Dear Project Stakeholders and Participants:

It has been a busy month! See below for details on visits from student groups and reporters who have taken an interest in DIPP and the Deal Island area. We will be sure to share forthcoming news articles with you once they become available. We are also sad to report that DIPP’s director, Jo Johnson, will be moving on from DIPP to start her next adventure at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies. Congratulations and best of luck to Jo! Thank you for all that you’ve done for the Project. See below for some other updates, including news of ditch cleaning in Oriole, upcoming renovations to the CBNERRS-MD field station off Drawbridge Rd., and links to some newly published articles from Project stakeholders. We’d also like to remind everyone that the website now has two community forums available to anyone interested in continuing discussions and developing action plans for ditch maintenance and shoreline erosion in between DIPP gatherings. Visit our resource page to get involved!

Sincerely,

The DIPP Team

(NIST) as an Earthquake Risk Mitigation Policy Analyst. Her position is a one-year Science and Technology Policy Fellowship provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. NIST is the lead federal agency in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program and Jo will bring social science perspective to their work related to reducing and communicating regarding earthquake risks. Jo is very excited about using all that she has learned working on the DIPP project in a multi-stakeholder and community based initiative to inform work with communities across the United States.

The group started at Wenona Harbor, where Michael and Jo gave an overview of the area and DIPP. Next, they visited Island Seafood, where they met Danny Ray Webster and Angie to see some crab floats, and learn about peeler crabs and the marketing of soft shell crabs. Though it was downpouring, they also visited the Deal Island shoreline at the end of Crowell Rd. to learn about the erosion problems there and the proposed shoreline project. On their way to the Skipjack Heritage Museum, Michael and Jo pointed out the Joshua Thomas Chapel and briefly explained the significance of the chapel and Methodism in the area. Finally, BB Blythe and Nancy Goldsmith graciously met the group at the museum and shared a great deal about the local history and heritage. The students, who were staying in Chincoteague to learn more about environmental science, were very interested in the problems facing the Deal Island area. They reported that they very much enjoyed their visit, and were grateful for the opportunity to learn from all the locals about the Deal Island area. (Photo credit: Theresa Crawford of Counterpart International, D.C.)

CBNERR-MD Awarded NOAA Funds to Begin Work at Drawbridge Farm

The Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve was awarded a grant through NOAA's Procurement, Construction and Acquisition Program to improve the Drawbridge Farm property for research and educational usage. Funds will be utilized to remove select outbuildings, improve water and road access and design a new field station for the site. Funds are available in October and CBNERR-MD will keep the community apprised of progress through this newsletter. Stay tuned!

Ditch Maintenance Update

We have cleaned ditches! Michael Paolisso snapped these photos on Jerusalem Rd. in Oriole earlier this month while the County was there digging out clogged ditches. Let us know if you notice other ditches in the area being cleaned out. We've created a discussion forum on the website, where you can upload photos and help us track where action is happening. 

News of Interest

National study puts timeline on impact of sea-level rise in Maryland and Virginia (Washington Post, 7/14/2017)

What Can Be Done About Maryland and Virginia's Eroding Coasts? (Kojo Namdi Show, 7/20/2017): "A new study explains the effects of rising sea levels in coastal regions, including Maryland's Eastern Shore, and parts of Virginia. What are cities in our region doing to combat these events?"

Changing Chesapeake: A useful resource for understanding how climate change is playing out across our region, and what implications these changes may have for local economies, human health, and environments. 

New Publications

Heritage Conversations: Engaging with a Coastal Community through a Cemetery Mapping Project (Sarah Hartge. Practice Anthropology, Summer 2017, vol. 3, no. 39)

Abstract: This paper discusses a project focused on building a virtual cemetery for a coastal community. Located on the Chesapeake Bay where the marshes are migrating and the water is rising, the communities of the Deal Island peninsula center on their religious institutions and many consider those who have passed on to be still part of their congregations. Through mapping a cemetery and gathering stories and photographs to publish online, I created a resource for the Rock Creek United Methodist Church and other area institutions to use to engage with their heritage, both past and present. In addition to building a heritage resource that would serve its community, I also sought to understand heritage outside of the academic setting and examine how a project like this one can build connections between the past and the present.

Coastal Community Values for Marsh-Dependent Socioecological Services Revealed through a Systematic Qualitative Approach (Lisa Wainger, Anna McMurray, Michael Paolisso, Katherine J. Johnson, Brian Needelman. Agricultural & Resource Economics Review, 2017) *now available 

Abstract: A qualitative ranking method, Q methodology, was used to assess stakeholder priorities for socioecological services derived from coastal marshes and communities. The goal was to reveal strength of concerns for and tradeoffs among effects of coastal resilience strategies. Factor analysis identified three perspectives that formed a spectrum from high to low priorities on intangible services. Academic and government stakeholders were more likely than local residents to prioritize intangible services, but stakeholder views were diverse. A collaborative learning process promoted some alignment of views and academics showed the most movement – towards residents’ perspectives. Q-sort appeared effective at efficiently synthesizing broad concerns.