The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), an international center of excellence for coastal research, is contributing its capabilities and assets to assist the citizens and states of the Gulf Coast and the Nation as whole in dealing with the catastrophic consequences of Hurricane Katrina. The Chesapeake Bay region and the Gulf Coast share in common highly productive but degraded coastal ecosystems and a long tradition of coastal research and education. We have a close kinship with our scientific colleagues in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Several of us, including me, are natives of the region. Many of our former students and colleagues work in the region and our scientists are involved in many collaborative research programs with Gulf scientists. We are offering help in a number of ways, from assistance in the relief effort by individual employees, to hosting faculty and graduate students temporarily displaced by the hurricane, to providing technical advice and assistance in the long-term efforts in coastal restoration. While Katrina is a tragedy for our Nation, it also presents us with the opportunity, even a requirement, to reevaluate how we live along the coast and the importance of maintaining and restoring natural environments. My colleagues and I will do our best to help meet that challenge.
Donald F. Boesch, President |
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Environmental Protection and Restoration
UMCES President Donald Boesch is the Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for the Lousiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Program (Corps of Engineers and State of Louisiana). He is coordinating the provision of technical advice by the committee and providing information and perspectives to the national news media.
The Center's Integration and Application Network is working with
Coastal Louisiana Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration (CLEAR) Model Program to develop and apply modeling and visualization tools to guide resoration of that ecosystem. |
Supporting the Work of Gulf Coast Scientists and Graduate Students
The Center's two marine laboratories are offering to provide laboratory or office space and limited dormitory accommodations for faculty, staff and graduate students from marine laboratories and universities closed as a result of Katrina. In this way, we hope to allow graduate students to continue their research and writing while remaining enrolled at their home institution. Please contact either:
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, Maryland
Horn Point Laboratory, Cambridge, Maryland
The National Association of Marine Laboratories has assembled a network of institutions throughout the country who can place scientists and students whose work has been disrupted.
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Source: Associated Press |
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