Participants

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Bill Hayden, VA DEQ (Chair)

Catherine Krikstan, UMCES (Vice Chair)

Stephanie Smith, ACB (Coordinator)

Joan Smedinghoff, CRC (Staff)

Greg Barranco, EPA

Jessica Blackburn, ACB

Shanita Brown, ACB

Kim Couranz, NOAA

Heather Dewar, USGS

Caroline Donovan, UMCES

Rachel Felver, ACB

Mary Gattis, ACB

Jennifer Greiner, USFWS

Mary-Angela Hardwick, ACB

Samantha Kappalman, STAR

Renee Kelly, STAC

Phil Miller, DNREC

Leila Mitchell, NY DEC

Krista Parra, DOD

Will Parson, ACB

Kristin Saunders, UMCES

Mark Schafer, MDE

Guy Stephens, UMCES

Tom Wenz, EPA

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Introduce Rachel Felver, CBP Communications Director

  1. Status Update: CBP Comm. Office Strategic Planning
  • Looking over RFP’s
  • Decision by end of the week
  1. Status Update: Watershed Agreement Work Plan Feedback
  • Haven’t received many comments
  • Comment period ends Monday, March 7th
  • Trout Unlimited plans to comment on brook trout work plan
  • To look at work plans, visit the Management Strategies Dashboard
  1. Communications Work Plan Release and Next Steps
  • Timeline:
  • March 25th: revised drafts due to Management Board
  • April 22nd: final revisions due
  • April 30th: final work plans posted
  • Who needs to know?
  • Oversight groups
  • Depends on the work plan—stewardship work plan needs to go to general public more than oversight groups
  • Habitat NGO’s: Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited
  • What other groups can we engage?
  • CAC and LGAC
  • Going beyond groups that were involved in the work plan creating
  • Anyone who was involved in the creation of the work plans
  • Implementers
  • People who have been involved in the writing of the plans, see the loop being closed
  • What are our messages?
  • The work plans aren’t as big of a story as the stories that will come out of them
  • Tease out story lines, tie back to work plans
  • Send out press release? Designate GIT experts to answer questions as they come in
  • Why do we want to communicate the work plans? Answer can help determine who we want to talk to
  • Reemphasizing public involvement, need for engagement at local level
  • Emphasizing incremental nature of the work plans, immediate next steps
  • Communicate how we have expanded, highlight partners
  • 1. Enlist new partners and 2. increaseaccountability—both map to different audiences
  • We haven’t done a good job of identifying environmental justice groups in the watershed, to invite them to comment, contribute expertise
  • What’s different about this agreement? Reason why CAC recommended that work plans highlight specific actions
  • Communicate Expert Panel findings and tieto work plans, partner activities
  • “Pollution diet”
  • Negative, restrictive words
  • Work plans are the opposite of a diet; they’re a positive set of options, preventative medicine, “Nutrisystem”
  • “Chesapeake blueprint”
  • How can we continue to share our work?
  • GIT liaisons come with update from work plan work that’s happening
  • Not necessarily every month, but as things come up
  • Sent out reminder with agenda
  • Look at monthly Management Board updates for story ideas
  1. Workgroup Priorities
  • Expand membership and improve participation
  • Engage GITs in supporting their communications needs
  • Pave the two-way street between individual partners and the broader partnership
  • Promote best practices
  1. Round Robin/GIT Updates
  • EPA/GIT 3: Water Quality
  • Federal Progress Report: not done, taken off the website
  • March 7th: Lower Susquehanna River Watershed Assessment release
  • Supreme Court isn’t hearing TMDL case
  • CBP Web Team
  • ChesapeakeProgress launched on the 17th, widely covered
  • NOAA
  • Pulled four of the ten CBIBS buoys because of weather
  • Working on redeploying them mid-late March
  • GIT 1: Fisheries
  • NOAA hosted Oyster Summit: talked about aquacultures, need for more oysters in the bay, etc.
  • DOD
  • April Earth Day Event: want to do oyster restoration event
  • General
  • Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week, 2nd week of June
  • Clean the Bay Day: June 4th, Tanner Council
  • STAC
  • Monday/Tuesday, March 7-8th: “The Development of Climate Projections for Use in the Chesapeake Bay Program Assessments” workshop will be taking place at the Westin in Annapolis, Md.
  • Monday March 7th: STAC will be releasing a finalized copy of the STAC workshop entitled “Re-plumbing the Chesapeake Watershed: Improving Roadside Ditch Management to Meet TMDL Water Quality Goals”

Next meeting: April 7th

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