University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Integration and Application Network

Communicate Better, Empower Change

Project Highlights

Rio Grande Resilient Basin Report Card

Project Highlights

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coral Reef Ecosystem Status and Trends Reports

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation Program is investing significant funding to support a National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan throughout the U.S. Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean coral reef areas. The Integration and Application Network understands that a key component of this plan is periodic national-level status and trends reporting. Such reporting will be required to communicate and evaluate the efficacy of place-based investments in coral reef conservation.

Project Highlights

Development of the Verde River Watershed Report Card

The first Verde River Watershed Report Card is the collective effort of dozens of stakeholders through the Verde watershed. Indicators in the report card were selected to assess the health of three different values in the watershed: water, habitat, and communities.

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Chesapeake Bay receives a C- in 2019 Report Card

The Integration and Application Network has been producing the annual Chesapeake Bay report card, a geographically detailed and integrated assessment of Chesapeake Bay health, since 2006. It is the definitive source for ecosystem health status in the Bay and tidal tributaries. In 2019, for the first time, watershed health indicators are assessed and graded for 23 reporting regions throughout the 64,000 square-mile watershed.

This is the first year the watershed has been scored. Overall, the Chesapeake watershed scored 60%, a B-. Chesapeake Bay scored 44% in 2019. This is the lowest score and the first C- since 2011. Moderate and poor scores in 2019 were mainly due to above average temperatures almost every month of the year. 

More information about indicators and grades is available at ecoreportcard.org

WHAT'S NEW

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In the Pacific Northwest the leaves are changing colors, the mountains are capped with snow, and salmon have once again returned to the streams and rivers to spawn.

Looking through the Lens of Environmental Justice
Katrina Kelly recaps the environmental justice lecture from the MEES Environment and Society course.

U.S. corals stressed about current events
A national rollup of jurisdictional coral reef reports reveals reefs are fair, but vulnerable and declining.
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