These are things like government commitment, authority to act, funding, institutional capacity in terms of staff and plans. Very few of the findings even came close to Second Order Outcome issues, those changes in behavior of stakeholder groups, institutions, or resource users that lead towards higher outcomes of things like socially and environmentally sustainable coastal ecosystems (a Forth Order Outcome) or even Third Order Outcomes like improvements in environmental or social conditions. Maybe that was appropriate for the previous review since it was the first one we ever had and evaluating our program's initial efforts at establishing an effective program was needed.

Part of the framework that I like, (although I'm still just wading in and trying to understand it) is that "Outcome mapping recognizes challenges beyond the scope of the program but limits performance assessment to the program's direct sphere of influence (Page 14 of Outcome Mapping). It also provides a matrix for a "Strategy Map" which allows for teasing out differences between areas of activity where we as a program can be the causal mechanism for change, where we can be a persuasive force for change and where we can be a supportive influence for changes, all at the Second Order Outcome level. This is particularly interesting to me because I think our program is much more active (and effective based on deliberate program design decisions) in the persuasive and supportive arenas rather than in the causal arena. However, I think some important constituents believe we operate far more in the causal domain. That can create some problems for us.

So, now I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate some of these concepts into our pending programmatic review, a review that has a relatively restrictive framework, even if it is seemingly unwritten. As Gwen is fond of saying, "oh dear."

Week three of Coastal Summer Camp

2008-06-23T20:23:00.004-05:00

June 23, 2008 -- Kingston, RI

Week three of Coastal Summer Camp is going to be mostly about our personal projects that we began today and will complete with the help of the CRC staff and resources here. My project is to prepare a report for our upcoming programmatic evaluation for Minnesota's Lake Superior Coastal Program. I talked with Stephen about monitoring and evaluation and about Section 312 of the Coastal Zone Management Act (the section that mandates periodic programmatic evaluations). Pino from Spain and I are working together in a 'study group' on our projects since she is also working on the thorny issue of evaluation. Our challenges form and interesting contrast since the biophysical and legal landscapes of our places are so different. The nub of both our challenges is very similar however. How do you effectively measure (and communicate) the effectiveness of the kind of work we do given the context of the environmental and social landscapes in which we do that work?

I hope to develop a document that incorporates responses to the findings of Minnesota's last evaluation report with a summary of accomplishments and covers some strategic planning for the next few years. I have to get this thing done as part of the preparation for our review scheduled for August so the opportunity to take advantage of some to the staff expertise here seems too good an opportunity to pass up. I've gotten a book on Outcome Mapping from Virginia, a couple of papers on evaluation from Stephen and have plans to line up some interview time with some others with experience in these evaluations in other states.

Today also gave me an opportunity to do a short (30 min.) presentation on using the principles of aikido to illustrate concepts of conflict management and conflict communication. The session was used as an "energizer" for our agenda and it succeeded very well in getting peoples' energy level pumped up after lunch. I hope it also worked to show some physical examples of things like active listening, systems thinking, and using out-of-the-box solutions to conflict problems. I got some good feedback after the session so I think it went pretty well.

Weekend in New England

2008-06-22T20:35:00.000-05:00

Sunday June 22, 2008 -- Kingston, RI
Three more days have flashed by. On Friday, our Camp Coastal activities included a very brief presentation by Jeremy Gault from Ireland's Coastal and Marine Resources Center. One of the things he talked about was a rather intriguing concept he called "expert couplets" where they pair up a research group or institution with a local authority responsible for coastal resources management and the two organizations work together to identify research needs and management improvements.

Next on the agenda was a discussion of the CRC approach to a project to implement ICRM in Xcalak, Mexico with a comparison to what our small groups had thought up in our 45 minute proposal-writing/brain-storming exercise. One of the useful things about this course is that we get to talk to folks like Pam and Don after they have completed a project and spent time reflecting on what went well, what didn't, what was anticipated, and what surprised them. They have some incredible experiences to share with us and talk very candidly about their successes and failures.

After Xcalak we talked about our personal projects, the focus of the last week of the class. I proposed to work on the document I need to produce for our programmatic evaluation in August that should include a combination of accomplishments report, response to findings of our last review, and a bit of strategic planning for the next few years. It seems to fit with the themes of measurement and evaluation, systems thinking and leadership that we've been covering in the past two weeks.

The last item for the day was mysteriously labeled "leadership retreat" on the schedule. It turned out to be a small group exercise using mind-mapping as a technique to capture a wide array of information that might not seem to be connected and to discover interrelationships between the seemingly disparate elements. We first worked on a map dealing with our personal lives and then did one for our programs or a project at work. After discussing the maps we all came up with I was struck again with just how fortunate I am in both my personal life and career right now. I'm a lucky guy.

Saturday A vanload of us visited Newport, RI for much of the day. I struck out on my own and spent the day looking at boats in a very, very busy harbor, and exploring the waterfront district. There were lots of t-shirt shops and tourist-traps but there were also some neat old buildings and a few interesting shops hiding among all the tourist bustle. Along the way I found an Irish pub and had a Murphy's Irish Stout and a Reuben sandwich. Very tasty. I like to put a little mustard on my Reuben, and they gave me a very nice, very hot Coleman's English mustard. It has a wasabi-like affect on the nose that worked well with the sandwich.

Today (Sunday) Pam picked up me and Gwen and took us to the free community yoga event at a place called "All That Matters" in Wakefield. Gwen and I took the Kundalini yoga class while Pam did the basic yoga session. I've only done one other Kundalini class and my abs burned during and after the class. It is a bit too far into the eastern mystical tradition for me in terms of philosophy but I was looking for a more energetic class than what the basic session had to offer. This Kundalini class did have some chanting and a bit of the philosophy but it also had enough movement and body work to get me completely drenched with sweat. Perhaps the most surprising part was the seated dancing to a powerful drum-dominated song and just how much of a workout that can be. It was kinda fun too.

We closed the day with a cook-out at Brian's house. There was a wide variety of good things to eat with lots of seafood (including milkfish and a big bushel of Perry's Matunuck oysters), Philippine food and a bit of decent wine and beer. Brian has a nice, comfortable place with gardens in the back yard. It was a nice way to conclude the weekend.

Busy Busy

2008-06-19T20:34:00.000-05:00

June 19, 2008 -- Kingston RI

We've had a busy couple of days here at Camp Coastal. Yesterday started with a de-brief of the oyster farm field trip and a discussion of the difference between the definitions of sustainable livelihoods and "just business". Some felt that "livelihoods" dealt more with subsistence level issues and what we saw was a more sophisticated economic development, or business model. We also talked about concerns with aquaculture development that might argue against using it as a one-size-fits-all tool in coastal management. Finally we wrapped up that session with some discussion about the features of "sustainable aquaculture" before moving into a discussion about the value of "voluntary compliance" versus law enforcement. I really don't think a lot about it but we have a high level of voluntary compliance in the US compared to other places.

We moved on to the issue of eco labeling, ecological certifications of products and the market values of such things. One of the major areas of discussion was seafood labeling and programs like Seafood Watch. There is a Marine Stewardship Council that certifies seafood from the producer side which is different than the consumer side focus of Seafood Watch. It is interesting to note that some types of eco labels have become more of a "price of entry" into the market place wherein producers without the label (like "dolphin safe tuna") can't even compete. In these cases, the eco label does not ensure a higher price, it simply means that they can join in the competitive marketplace with other products that also have the label.

After the eco labeling exercise we began a negotiations module by doing a relatively simple non-resource management exercise and the moved on to a more complicated and complex problem dealing with an Ecuadoran estuary named Cojimies Estuary. The site has lost most of its mangrove forest to shrimp farming and suffers from extreme poverty. I got to play the part of an eco-tourism business owner whose interests include protecting the resources, establishing basic infrastructure, improving the health and safety of the residents and getting the chaotic land development patters under control. It was a good role, but it was difficult to figure out where to start with all the problems in the area. We continued the exercise on into the next day for the morning session before wrapping it up and having a long de-brief about the outcomes, and the facilitation process. Two of our group had volunteered to facilitate the sessions and I think that before we were done, they had to wonder why they put themselves through that.

We ended Wednesday with a feast hosted by the Narragansett Indian Tribe. They also put on a great program for us that included storytelling, dancing and music. They were very generous with their time and their culture, including giving us all small medicine pouches and a feather from a Canada goose.

Today, in addition to finishing up the Cojimies exercise, we worked on a very fast example of a facilitated coastal management program project addressing the southern part of the Riviera Maya area in Mexico, south of Cancun, focusing on the area around Xcalack, Mexico. We plan to finish this exercise up tomorrow with a comparison of our plans with what CRC actually did when they worked on the project there.

We ended the day at Champlin's Seafood restaurant at Point Judith, RI. I had white chowder, stuffed flounder, red potatoes, and coleslaw (along with a couple glasses of Samuel Adams Lager.) It was good. We all had a great deal of fun and lots of pictures were taken. I loaned out my camera cable to another coastal camper so I'll have to wait for another time to load up photos from the past day or two. Stay tuned.

Mariculture

2008-06-17T21:25:00.000-05:00

June 17, 2008 -- Kingston RI

Today we focused on learning more about Mariculture, the practice of raising seafood in marine environments. It really is agriculture in the seas. The reason this practice is so important is because capture fisheries, the fisheries we have relied on for so long to provide relatively cheap, high quality protein, has reached a peak and is most likely in decline due to over harvest, pollution, and other environmental insults. Fish farming on the other hand is increasing rapidly.

Approximately 41 million people make their living from fishing today, 11 million of them are engaged in aquaculture.

We learned about seaweed and half-pearl cultivation in Zanzibar Through these relatively new initiatives, women in Zanzibar have been able to earn money and they have learned to swim and developed other business skills. The group had an interesting and lively discussion about gender equity issues, cultural differences, and the advisability of trying to change the current cultural gender conditions. It is a complicated question, with a whole suite of issues to consider. In some cases, when women start becoming more productive in terms of economic activity, the men become less so. However, according to our peers from Tanzania, the reality is that this improved economic status for women is seen as a good thing all around and that the men do not feel threatened by the change. Gilbert says "Men are actually happy that women are earning extra money."

The other African example had to do with farming milkfish in ponds converted from the production of salt. It is an interesting case study because the practice has the potential to be lucrative for the farmers, but there is also the danger that farmers will convert mangrove forests into milkfish ponds. Because mangroves are so important ecologically, the impacts to the environment could be really bad.

The last of our indoor activities had to do with analyzing value chains. Value Chains represent the whole series of activities that products pass through from raw resources to ourchase by the end consumer. Each step along the way adds value and provides an entry point for possible revenue enhancement. The example we used to examine this concept further was the developing half pearl mariculture efforts in Zanzibar. Half pearls are easier to seed into adult oysters than whole pearls. As a result, the entry requirements to participate are lower and more people can potentially engage in half-pearl farming.

One of the things that CRC learned from doing a project with half-pearls in Zanzibar was that just focusing on getting production of a commodity started is not sufficient in developing countries. One also needs to consider other points along the value chain else the project will likely fail.

The last learning exercise for the day was to take a field trip down to the Matunuck Oyster Farm where we talkd first with the coastal program's aquaculture specialist about the permitting process for oyster farms, and then with Perry, the founder of the oyster farm. Perry then took us wading out into the oyster farm to show us his operation.

It was a great field trip. Perry was a master educator and kept our crew moving through the farm, our minds busy with taking in information and our curiosities engaged. Perry is the guy in the picture at the top of the blog entry. The oyster in the photo ended up in my belly a few seconds after Perry gave us a lesson in oyster shucking and anatomy. It was wonderfully briny and fresh tasting.

We ended the day with a dinner out at Chelos and lots of laughter. I've loaded a bunch more photos from today on my photo album for the class (see the 'my photo albums' link on the left-hand navigation bar.) Now it's late and I'm off to bed.

Ciao

Coastal Livelihoods

2008-06-16T19:26:00.000-05:00

June 16, 2008 -- Kingston, RI

This week we are looking at coastal management issues through the lens of coastal livelihoods. How do we ensure that we are sustaining the economic environment for people on the coast while we are managing the other resources? What is a sustainable livelihood?

For many of the other participants it seems that this terminology is somewhat familiar. I had a hard time translating some of the concepts into something relevant to the place I live and work. What it seems to boil down to is what we would call sustainable development or sustainable economic development. Many of the examples we talked about today, such as seaweed farming in the Philippines or paprika farming in Tanzania require such a different approach to implementation than I think about when it comes to sustainable development just because of the vast difference in social and institutional capacity.

Even with some of those huge differences, I saw some application and a few common themes that resonated with my experiences. A paper I read on seaweed farming stressed that approaches to sustaining livelihoods have to been seen in a more complex way than we like to do. Something like seaweed farming as an approach to reduce fishing pressure may have positive benefits when market prices are good, and diseases don't decimate the crop. However in some places seaweed farming may just provide more cash for fishers to buy more fishing gear or it may spur immigration and result in more pressure on the fish stocks when the seaweed crop fails or prices fall. We looked at a few examples of these complex suites of issues using systems maps that Don and others worked up. One case from Tanzania linked a wide variety of factors together that related to protection of the fish and wildlife populations in a nearby park with paprika farming and HIV AIDS health status in a complex web of interactions. What was fascinating was how one could link healthy families (with members not living with AIDS) to less poaching and how AIDS prevention measures helped protect wildlife.

We also talked a bit about how one measures the effectiveness of projects to improve livelihoods and sustainability. This approach is sometimes thought of as having three "bottom lines", including 1) quality of life, 2) ecosystem health, and 3) societal health and human services. I find a lot of appeal for measures that try to address quality of life in particular over simply measuring economic growth. There is one country, Bhutan, that measures "Gross National Happiness" instead of Gross National Production. That makes sense to me. The production should be for a reason, right? We are not just working for the sake of working are we? Do we make money just to make money or is there something more important that we are striving for? I'm a big fan of Ted.com and really like this talk on Habits of Happiness. I remember seeing another presentation there that addressed this issue as well, but now I can't remember just what talk it was. Hmm...

Anyway, I am certain that economic growth just for the sake of growth is not only unsustainable, but just simply misguided. In this season of presidential campaigns however, how often are we going to hear about growing our economy and creating more jobs? A lot I'll bet. I don't expect we'll hear much about enhancing our national quality of life though.

A few threads that I picked up from the overall discussions about sustainable livelihoods both here today and previously include the following. To develop a sustainable system on this planet so humans can survive a while longer we need to:
-- educate and empower women
-- significantly reduce poverty
-- manage our behavior within the ecological capacity of the system in which we live
-- diversify our economic base in our communities
-- focus on improving quality over increasing quantity
-- consume less, understand more
-- build happiness within ourselves rather than from external things

Hmm... I think I've gotten off on a tangent and a bit distracted by TED.com (it's easy to do if you are at all curious about things) so I guess I'll wrap it up for today.

Be happy.

Rainy day in RI

2008-06-15T19:30:00.000-05:00

June 15, 2008, Kingston RI

Plans to spend the day in Newport, RI got changed since it was pouring rain this morning. I stayed closer to the campus and did a little grocery shopping, some laundry, cleaned my room, and worked on the computer. My GroupWise connection is finally working thanks to Bob and I was able to clear up some of the backlog of messages. I talked to my dad for a while on the phone and later my boys called and we got caught up a bit. Sounds like they are having a pretty good summer so far.

I also worked on getting pictures loaded onto my web album for the course. It is easy to lose a lot of time working with pictures, sorting, culling, and adding captions to get them ready to share with others.

It was a slow, rainy day in Rhode Island.

Mystic Seaport

2008-06-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

June 14, 2008 -- Kingston, RI

Today I got to visit the Farmers Market on the URI campus. They have a few things I'm not used to seeing at local produce markets at home, including fresh live lobsters, clams, and oysters. I also got a good cup of organic coffee, a whole wheat pineapple scone and picked up a potted geranium to add a bit of color to my room.

After visiting the farmers market, Kim took me, Otto, Thess and Gwen to Mystic Connecticut to the Mystic Seaport where they were having a "Sea Music Festival" and lots of other stuff going on. It was a neat place with a mix of folk music, museum displays and big old wooden ships including a huge old whaling ship the Charles W Morgan and a recreation of the Amistad. The weather and all the boats really made me want to get out sailing. They did have boats for rent for $20/hour but there were also so many other things to see and do that I didn't try to go for a sail.

Field Trip Day!

2008-06-13T22:31:00.001-05:00

June 13, 2008 -- Kingston RI

Two fast days just went by in a flash here at summer camp. Yesterday we worked on finishing up the major part of the climate change section of the course with a focus on systems thinking and talking about all the challenges we face in dealing with this and all the other complex issues around Integrated Coastal Management. Don gave another one of his outstanding 100 mph presentations and talked about how a systems thinking approach is needed since the problems are so big and complex. He talked aoubt addressing feedback loops and using mental models to try to account for complexities. Several things he brought reminded me of basic Aikido principles. Thing like paying close attention to the energy you are really recieving rather than what you thought you were going to get or what you wished you were getting. The principle of circularity (what goes around, comes around). If you push back against a pushing attack, you are just going to generate more resistance, etc. Cool stuff.

We then moved on to more local coastal issues with a review of US coastal policy history (Don needs to update his slide that shows Minnesota "developing" a coastal program before we get to our 10-year anniversary next summer.) We also got a presentation on Rhode Island's coastal issues with a focus on their use of Special Area Management Plans (SAMPs).

Today, (Friday) we took a field trip to visit several sites in the area covered by the Metro Bay SAMP. We met at the new building developed by Save the Bay, a very well established non-governmental organization that works for environmental protection and restoration first. They have some very nice Low Impact Development (LID) features for stormwater management at their facility. It is a very impressinve building and the programs, connected with the waterkeepers network sounds like it is very effective. It is nice to see such an influential NGO enjoying that kind of success. It proves how much power a body of committed, engaged citizens can have in driving change.

Our second stop was with the City Planner and Asst. City Planner for Pawtucket, RI. They were both very enthusiastic about the Metro Bay SAMP and its value for helping them raise funds, get land donated and justify requirements for good development design in their community. We had a good discussion with them about the value of the SAMP at Slater's Mill, a hydropower mill where the American industrial revolution began.

From there we went to the American Locomotive Works, site of a brownfield redevelopment project to provide offices, housing and other mixed uses in a former industrial complex. A representative from the Rhode Island Coastal Management Council and one from the Economic Development Commission talked about the development of the Urban Greenways Policy that allows for development closer to the coast than it would otherwise be allowed in the metro are in exchange for public access and LID features in the site development. The permitting process in RI appears very complicated. While they have some coordination between agencies, it appears that the only joint permitting they do is between agencies at the same governmental level. Between cities for example and not with state and federal agencies.

After the work of the day was over we spent a little time exploring downtown Providence (and having a couple Sam Adams Lagers), and eating dinner at Fire and Ice before heading back to the frat house.

A Full Day

2008-06-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

June 11, 2008 -- Kingston, RI

Here was today's schedule:
6:00 alarm goes off, crawl out of bed
6:10 Do some yoga in the dorm room
6:40 Shower, shave, get dressed
7:15 Get the iron from down stairs and iron a couple of shirts
7:30 Walk up to the Rams Den (the dining hall) for breakfast
7:45 Breakfast
8:10 wait for the van to take us to the Bay Campus
8:20 Van ride to Bay Campus
8:40 Begin classes for the day with a major module on assessing vulnerability to climate change impacts and hazards like erosion, flooding, habitat loss.
12:00 Lunch at the Mosby building nearby
12:30 return to the classroom and deal with a grant problem from home
1:00 classes resume and deal with assessing adaptation measures to deal with impacts from earlier in the day; tools for adaptation, communication (with a focus on developing better powerpoint presentations). Get group homework assignment
5:20 depart Bay campus for the dorm, make a plan to meet group to complete homework at 7:30
5:45 return to the Chi Phi frat house, grab gym bag and walk down to Mackel Field House, get my rec center pass, find locker room and change.
6:00 work out in the gym (5 min on the eliptical machine, 45 min weight lifting, 10 min cool-down and stretching) Sons would have liked the music selection in the weight room, loud metal. Not quite the same vibe as "my" gym. Sweat a lot.
7:00 shower and walk back to dorm
7:15 get down to the common room early in case group is getting started, drink a liter of water since I forgot to bring anything to the gym.
7:30 no sign of the group. Look though the big binders full of local information on activities, find the phone number for the Newport yacht club, plan to call to see about crewing for races. Back home the Duluth Yach Club race is canceled. The cancellation email says:
'Winds ENE 32 – 37; Temp 43 degrees. Rain; Small craft warnings. Gale warnings posted. And the bad stuff hasn't hit yet. DYC Racing will be canceled for this evening.'
7:45 give up on the group showing up and walk up the hill to the emporium to get food.
8:00 find some group members at the emporium just heading back to work on homework. I tell them I'll join them as soon as I eat. Get a tasty grilled chicken pesto wrap and more water.
8:15 Walk back to the frat house to meet the group. No group. Wait around, still no group.
8:40 give up on getting homework done. Return to my room to try to resolve the problem with getting onto the DNR email site (got some suggestions from the CRC IT guy this afternoon). My efforts result in lost ground. Wireless and network cable access denied again.
9:30 give up on email, blogging. Call home. No answer. Organize the pile of handouts and notes from class today and yesterday. Look over some materials, read a bit for recreation.
10:00 turn out the light, put in the earplugs
10:30 wake up from the conversation and laughter in the room next door. Try to get back to sleep, Noise and sore muscles keep me awake.
11:15 give up on getting back to sleep, fire up computer and the wireless connection lets me in! At least to some things. I can read the first page of my DNR email account but can't reply or look past the first 20 emails. Blog.
11:55 guys next door either leave or quiet down. Maybe I can get back to sleep.

Day 2 -- Happier Camper

2008-06-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

June 10, 2008 -- Kingston RI

Day Two of Coastal Summer Camp saw the internet get fixed, the temperature go down and I got food before I got quite so cranky. No whining today.

I don't know what the temp was today but it felt soooo much better than yesterday. It's good that the temp was down 'cause we were in the same room (still no AC)as yesterday since the alternate room in another building lost AC yesterday too. We had doors open and fans on and a nice sea breeze kept us comfy. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember to bring both the camera and its battery so I can take some pictures of the bay from the Bay Campus of URI.

It was the heat that did in the internet yesterday. The room with the machine that authenticates wireless login connections overheated and the system was shut down prior to melting down. tonight it is up and running again.

Classwork today focused mainly on climate change. Early in the day we got a presentation from Kate Moran on the science of climate change. She has done some really cool polar expeditions to collect ice cores from the arctic to reconstruct climatic records for that part of the world. She gave an overview of the status of climate science today, focusing on the 2007 report from the International Panel on Climate Change. Some other points she made:
-- what we don't know is an important part of what we need to communicate;
-- there are 6,673,277,921 people living on this blue marble in space (see the world pop clock)
-- Summer sea ice may disappear in the arctic within 15 years so solar radiation will be absorbed by the sea rather than being reflected.
-- sea level rise so far has been caused by the thermal expansion of the water in the oceans. Now land-based ice is beginning to melt and contribute to the rise.
-- If the ice on Greenland melts, it has the potential to raise sea level by 7.5 meters or about 25 feet!

She also recommended a report by an insurance giant called Climate Change: adapt or bust. It's encouraging that industry leaders are getting with the picture.

Later in the day we had another good presentation on Climate change impacts by Pam Rubinoff. She lead an interesting discussion about how we need to change our behavior and our infrastructure in response to changing conditions due to climate. She mentioned a guidance manual published by USAID on adapting to changing climate that I need to check out.

Just before lunch, Stephen Olsen, the Director for CRC talked about what needs to change in the 21st century for "Integrated Coastal Governance". He talked about how whatever we do needs to: 1)forge links across current vertical/horizontal/temporal barriers; 2) be learning-based (adaptive management); 3) be science based; and 4) be collaborative/collective. He says "Integrated Coastal Management is not rocket science; It's much more complicated."

He went on to describe the current epoch of history as the "anthropocene". We have left the Holocene and are into a new epoch of planetary history where one species is rapidly changing the planetary ecology. He also talked about how we need to move from ICM (management) to ICG (governance) wherein our work needs to include integration of market forces, and civil society as well as governmental institutions. The focus must be on managing human activities, not managing species like fish or birds or trees.

Stephen presented a concept called "Orders of Outcome Framework" (see also this article). What I like about the concept is that it places the various goals that we talk about in a context of what can be accomplished at different stages of social and institutional readiness. We can't achieve long-term sustainable development without reaching some other milestones first. We have to include both human and environmental considerations (social sciences with the physical/biological/ecological sciences). We have to change 1) behaviors, 2) institutions/processes, and 3) investments. We need to grow capacity for coastal ecosystem governance. Unfortunately, there has been little connection between the ideas that Stephen and his colleagues have been developing here at CRC and the recent efforts to Envision the future of Coastal Management through re-authorization of the Coastal Zone Management Act. I think some of the framework ideas would also be useful in the development/revision of the coastal programs' performance measures system.

At lunch Stephen recommended a book by HT Odum that I need to check out. It is titled "A prosperous way down". I also ran across a summary from a lecture in 2000.

The other topic of the day was leadership and how to strengthen our leadership skills. We did a little exercise, took a leadership assessment (I came out with a collaborative style preference), and talked about leadership versus management. My observation of the difference is that "managers have authority, leaders have influence."

We wrapped up the day with a dinner gathering with participants in the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting's annual workshop for journalists. I got to talk with Kelly, a reporter with a paper in the Daytona Fl area. She deals a lot with city issues but also gets to work on environmental topics from time to time.

It was a good day, filled with lots of new information and perspectives.

HOT!

2008-06-09T20:31:00.000-05:00

June 9, 2008 -- Kingston Rhode Island.

Class started today for the tenth Summer Institute on the Bay Campus of URI, in Narragansett, RI. The classes are at the Graduate School of Oceanography. Unfortunately they decided to replace the air conditioning in the building with the conference room this week. Heat index was 104F. Even just standing in the room I was dripping with sweat. We got started with some overview stuff and an exercise with "hopes and fears" for the next few weeks. So far so good (except for the heat.) After class, I headed back to the frat house to catch up on email, blog, and get news. But, the wireless was down ("due to technical difficulties. . . until further notice . . ." Argh. So plug into the wall with the Ethernet cable. . . no go. Got some message about "evaluating the computer for compliance with policy . . ." dead end. Argh. Try every way to get around the problem I can think of. Nothing works. I can only browse the URI website. Help desk is just a recording 'after hours' Argh.

So, I give it a break and walk down to the field house to sign up for a pass to use the weight room and cardio machines. The young lady behind the desk wanted to charge me $51 rather than the $26 we were told. Oh, that $26 rate is for just one summer session (which happens to end in two weeks.) Then it's another $26 for the last week of our stay here. Argh. By the way, it was still hot outside. I couldn't see paying $51 for a pass to a gym that is closed early in the morning, closed late in the evening, and closed on weekends. So I walked up the hill to find dinner. The Mexican place I saw yesterday was out of business. Most of the others were either not air conditioned or 'closed due to the extreme heat' Argh! Not a great evening. The Chinese place was open and had AC and the food was okay. There was a bit of a scare when the power flickered off and on a few times but then it stayed on and they were able to feed me. After vegetable lo mein, chicken wings with oyster sauce and most of a pitcher of water I started to feel a bit better.

The restaurants within walking distance here are certainly geared toward collage age kids. You can get subs, pizza, fast food Mexican, run-of-the-mill Chinese, and not a lot else. I did meet one other foodie today. She and I are going to have to figure out how to find some real food before long. Did I mention that this is a 'dry campus'? Yeah, I found that out after I got here. Argh again.

Now I'm blogging on the computer set up in the common computer room so I can login at all. At least the frat house AC is still working. Sigh.

Summer School

2008-06-08T14:42:00.000-05:00

June 8, 2008 -- Kingston Rhode Island

I'm off to summer school today. Today is Sunday and it is a travel day. I flew out of Duluth at about 6:10 a.m. to Detroit and on to Providence RI for an 11:37 a.m. arrival. I was met at the airport by Luke, a student at the University of Rhode Island and an employee of the Coastal Resources Center. It was then about a 40 minute ride by van to the Kingston Campus and the Chi Phi fraternity house where I'll be staying for the next three weeks. I just hope the weather cools off a bit. The 90's are too hot for this Lake Superior boy.

The room is spacious but pretty bare. I'm going to have to do something to add a bit of color. The 5x7 family portrait I brought along is not quite big enough to brighten up the walls.

We have an informal orientation later this afternoon but stuff doesn't really get started until tomorrow. I'll go out into the heat in a bit to explore around a little before the orientation and see what the campus looks like. I'll try not to melt.

More about Bonaire

2008-05-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

What more should I say about diving on Bonaire?

It's hard to describe the overwhelming complexity and diversity of the coral reef community I got to experience. I could list all the fish, coral, and sponges I was able to identify but that doesn't seem likely to do justice to the ecosystem. I suppose that is one of the main reasons I like to dive so much. It is literally an opportunity to immerse oneself in a completely different, vibrant world full of action and color and life.

The protective approach to the reef and the sea in general by the people of Bonaire is also impressive. Part of it I suppose is the realization that the economy of the island depends on diving and without the spectacular coral reef system they would have a harder time competing with all the other tropical Caribbean islands. Even so, not too many other places would think to put "Divers Paradise" on their license plates.

While my trip was focused almost entirely on diving until I was exhausted, I did get out to do a little birding too. My roomie Jeff and I took a couple of quick trips toward the end of the week to the north end of the island to see flamingos and to the south end to see the salt ponds, old slave huts and look for birds.

The northern end of the island feels very different than most of what I had come to think of as typical Bonaire landscape. It was hilly, almost mountainous and much greener than I'd previously seen. We also saw a few farms with goats and the revered donkey. I'm not sure why donkeys are so popular, but they sure seem to be well respected here. We found the flamingos as well as stilts, pintail ducks and some beautiful scenery.

The following day we made our way south looking for larger concentrations of flamingos but didn't see them. We did see the old slave huts that once housed the people that made the salt back in the 1800s. I climbed into one of the huts and thought about how brutal the conditions must have been for those unfortunate people. The interpretive signs nearby seemed to romanticize the era a bit too much for my taste. Even so, the little dog-house sized huts arranged neatly on the coral beaches made for a deceptively lovely scene. Perhaps it is easy to romanticize the horrors of the past when we can view the remnants from such a position of luxury, removing ourselves from the reality of the situation that existed then.

A Divers Paradise

2008-05-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

I returned from Bonaire yesterday exhausted but very happy with my first ever dive trip.

The results: 26 dives, 17 hours, 37 minutes underwater.

I saw thousands of fish, many species of coral, sponges, invertebrates and a few really cool new birds. We left the St. Paul/Minneapolis airport around 5:30 a.m on Saturday April and arrived in Bonaire, the Netherlands Antilles at about 2:30 p.m. It took a while futzing around with luggage, customs, car rental and all that stuff but we got to the Sand Dollar in time to pay our "Nature Fee" and pick up our tags that will allow us to dive on Bonaire. The $25 fee for divers ($10 for non-divers) funds the Washington Slagbaai National Park. I also had time for a snorkel in the sea that afternoon.

On Sunday we had our mandatory briefing before being allowed to dive. It was a long (1.75 hour) session where we learned about the marine park rules and the procedures used by the resort's dive operation, Bonaire Dive and Adventure.

We were finally able to dive shortly before noon and we wasted no time before we geared up and dove on Bari Reef just off the Sand Dollar dock. Bari Reef is, according to Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) surveys THE most diverse site in the Tropical Western Atlantic (i.e., the Caribbean) with more than 370 fish species recorded. According to the information compiled by REEF, 8 of the top ten sites for species richness are on Bonaire. Quite a place!

A typical day included an early dive on Bari Reef at 6:30 a.m. A quick rinse and change of clothes for the breakfast buffet, which included an omelet cooked to order, fresh fruit (like papaya, mango, pineapple), granola, yogurt and bananas, orange juice and coffee. Then a boat dive out to Klein Bonaire, the little island just to our west. Returning to the dock allowed for another dive at Bari Reef before a quick lunch. After lunch we would load a couple of tanks for each of us and head off to one or two sites for a couple of shore dives at Oil Slick Leap or 1000 steps. By the time we got done with those two shore dives I was usually more than ready for dinner, a beer and bed.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast Paul and I participated in the class offered by the dive shop's naturalist Jerry Ligon. He offers an opportunity to "Dive with the Naturalist" a couple times each week. It's a half day class that includes fish ID, discussion of fish behavior and a variety of marine biology topics. I liked the way Jerry took the information from REEF surveys and put together a very informative program using the new Reef Fish Identification DVD by ReefNet Inc. We then dove with Jerry for close to an hour at Bari Reef while he identified fish and pointed out behaviors we had just discussed.

Stay tuned for more details from the trip . . .

Off to Bonaire!

2008-04-25T10:53:00.001-05:00

I'm finishing up packing for my trip to the Twin cities. My flight leaves MSP at 5:30 am and arrives in Bonaire at 2:30 pm. It's 39 degrees and cloudy in Duluth right now with winter storms in the forecast. Bonaire is 88 with scattered clouds. I'll be back on the 4th of May, hopefully with lots of cool pictures, stories and about 25 new tropical dives in my dive log book! (The photos are from Webshots.com)

The Blizzard of '08

2008-04-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

The big storm predicted for April 10-12 hit Duluth as forecast, at least for the most part. The snow started a bit later than predicted and we only got about 5 or 6 inches of accumulation at our house (about 10 at the airport) but it was wet, heavy stuff. If the temp. had been lower and the snow fluffier, we probably would have gotten the 12-18 inches in the forecast.

The really spectacular part of the storm was the wind. Gusts up to 62mph were clocked at the airport. I heard that higher wind speeds were likely experienced in Canal Park but because the snow was sticking to the anemometers and freezing, the instruments were working only intermittently. Waves started building during the day on Thursday and by Saturday morning were 15+ feet. They were crashing over the piers in the ship canal and were close to touching the bridge deck of the Aerial Lift Bridge. The vertical clearance on the bridge when down is 15 feet. If the waves were that high deep into the canal, they must have been something out at the end of the pier.

There are some cool videos of the storm driven waves available. The first shows an old, formerly submerged crib from a pier at the site it washed up last fall:

Storm waves hitting the crib at its original location

The second shows the crib as it is arriving close to its current location

The Duluth News Tribune has a good storm summary here.

There is another little article about the Crib in today's newspaper with yet another theory about the structure's origin. Look toward the bottom of the Eh? column.

To view the articles on the Duluth News Tribune you need to register at the site but the registration is free.

The photo today is of the crib where it ended up on the beach. It looks like it lost quite a few timbers as it got pounded by the storm.

NOAA satellites captured some cool pictures of the sediment plume stirred up by the storm. My guess is that this is more due to bank erosion rather than sediment coming out of rivers. It seems likely to me that the waves were high enough and lasted long enough to do some serious shoreline erosion. The amount of precipitation didn't seem to really raise the river levels enough or quickly enough to account for this much sediment. Here is a link to the NOAA page with the images. Be aware that the individual images are fairly large.

State offices in St. Louis and Lake Counties were closed on Friday so I got to enjoy the storm without having to worry about trying to get into work. It was nice to have a 'snow day'. We even had the power go out for several hours on a few different occasions throughout the day. It was a good excuse to stay off the electronic stimulants.

Even though the snow day was fun, I'm ready for spring to finally arrive and the snow to melt away.

How is your vitality today?

2008-03-12T11:25:00.000-05:00

Most of the time when we talk about health and fitness these days we talk about illness/disease, nutrition and exercise/fitness. We don’t think much about improving or maintaining our vitality. I think we should. There is a great article about this on the Experience Life Magazine website from a previous issue. The author says "Vitality is a measure of the life force within you," she says. "When we're connected to our sources of vitality, not only do we have more energy to be more active and get more done, but we're engaged, we're present. We feel that flow of life force pumping through us." Check it out at: http://www.experiencelifemag.com/issues/june-2007/health-wellness/vitality.html. Then spend some time thinking about how you improve and enhance your vitality.

Coastal States meeting

2008-02-25T17:04:00.001-06:00

Today's agenda included a full day of meeting with the Coastal States Organization. Lots of discussion about reauthorizing the Coastal Zone Management Act and funding needs.

Tonight there is a reception for CSO members and a dinner for Great Lakes folks. I decided to head back to the room, brew some tea and rest.

Taking a cold to D.C.

2008-02-24T18:15:00.000-06:00

Generally I like to fly early in the morning. It seems to give me the opportunity to avoid cascading delays and unexpected overnight stays somewhere short of my destination. It usually provides a chance to walk and explore and get my bearings in a new place. Arriving at noon in D.C. on a Sunday should have give me that opportunity. Instead I'm holed up in my hotel with a cold.

Two folks from work called in sick on Friday. I thought I dodged the bullet by getting out of town. Saturday I woke up early with a plan to go to meditation, yoga and work out. Instead I felt like crap, turned on the fire, curled up on the recliner with coffee and the newspaper. The morning slipped away with reading, resting, and a bit of planning for the new D&D campaign I'll be running in April. The afternoon with preparing for my trip. Laundry, ironing, packing, etc.

Now I'm in the big city. Me and my cold. And my cough meds, tissues, tea and a big jug of cranberry juice. Quite an adventure.

Personal Record

2008-01-30T13:41:00.000-06:00

I've been hitting the gym at the Duluth Clinic Fitness and Therapy Center for about a year now and have been pretty satisfied with my progress for the most part. I've started getting a bit less satisfied since getting my cholesterol checked and finding it just over the line into the "bordeline high" category. However, my body composition numbers have shown some improvement, albeit, small. So I've switched from using the recumbent bike as my main cardio machine to varying the routine a bit to include an elliptical machine and swimming. Today I challenged myself in the pool and swam for a mile. That's 32 laps or 64 lengths of the pool. That is a big number for me. A little over a year ago when I first committed to getting into shape I went up to the pool at UMD and could barely complete 4 or 6 lengths. It was pretty frustrating. But today I swam a mile. I'm happy with that.

Taking the plunge

2008-01-25T09:27:00.000-06:00

I finished my Nitrox certification course last night and since Superior Scuba Center has some great clearance sale prices on stuff, I took the plunge and bought a ton of gear. Jay is going to bench test the regulator set and get the alternate air source hooked up yet, but when he does, I’ll be ready (mostly) to go. Here is a run down of the big purchase:

Dive Rite regulator system
Dive Rite NiTek Duo computer
Zeagle Ranger Ltd BCD
Atomic Aquatics SS1 Alternate Inflator Regulator (SS1 review )
Bare Velocity 3/2 full wetsuit (probably to be used mostly with my 2mm shorty on underneath.

North Coast Ski trip

2008-01-24T13:44:00.001-06:00

Despite the cold weather, our ski trip to Lutsen Mountain went very well. I had to work Friday so I met the family at Hidden Cove on Friday night. They skied/snowboarded most of the day and had a great time. Nothing froze even though low temps for the day were likely in the teens below zero and the highs were probably in the single digits below. Saturday we all went and enjoyed a beautiful, frigid day on the mountain. The views of Lake Superior from the top of "Moose Mountain" were spectacular. I ended up having to buy a neoprene face mask since the thin polypropylene thing I had didn't block the wind at all. We spent much of our time (since everyone but Brennen had either never skied or hadn't been on the slopes for a very long time) on the easy hills on Ullr Mountain but we did ride the gondola over to Moose Mountain for a couple of longer, more challenging runs.

The view from our condo was wonderful as well. The big picture window looked out from the second floor onto a steaming Lake Superior. The photo is from the little gravel beach at the bottom of the hill. Sunlight in the morning was a welcome sight after too many long, dark winter days lately.

January Thaw

2008-01-08T10:03:00.001-06:00

It was above freezing again this morning when I woke up and drove in to the gym. The fog created an eerie early morning scene. We are loosing our snowpack pretty fast this week. The forecast calls for cooler temperatures later in the week though so maybe we won't loose it all. I hope not. We are planning a weekend sking get-away up the shore in a couple of weeks. Snow will make that more fun.

The big task at work right now is reviewing grant applications. We received 31 proposals to Minnesota's Lake Superior Coastal Program requesting almost $1.3 million for projects to protect, restore or enhance Minnesota's coastal area. The process involves internal DNR review, review by the Governor's Council on Minnesota's Coastal Program, and review by NOAA, our federal partner in the coastal program. It means a lot of meetings, most of which are pretty exhausting, but it is rewarding to be able to provide funding to some really great projects.

The picture for today is a view of Shovel Point at Tettegouche State Park from a 7-acre parcel that we were able to help purchase last year. It is now part of the park and the property will be restored and protected. The orange stuff all over the rocks is a lichen and its extensive coverage indicates that the rocks have not seen a lot of people trampling on them. Lichen does not hold up well to foot traffic. It is nice to see such a healthy patch at this site.

Blue Planet

2008-01-02T16:15:00.001-06:00

So we got "Blue Planet" for Christmas this year. It is a nature documentary series by the BBC, the same folks that created the outstanding series: "Planet Earth". The Blue Planet series was done first and while it is not quiet as impressive as the later series, it is still very cool. It covers the wet majority of our world and a recent edition adds a 5th DVD to the set. We've only made it through a few episodes but I'm really enjoying it. Learning new stuff too. I'd never heard of brine pools before. Wow!

Get the DVD's and watch them. Then go dive or snorkel on a coral reef while you still can. It won't be long before they are gone. A couple of new studies paint a pretty bleak picture for the future of coral reefs. See a report on a study published in Science in Dec. here, or read the abstract from the journal online. Increases in acidity are also a threat from rising carbon dioxide. Another report (here) based on the same study suggests that changes in water chemistry, coupled with increasing water temperature will kill 98% of all coral reefs by 2050.

2008 is the International year of the Reef. So take action today. Even though coral reefs seem exotic and far away to those of us in the great white north, the ecological processes that happen there have profound impacts on us. There are a bunch of coral reef conservation organizations out there that are doing good work. Support one like the Coral Reef Alliance. And don't buy cheap farmed shrimp. Shrimp farms are destroying critical mangrove and reef ecosystems at a frightening rate. National Geographic magazine had a great article about the problem in a recent issue and it included their usual outstanding photography including this image of a landscape of shrimp farms in a former mangrove forest. Instead of buying shrimp, use the guide by Seafood Watch to find sustainable fish for your table.

Our blue planet is a wondrous place. Let's keep it that way.

Adventures in Wisconsin in winter

2007-12-28T19:50:00.000-06:00

Traveled to Darboy, WI today. Left Duluth at about 7a and got in to Darboy about 2p. The roads were decent until we got to Wausau. Then the snow started. Got stuck behind snowplows several times. Travel in winter wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the other yahoos on the road. The brother took us to a great wine store "Red and White". The have a great selection of wine and a few tables with a fun wine menu by the glass. Since my brother and his wife knew the sommelier and the owner by first name (and they knew my brother on a first name basis as well), I suspect they have bee here a few times before. The wine made up for the crappy drive earlier in the day.

Winter morning drive

2007-12-27T08:14:00.000-06:00

It was clear and cold on the drive in to work today. The wind was light so the lake looked calm but there were big long rollers coming in from the east. A cloud bank way off to the ENE hid the sunrise but the sky was apricot colored around the edges of the cloud bank. No pictures of mine today, but for some great winter photos, check out the article Minnesota's North Shore: Winter playground from the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 12/23/07. Be sure to click on the "Audio Slideshow".

Other great places to look for North Shore images are Paul Sundberg's Blog, Travis Novitsky's Blog, and the galleries from Craig Blacklock's new book Minnesota's North Shore.

Catching up is not possible

2007-12-26T15:45:00.000-06:00

It has been an embarrassingly long time since my last entry eh? Since that trip to the BWCA I've been able to visit some pretty cool places and see some pretty neat stuff. Highlights include: La Paz Mexico, Portland OR, and Cape Cod.

I'll try to better with info in the next little while and maybe even post some pictures that I have taken along the way. Until then, here is a photo Tambrey took while we were in Mexico for our 20th Anniversary. For you non-divers out there, the hand signal means "OK" and is used to let the folks back on the dive boat know that my entry into the water went well and that all my gear is functioning. The other alternative here, waving one or both hands over my head, would indicate that I needed help.

Time in the BWCA

2006-08-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

South Temperence Lake, BWCA, MN
-- 7/17/2006

Smoke from the Cavity Lake fire in the BWCA.

Last of the evaluation

2006-02-17T21:09:00.000-06:00

Saipan, CNMI – 2/18/2006

Today is my last day on Saipan. This afternoon I fly to Hawai’i, arriving there earlier in the day than when I leave. Crossing the date line is pretty strange.

Yesterday was a cosmic day for birding once the evaluation wrapped up. The forest birds of Saipan have not been wiped out by brown tree snakes that invaded Guam. I got nearly all the island’s endemic bird species, including Bridled White-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), Nightengale Reed-warbler (Acrocephalus luscinia), Golden White-eye (Cleptornis marchei), White-throated Ground-dove (Galliocolumba xanthonura), Mariana Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus rosicapilla), Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons saipanensis), the Saipan sub-species of the Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus guami), and the Mariana Swiftlet (Aerodramus bartschi). The only thing I missed was the Micronesian Megapode. Shelly, the ornithologist from the CNMI Department of Fish and Wildlife was my guide. She was very generous with her time and after she got a brief glimpse of a megapode we spent quite a bit of time scrambling around the steep hillside around the site of the “Last Command Post” (Japanese) where she saw it. Unfortunately I never did get look at it and it refused to call.

Thursday we made a trip to Rota, one of the other inhabited islands of CNMI. We met with the Mayor of Rota, one of the CNMI staff people stationed on the island, and made a site visit to see a harbor construction project. The meetings went well but because of a delay in leaving Saipan due to aircraft issues, our visit was shorter than planned. I didn’t get to see the Rota Bridled white-eye or the Mariana Crow, but I did see some good seabirds including Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), and White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). In addition I saw Micronesian Starling (Aplonis opaca) and the introduced and aggressive Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocerus).

Dr. Joyner surprised everyone by suggesting to the Mayor of Rota that John Mcleod and his wife Jennifer should renew their wedding vows. The Mcleods were either good sports or still in shock when the Mayor pulled out the wedding vows and conducted the ceremony then and there!

We also visited an ancient quarry where the Chomorro people created latte stones, thought to be used in supporting large buildings. The latte stones were no longer in use by the time the Spanish made first contact with the Chomorros though so no one knows for sure what the latte stones were for. Stones of various sizes are found all over the islands though so they must have had an important use. The image of the latte stone is a popular symbol as well and one can see it throughout modern building structures and in modern culture.

At the end of the day, after returning to Saipan, the Mcleods, Dorrina and I made a quick trip up to the top of Mount Tapochau to stand on the top of thhe largest mountain in the world. Although only a portion of the mountain rises above the sea, the base of the mountain is at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, some 36,000 feet below sea level. It took ten days of what must have been brutal fighting before the marines of the 8^th Marine Regiment took the top of the mountain on June 25, 1944.
These days it seems that few Americans have even heard of Saipan but from most military history accounts it was the site of one of the most decisive battles of WWII.

Tropical learning

2006-02-14T15:11:00.000-06:00

Garapan, Saipan, CNMI -- 2/15/06

I'm struggling with a very slow dial-up connection so I'll be brief now and maybe make this post pmore complete in the future. The picture is from Obyan Beach, one of the top three dive sites on Saipan. The structure is an old japanese bunker from WWII. There is some amazing WWII history here and I hope to have more time to explore things a bit before I leave. We had a very short field trip to Obyan and LauLau beaches in the morning. The CRMO has some really great plans for fixing problems with the steep gravel roads that erode and send sediment onto the reefs at the beaches. This erosion is quite damaging to the reef and with the structural improvements proposed, they should really provide a significant improvement.

We got a chance to see Black Noddys, a Phillippene Turtle Dove, and a Yellow Bittern.

Later in the morning we met with the CNMI legistaure and let them knnow how good the CRMO program here is. Later in the day we met with members of the Saipan Zoning Board who are trying to restart zoning on the island. We wrapped up with a public meeting where there were 4 people in attendance.

In the Mariana Islands

2006-02-13T14:46:00.000-06:00

Garapan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 2/13/2006

Yesterday (and today I guess) was one of my long travel days. I didn't change
my watch crossing all the time zones until I got into the hotel Hyatt Regency,
Saipan) at about 2 a.m. That was about 26 hours after I woke up on the 11th.
I lost a day crossing the international date line so I left Hawaii on Saturday
around noon and arrived in Saipan on Monday in the wee hours. There was a brief
(1.5 hr) layover in Osaka at around 7 p.m. local time but it was dark there
and I really couldn't see anything of Japan.

I met the rest of the evaluation team thismorning at &:30 a.m. and we had

our first meeting with the Coastal Resource Management Office staff at 8:00
a.m. Dr. John Joyner is the Director of the CRMO and was very recently appointed.
Steve Tilley is the Deputy Director. I know I've seen Steve before at Program
Managers Meetings in D.C.

We had a full day of meetings, getting to tour the office and meet staff as

well as talk with a variety of partner agencies. There is a large number of
departments that make up a board that works on permitting, monitoring and enforcement.
This permitting focus took up most of the day.

Here and there I got a few glimpses of interesting birds. I'm not getting any

real opportunities to do serois birding, but instead spotting things over lunch
or when we are driving. So far the highlights are Fairy Terns, Micronesian honeyeaters,
and Collared Kingfishers. The Honeyeaters are hanging out in the trees below
my hotel room balcony. It is 2 in the morning at home as I write this. My biological
clock is so screwed up after yesterday that I don't know what time it feels
like to me. I'm going to go off to meet with some of the rest of the team for
dinner here in a bit. I guess I'll just try to act as though I'm on this time
zone and maybe my body will believe it.

Hanauma Bay

2006-02-11T16:32:00.000-06:00

Honolulu HI 2/11/2006

Hanauma Bay was so cool I thought I'd do a post just on it. Dorina and I came back at 6:00 a.m. to get in some snorkling before our flights out to Saipan. It was still dark when we got there and we wandered around a bit until a staff person directed us to the path to get down to the beach. Once there we had to wait a little while before it was light enough to see anything. The water was a bit chilly but I snorkled for about an hour and a half. It was just like swimming in a giant salt water aquarium. I saw so many different types of fish that I couldn't even remember what they yall looked like when I finally purchased a guide to Hawaiian Fishes. One I did remember was a rockmover (Novaculichthys taenirus). The place was so cool. And because it was early I guess, it was not at all busy.

From the Honolulu Airport

2006-02-11T15:50:00.000-06:00

Honolulu HI -- 2/11/2006
I've got a couple of hours before my flight leaves for Osaka (arriving at 6:66 p.m.) and then Saipan (arriving at 1:15 a.m on 2/13) so here is an update.

Yesterday (Friday) we met with Mike Molina from the USFWS at his office in downtown Honolulu and heard about some of the more significant issues FWS is dealing with. One of them is a project to salvage spanish gold from a sunken galleon, the Santa Margarhita. The current modifications to the permit that are being reviewed sound like they have significant potential to really damage the reef and a turtle nesting beach.

We then met with Al Eerson from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). They have a person stationed on Saipan that is working with the CNMI Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Coastal program and others so it will be good to get to meet her.

After these meetings we ate lunch at the Waikiki Yacht Club. Our team leader is a yacht club member back home and he got us in through their reciprocity program. I had a cheesburger and fries and it didn't even cost me $25 like it would have just about everywhere else.

From there Dorina and I went out on an expidition to examine some local coastal resource conditions. We took a drive through Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve but it was getting late in the day and it was a bit busy so we decided we'd wait and come back early in the morning.

We drove around the SW side of the island and visited a number of scenic overlooks. One of the coolest was Pali Lookout. The picture above is from the lookout where King Kameamea pushed the Oahu warriors over the cliff to will victory over the last resistance to uniting the islands.

Beginning the Evaluation

2006-02-10T08:13:00.000-06:00

Honolulu HI, -- 2/10/2006

I met the rest of the evaluation team yesterday morning at John Mcleod's hotel . John is NOAA's Team Leader for the evaluation. Dorina Frizzera is from the New Jersey coastal program. The three of us spent some time going over the issues and history of the coastal program at the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands where we will be working next week. We met John Parks, the Program Specialist from NOAA's Coastal Programs Division at the NOAA Pacific Services Center in Downtown Honlulu. After meeting with John Parks we took a lunch break and then explored a bit of downtown. We were able to take a quick look at some famous landmarks, including the Iolani Palace, pictured above, where Hawaii's royalty lived when it was a kingdom. On the grounds they have a huge kapok tree and some impressive banyon trees. Then it was back to the Pacific Services Center for meetings with the Bill Thomas, the Director, Kristina Kekuewa the Deputy Director, Ed Carlson the regional geodetic advisor, and Meghan Gombos, coral reef sepecialist.

Following out meetings at the Pacific Services Center we took a ride over to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to meet with Peter Rappa from the Hawaii Sea Grant program. Peter is an extension agent for coastal resource management with experience in CNMI. By the time we finished with that meeting it was time to wrap things up for the day.

I ended up at a very busy japanese seafood buffet named Todai for dinner. It was huge and filled with peolple moving quickly back and forth from the various buffet lines. The food was pretty good, not as good as last night, but it was a lot less expensive. I still have not seen any SPAM sushi yet. By the time I finished eating there was a line of people waiting to get in the door. I was worn out and ready to crash so I made it back to the hotel and called it a night. The hotel had already brought my luggage up to my new room so I just had to unpack and relax. By 10 p.m. I was asleep. Unfortunately even with trying to stay up as late as I could, (not very late by the local clock) I woke up at 3:30 a.m. this morning. That is 7:30 a.m. according to my biological clock which has obviously not gotten adjusted to the new time zone. It probably will adjust as I'm ready to fly out to an even more out of sync zone later in the week.

I think I'm going to get ready for the sun to come up and head down to walk around on Ala Moana Beach Park and Ainamoana State Recreation Area, both are spots I can see from my hotel room. It looks like today's agenda should have less sitting and meeting in conference rooms, but I don't know if we are going to have much time to explore today so I better get it in now. Aloha!

In the Pacific -- Day 1

2006-02-09T01:09:00.000-06:00

Honolulu, HI -- 02/08/2006

My Pacific adventure began today. I left Duluth on an 8:25 a.m. flight. After
a 2.5 hr layover in the St. Paul/Minneapolis airport I got on a direct flight
to Honolulu and arrived in Hawaii about 4:00 p.m. local time (about 8 p.m. biological clock time.) It took a while to get my suitcase and find the shuttle and even longer to get through the traffic of the big city but fortunately my hotel,
the Hawaii Prince, was the first stop and I was able to get checked in.

The check-in was a bit of a problem. It seems that some mis-communication between

my travel agent and the hotel resulted in my reservation being for a check-in
on Saturday, not today (Thursday.) They were able to straighten things out at
the front desk but I'm going to have to change rooms tomorrow which will be
a bit of a pain. At least I have a place to stay tonight!

It is a room with an amazing view. The picture is from my room on the 22nd
floor. After dumping my bags in the room and admiring the view, I slipped on
sandles and strolled down onto Waikiki beach to watch the sunset, walk in the
ocean and get a glimpse of Diamond Head. The second picture is of Diamond Head
from Waikiki Beach.

I found a sushi place for dinner and now I'm trying to stay awake so I can get adjusted to the time change. I think I'm going to give up soon and crash and get some sleep so I can be ready for a full day of meetings tomorrow.

A Better Day of Grant Training

2006-01-25T18:53:00.000-06:00

Silver Spring, MD -- 1/25/06.

We had a better day today. Not only did I get some pictures of the Hydrolab display, the training workshop took a turn or the better and I got a lot out of the sessions for day two.

We fly back to Duluth tomorrow on a noonish flight out of DCA. Yea!

I gotta run now. I'm headed back to the treadmill for a little while before tying to connect for a meeting via a webchat. We'll see how that works. . .

A Day of Grant Training

2006-01-24T21:24:00.000-06:00

Silver Spring, MD -- 1/24/06

Well, don't feel too jealous of the exciting day of training I had. It left a lot to be desired. Too general and repetitive for the most part. The highlight of the day was checking out the display they had of NOAA's Hydrolab in one of the rooms where we had presentations. The relatively small Hyrdolab, while in operation for a number of years (1966-1985) has been replaced by the much larger Aquarius undersea lab that is currently deployed south of Key Largo, FL. The picture on the right is from the NOAA website and shows the Aquarius Lab before deployment in 1986.

I didn't get a picture of the Hydrolab display so I'll have to do that tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the NOAA Photo library:

On the Move Again

2006-01-23T19:45:00.000-06:00

1/23/06
Silver Spring MD

After a stretch of staying relatively close to home, I'm on the road again. In the air actually. Karla and I flew out of Duluth this morning at about 7:30am and got into Washington DC at about 2:00pm. The picture on the right is a shot of the snowy, fragmented landscape of Minnesota from the airplane. I passed some of the time on the plane enjoying Terry Pratchett's "The Color ofMagic." Very fun.

After a hop on the Metro, a tranfer from the Blue Line to the Red Line at Metro Center, and a short hike from the Silver Spring Metro stop, we checked into our rooms at the Marriott in Silver Spring MD around 3:00. It is a pretty nice place. The picture below is my first attempt to use my new digital camera's stitch assist program to paste several overlapping pictures together. I don't think it turned out too badly.

We found some pretty good cheesburgers at the RedRock Canyon Grill just a couple of blocks away. After dealing with email and making a quick call home, I spent about 1.5 hours in the health club attached to the hotel walking on the treadmills and doing a little cycling. Now my feet are sore and I'm going to shower, crash and finish my book.

Tomorrow we are off to the NOAA HQ for a two-day grant training workshop. Check out the Schedule for Day One and I'll bet you will be jealoous of how lucky I am!

Wisconsin's North Coast

2005-11-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

Two Harbors, MN -- 11/14/05
Just returned from a very pleasant weekend get-away with Tambrey. On Friday we drove out along Hwy 13 in Wisconsin to the Meyers Beach Rd. There we parked and hiked in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore along the Lakeshore Trail out to the sea caves. The picture is of me standing near the natural bridge that crosses the sandstone rock formation. The hike out was nice, the weather perfect for a hike in the woods on a crisp fall day.

After we returned to the parking lot we had a picknik with some cheese, sausage, crackers and a bit of Wrenwood zinfandel. Yum.

From there we were off to Pinehurst Inn where we spent Friday and Saturday nights. It was a great place to stay. Not only did a friend of mine grow up in the house, but they are big into the concept of sustainability, going as far as to develop and implement a "Plan for sustainable operations." Pretty cool stuff.

On Friday night we ate bouillabaisse at Good Thyme Bistro and Catering in Washburn. On Saturday we visited Eckels Pottery and a variety of other shops in a quiet downtown Bayfield. Saturday night we had a huge, gourmet dinner at the Rittenhouse Inn. Tambrey had squash soup and a seared scallops entre. I had a vegetable tomato soup and a filet mignon with a very flavorful bercy sauce. I'm not sure what a bercy sauce is, but I'm going to have to find out.

Returning home we had snow on US Hwy 2 before we got to Iron River. Looks like winter has arrived!

Great Lakes Basic Training

2005-10-22T09:12:00.000-05:00

10/22/05 -- Two Harbors, MN
I just returned from Two Days in the Big City. The main purpose of the trip was to attend an all-day workshop/training session originally called "Great Lakes 101" but the presenters from the Delta Institute started calling it "Great Lakes Basic Training" because they felt like they were really throwing a lot of stuff at us in a very short time. The meeting was held at the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, the schedule of the day didn't provide much opportunity to get out into the refuge but the picture above is from the overlook behind the building. There was a telescope set up to look down to the river where humdreds of ducks and geese were swimming.

The workshop was good but it left me thinking that there were probably other people, not there on Friday, that should hear some of the material covered. We talked about both the resource and govenance aspects of the Great Lakes Region and I couldn't help but think that a regular college course covering these topics would be pretty interesting. I wonder if anyone offers such a thing or if UMD would be interested in some sort of interdisciplinary course on the topic. I'll have to look into it.

Edge of the Wilderness Grouse Hunt

2005-10-17T09:26:00.000-05:00

10/17/2005 -- Two Harbors, MN
Arrived back at home yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m. after camping for a couple of days on the edge of the BWCA in the Superior National Forest. We camped Friday and Saturday night at Baker Lake campground and spent our days hiking around looking for spruce grouse, ruffed grouse and woodcock. I got one ruffed grouse and a couple of timberdoodles. The weather was much nicer than last year when the wind was howling and blowing us off our feet. The wind was blowing a bit this year but the temperatures were warmer and we had some good hunting opportunities.

Last day in Ohio

2005-10-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

10/3/2005 -- Two Harbors, MN
Our last full day in Ohio was on Wednesday September 28. We had meetings most of the day, focusing on State-by-State reports of highlights from the past year; facilitated breakout sessions on different topics (grant administration, permitting, federal consistency, and outreach/education); and a session on 'regional coordination'. Follwing all that we got a chance to get out and see some more of Ohio's coastal resources with a tour of Magee Marsh, Crane Creek State Park, and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. The picture is from the refuge. We took a big bus way back into the refuge where people don't usually go. There were lots of herons and egrets, ducks and geese and a few raptors including immature bald eagles, and red-tailed hawks.

After the tour we had reservations for dinner at MonAmi Restraunt and Historic Winery. It was a buffet style dinner but the food was good and the local cabernet franc made a good, casual accompaniment.

On Thursday morning we left the hotel about 6 a.m. eastern time. The trip home was fortunately uneventful and we arrived back at the Duluth airport a bit after noon.

Battle of Lake Erie

2005-09-28T06:09:00.000-05:00

9/27/2005 -- Huron Ohio
Yesterday afternoon we all took a boat over to South Bass Island, site of Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial National Monument. This Monument commemorates a decisive naval victory in Lake Erie during the War of 1812 in which Commodore Perry defeated the British Navy. (Its a good thing for the Americans that Horatio wasn't in command of the British vessels.) From the top of the very tall monument building visitors can look over the small arcipeligo and see where the battle took place.

The Monument also had a small theater where we were able to see a film about the Battle of Lake Erie. I found a couple of books describing the battle and the ships involved to bring home.

After the visit to the National Monument we got a guided tour of the Ohio SeaGrant's Stone Laboratory on Gibralter Island.

Sheldon Marsh

2005-09-27T11:36:00.000-05:00

9/27/2005 -- Huron Ohio
Clint and I got up early enough to join a very small group of meeting participants on the 7:00 nature hike to Sheldon Marsh, an Ohio state Nature Preserve next to the conference center. We hiked out to the beach, just missing the sunrise over Lake Erie.

The temperature was nice but the humidity must have been in the 90% range. Still it was a nice walk. Lots of waterfowl and other birds moving around. I'm regretting my decision to leave my binoculars at home.

Old Woman Creek

2005-09-26T15:47:00.001-05:00

9/26/2005 -- Huron Ohio

Finding Old Woman Creek NERR was pretty easy. It's not far from the hotel. The 1 mile loop trail and estuary overlook was a nice change from sitting. There are some neat old oaks, black walnut and hickory as well as prolific hawthorns.

We saw chickadees, blue jays, great blue herons, and great egrets too. The photo shows a large stand of water lotus in the middle left and the exotic phragmites or common reed in the background.

Clint tried to take a piture of an egret through the binoculars on the observation deck. They didn't work too well as a telephoto lens.

Traveling thru Minneapolis

2005-09-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

9/26/2005 -- Huron Ohio
We ended up with a bit of a re-route this morning. Instead of flying to Detroit we got hit with a flight delay and a re-route through Minneapolis. The picture is of downtown Minneapolis through the airplane window. You can see the Humphry Dome and the Mississippi River.

We left Duluth at about 7:00 a.m rather than 6:20 a.m. Getting into Cleveland about 11:00 Duluth-time. We checked in to the hotel, then ran around finding just about every closed restraunt in Huron. We finnaly ended up a Burger King. :-(

Destination: Lake Erie

2005-09-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

9/23/05 -- Two Harbors, MN
Next week takes me, Clint, and Karla off to Cleveland and then Old Woman Creek National Estuarine research Reserve for the Great Lakes regional meeting of coastal programs. We'll be staying at Sawmill Creek in Huron Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie.

Dipping a toe

2005-09-23T13:06:00.000-05:00

9/23/05 -- Two Harbors, MN
Here is my first exploratory toe-dipping into the world of blogs. It seems a bit narcacissitic, but hopefully, it will be more useful than not. We'll see.

My interest in doing this largly stems from my work as Program Manager for Minnesota's Lake Superior Coastal Program. Most of the posts here will likely relate to that. However, coastal issues seem to be more and more in the news so maybe I'll range farther afield as issues warrant.

The Coastal Program is currently seeking proposals for projects to receive grant funding. Check out the Coastal Program web site for application materials.