The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program will be reviewed Oct. 22-24, 2019, by a team convened by the National Sea Grant College Program. The review will be conducted at the Illini Center in Chicago, Illinois, and will consider all aspects of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s programs, including management and organization, performance, research, stakeholder engagement and collaborative activities, including those with various offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This notice invites you to participate in our review by emailing your comments about Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant to oar.sg-feedback@noaa.gov. Kindly send your comments at your earliest convenience and note that the comment period will end on Oct. 15, 2019, one week before the site review visit. Please include “Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant site review” in the subject line.
Thank you for assisting us by letting the review team hear from you.
We all know the Great Lakes are big and beautiful, but you may not know that after decades of industry along their shores, many communities in the region have been left with polluted waterways and degraded waterfronts. Now that much of this manufacturing activity is gone, many of these Areas of Concern are being cleaned up through federal, state and local partnerships. Much of this work is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Recently, National Geographic photographer Peter Essick spent some time documenting the sights, the people and the work taking place in these locations. These striking images provided an opportunity for the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network to tell some stories of restoration, revitalization and revival in this collective photo essay called Great Lakes Resurgence: Cleanup Efforts Bring Life to Local Waterfronts.
Forty fourth grade students from East Chicago spread out along the Grand Calumet River in May to learn about science and environmental stewardship. Through a series of hands-on, active learning stations, scientists taught students how life has returned to the previously degraded landscape. The field trip was part of the seventh annual Grand Calumet River Stewardship Day at the Seidner Dune and Swale Nature Preserve in Northwest Indiana. As these students head back to school and into the fifth grade, the hope is that—because of their participation in the stewardship day—they will have a renewed love for nature and a stronger tendency towards caring for the local environment as they grow older.
Scientists and agency leads joined the students at Roxana Marsh to help with fish identification, macroinvertebrate sampling, bird watching and dune and swale exploration. Special guests included Chris Korleski, director of the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, and Tomas Höök, director of Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG).
The stewardship day served as a celebration of a successful remediation and restoration process thus far for the river. “The Grand Calumet River is an Area of Concern, which means that it has environmental degradation, has pollution, and the habitat has been fragmented, lost or taken over by invasive species,” said Caitie Nigrelli, social scientist for IISG and the U.S. EPA, and organizer of the annual event. “We’re working together with a lot of state, federal and local partners to clean it up and restore it.
The Grand Calumet River was once called the most polluted river in America. Through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, 2 million cubic yards of river and wetland sediment have been removed or capped and 84 acres of habitat have been restored. “If you clean up a portion of a river or a lake, people want to come fish,” said Korleski. “Maybe somebody opens a bait shop, then somebody opens a coffee shop for the people who want to come fish. So, it’s not just the environmental aspects that are critically important to us, but [cleanup] helps restore communities economically as well. It gives people more options and more recreational opportunities. It’s a place that people want to be.”
Grand Calumet River Stewardship Day is a place-based education program and part of IISG’s efforts to connect students with local restored natural areas. The goal of the event is to increase students’ attachment and belonging to the Grand Calumet River and surrounding nature, heightening their sense of place and encouraging them to protect and care for the river.
Learn more about the Grand Calumet River and other Areas of Concern on Nigrelli’s website, Great Lakes Mud.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue University Extension.
There are more than 40,000 private ponds and lakes in Indiana, many of which are used for fishing and other recreations. Across the United States, people own more than 180 million acres specifically for the purpose of hunting and fishing. Landowners wishing to effectively manage their property for fishing and hunting will find value in a new Purdue Extension publication series that will serve as a comprehensive guide on pond and wildlife management.
Mitchell Zischke, a Purdue assistant professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant outreach specialist, has teamed up with Jarred Brooke, a wildlife Purdue Extension specialist, to lead a team of Purdue experts who plan on releasing comprehensive publications and guides on pond and wildlife management. The project will consist of two field guides, factsheets, videos and a new website: Pond and Wildlife Management.
“The need for this project was highlighted by biologists and managers at the Indiana DNR and by Purdue Extension educators,” said Zischke. “Project leads decided to join forces on ponds and wildlife, as many private landowners work to manage their lands for both outcomes.”
Jack Van Etten interned with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) as an undergraduate of Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. He is a senior majoring in Environmental Science with minors in Marine Biology and Global Communications. Funded by IISG and mentored by Kara Salazar, Van Etten was positioned at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
I spent my summer working with Purdue Extension and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, specializing in sustainable community development. During my internship, I gained experience working with counties across the State of Indiana, aiding them as they produced plans to develop rain gardens, deal with invasive species and promote sustainable efforts.
In my time with the program, I worked on the following projects:
Podcast Series – In order to prepare communities to go through the Purdue Extension planning process, I created an informative podcast series that could be used for introductory material. This podcast series covered subjects such as the social determinants of health, keys to healthy eating and active living, strategizing and crafting an action plan. I had never written or produced a podcast before, so it was interesting to work through that creation process.
Rain Garden Templates – Working with multiple counties, I developed a template for promoting rain gardens. This was focused around making information on depth, plants, shape, composition and drainage easier for the public to access, with the goal of inspiring communities to build more rain gardens to help with stormwater drainage.
County Planning – To deal with controlling the spread of invasive species, I assisted Pulaski County as they started to develop an invasive species plan. To do this, we assessed the strengths of the county, the goals that they wanted to accomplish and the best strategies to accomplish these goals. This was a process that should encourage and guide the county towards a system that will help quell the push of invasive species.
Before this internship, I was unfamiliar with sustainable practices in Indiana and the planning processes that must be undertaken to get those sustainable practices going. However, over the summer I gained experience with promoting sustainability and invasive species awareness, as well as the production of plans. During my time with the IISG and Purdue Extension programs, I also got practice with networking, improving my rhetoric in a business setting, learning graphic design and performing outreach in both casual and professional settings.
I leave this program to return to my senior year at Roger Williams University, where I am majoring in Environmental Science with minors in Marine Biology and Global Communications.
An Aquatic Invasive Species Networking Workshop hosted by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant will be held September 13, 2019 from 9am to 3pm at the Mathew Bieszczat Volunteer Resource Center in Chicago.
The workshop is intended to promote collaboration on aquatic invasive species (AIS) issues that impact organizations in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The workshop will provide an opportunity for these organizations to come together, share information, identify opportunities and barriers, and promote collaboration on AIS outreach, management and research. The goal of the workshop is to review the status of AIS resources in our region, connect participants with existing AIS resources and identify future resource needs.
People are familiar with recycling, using reusable containers, coffee cups and water bottles to cut down on waste products, and carpooling to leave a smaller carbon footprint. However, many people are unaware of the dangers they could be posing to the environment by flushing or throwing away unwanted, old or expired medicine. Caroline Bologna of HuffPost spoke with several experts—including Sarah Zack, pollution prevention specialist for Illinois Indiana Sea Grant and University of Illinois Extension—and wrote an article covering the issue: “How to Properly Dispose of Unused Medication.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Sea Grant Office are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2020 class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship program. Since 1979, the National Sea Grant College Program has provided one-year fellowships working in federal government offices in Washington, D.C. to over 1,300 early-career professionals. The 69 finalists, including two sponsored by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, in the 2020 class represent 27 of the 34 Sea Grant programs.
“With each year and class, we continue to be more impressed with the Sea Grant Knauss fellows. They bring fresh perspectives and experiences to the coastal and marine science and policy work happening in D.C., and they continue to raise the bar for us all,” said Jonathan Pennock, National Sea Grant College Program Director. “Congratulations to the 2020 Knauss finalists!”
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s sponsored finalists are Meredith Richardson and Emma Young.
Meredith Richardson
Meredith Richardson received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering with a minor in music from North Carolina State University and played on the women’s volleyball team during her undergraduate career. She has since completed a master’s in civil and environmental engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and is now working toward a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at UIUC. Richardson works as a research assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and as a head coach at Primetime Volleyball Club. Earlier this year, she was an Illinois Section Nominee for the Outstanding Collegiate Award from the Society of Women Engineers.
“I’m a fourth-year PhD student at UIUC in the Water Resources Engineering & Science program,” said Richardson. “My research interests revolve around modeling and systems analysis in the areas of critical zone science, hydrology, ecosystem dynamics, human influence and environmental economics. After graduation, I would love to work at the intersection of research outcomes and societal needs. I strive for a career that provides leadership in environmental policy and opportunity to shape policy development and future research directions at the national level.”
Emma Young
Emma Young received a bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is now working on a doctorate in biology from the University of Missouri–St. Louis and has completed a graduate certificate in global biodiversity and leadership. Young works as an avian stewardship plan coordinator for the Audubon Center at Riverlands & U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and she is a producer and host of The Story Collider Podcast. She also founded Science Distilled, a monthly happy hour and public lecture series in St. Louis.
Young studies avian malaria parasites, host and parasite interactions in the neotropical birds of Panama, and the roles that climate and habitat play in malaria infection. “I’m really excited to get the opportunity to delve into policy and marine science,” she said. “I’m an ornithologist and disease ecologist by training, and my dissertation involves everything from rainfall patterns to avian social habits—I love learning new things and broadening my understanding of the natural world! But what I care about more than anything else is doing science that can be used and shared; this can mean conserving habitats and species while also enhancing quality of life for the people who interact with those same systems. I hope that my experience in the Knauss fellowship helps me learn how to do that to the best of my ability, so I can continue to connect folks to the science going on around them every day.”
Knauss finalists are chosen through a competitive process that includes several rounds of review at both the state Sea Grant program and national levels. Students finishing Masters, Juris Doctor, and Doctor of Philosophy programs with a focus and/or interest in marine science, policy or management apply to one of the 33 Sea Grant programs. If applicants are successful at the state program level, their applications are then reviewed by a national panel of experts. This fall, the 2020 finalists will travel to Washington, D.C., to interview with several executive or legislative offices. Following placement, they will begin their fellowship in February 2020.
Executive appointments for the 2019 Knauss fellows included placements throughout the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as with Department of the Interior, National Science Foundation, U.S. Navy, and other agencies. Legislative placements included the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (Minority), the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Majority), the Senate Commerce Committee (Majority and Minority), the House Committee on Natural Resources (Minority), and several placements in both majority and minority offices.
The 2020 Knauss finalists will become the 41st class of the fellowship and will join a group of over 1,300 professionals who have received hands-on experiences transferring science to policy and management through one-year appointments with federal government offices in Washington, D.C.
Curious about the Knauss fellowship? The Knauss blog shares stories from the 2019 Knauss class on fellowship experiences and their journeys to D.C.
Placement of 2020 Knauss finalists as fellows is contingent on adequate funding in Fiscal Year 2020.
The Purdue Rainscaping Education Program has published a curriculum, led several state-wide workshops and contributed to a rain garden app, all designed to teach communities and residents around Indiana how to use sustainable landscaping to prevent polluted runoff from reaching bodies of water.
The curriculum—which has undergone extensive evaluation, improvements and external peer reviews since pilot testing in 2015-16—includes hands-on activities, interactive discussions and field trips to community rainscaping projects to deepen understanding. Participants learn about the benefits of rain gardens, how to design and plan a garden for their space, choosing plants, installation, maintenance and more.
“Our multidisciplinary rainscaping program covers landscape practices, such as rain gardens directing stormwater to be absorbed by plants and soils, that are of increasing interest among Extension clientele and also our conservation partners,” said Kara Salazar, assistant program leader and extension specialist for sustainable communities at Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Purdue Extension. Salazar co-leads the rainscaping program with John Orick, Purdue University Master Gardener state coordinator. Salazar and Orick collaboratively manage the program with a nine-member multidisciplinary team representing campus and state-wide county staff.
The program has facilitated nine 15-hour workshops for 176 participants throughout Indiana since 2016. These workshops give community members and leaders the knowledge and resources they need to implement rainscaping in residential or small public spaces. Extension specialists teach master gardeners, landscape and stormwater professionals, and agency staff members how to promote community awareness and education for rain garden planning, installation and maintenance. Additionally, introductory education presentations for state audiences have provided more than 400 participants with information on the benefits of rainscaping and how to get started with siting, sizing, designing and maintaining rain gardens.
Community members participating in the workshops gain experience by working together to create a demonstration rain garden in a public space. Custom designed interpretive signs are installed with each demonstration to promote education efforts. Participants are encouraged to attend as community teams to support implementation of public education programs and provide technical assistance for homeowners or small-scale public projects on completion of the training.
The program emphasizes connecting participants to resources and partners to support successful community projects tailored to local needs. A rain gardens map on a customized website, featuring an associated database, tracks state-wide rain garden installation projects and calculates related ecological benefits such as reduction in stormwater runoff.
Rain gardens installed as part of training workshops have the capacity to reduce runoff by a combined 319,720 gallons per year. Rain gardens that have been designed, facilitated or installed by participants or their partners will reduce runoff even more. This reduction in flow and associated nutrients can improve water quality.
To further grow the program, the team conducted its first train the trainer workshop for 15 Extension staff members in September of 2017. The goal of these workshops is to educate people throughout the state who can then host rain garden workshops in their communities using program materials. Participants were primarily Purdue Extension educators but also included University of Illinois Extension staff members who recognize the benefit of this program and have requested to implement it in Illinois. Plans are now underway to implement the program for Illinois communities.
“The value in the program lies in how it offers an alternative type of garden that can be beautiful as well as serve a purpose,” said Nikky Witkowski, a Purdue Extension educator in Lake County who has hosted the rainscaping education program there multiple times. “It shows what homeowners can easily do on their land or how commercial operations could use these practices to mitigate problems with stormwater runoff.”
The program will host two more rainscaping workshops in 2019. Salazar and the team will lead training on September 5-6 in Mt. Vernon at the Alexandrian Public Library (registration deadline August 26) and September 26-27 in Franklin at the Purdue Extension Johnson County office (registration deadline September 16).
Participants have reported that they are also using program resources to launch broader rain garden education programs in their own communities. Activities have included rain garden installations, tours, resident assistance community education programs, and exhibitor booths
In addition to finalizing the program curriculum and hosting workshops, the Purdue Rainscaping Education Program has contributed to a smartphone app named “Rain Garden.” The app is designed to help people plan and build rain gardens across America and is now customized with a specialized list of plants for Indiana. Through video tutorials, diagrams and tools, the app makes it easy to learn the basics of designing, installing and maintaining a rain garden.
Hoosiers can download Rain Garden for free through the Apple or Google app store. Created at the University of Connecticut, the app includes tools for determining soil type, measuring the area needed for a garden and managing multiple rain garden projects.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue University Extension.
IISG is hiring an experienced communication coordinator to oversee communication and lead efforts to develop and maintain programs and products that promote science-based knowledge and highlight IISG’s research, outreach and education efforts. Learn more at the #linkinbio.
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