Dear DIPP Stakeholders,

Below you will find the latest DIPP news and updates, including an announcement about an upcoming community conversation in August. We hope you'll join us! It'll be a great opportunity to learn more about some of our ongoing projects and to join the discussion about DIPP's future. We are also excited to share a just-released video from Maryland Sea Grant, which summarizes some of our work from the Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience Project. Be sure to check out the video below. In addition to these updates, the DIPP team would like to propose a slight adjustment to DIPP's name to accommodate our transition from a research project focus and towards a sustained partnership of diverse stakeholders interested in supporting the resilience of the Deal Island Peninsula. To that end, we propose changing our title to the "Deal Island Peninsula Partnership." If you have any concerns, other suggestions, or an enthusiastic thumbs up you'd like to share with us on this potential change, please let us know! We'd love to hear your thoughts. As always, don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions and we look forward to seeing you in August. 

Sincerely,
Liz Van Dolah

DIPP Coordinator

Deal Island Shoreline Project Update

Maryland DNR continues to wait on permit approvals from Maryland Department of the Environment, which they anticipate will be available by the end of the summer. Construction is still expected to commence this fall. In the meantime, George Mason University and The Nature Conservancy are analyzing results of the wave attenuation and water level monitoring work that was done earlier this year. More detailed updates on the monitoring work and shoreline construction will be given at the upcoming August community conversation (details below).

If you have additional questions in the meantime, please get in touch with Nicole Carlozo, MD-DNR.

Photo Credit: MD-DNR

Update on Ditch Assessment and Improvement Activities

At the June 10th meeting, ATM went over the study's focus areas and scope of work. Letters have been mailed to residents in these areas to let them know of upcoming activities, which will include on-the-ground surveying and utilizing drones to assess the ditches. The study is expected to be underway this fall. Additional updates on this and other ditch improvement projects in the Deal Island Peninsula area will be provided at the upcoming August community conversation. 

Save the Date! August 12th Community Conversation

Collaborative Learning through Conversation: Addressing Climate Change in the Chesapeake Bay 

Watch a just-released video from Maryland Sea Grant that summarizes the value of a collaborative learning approach for tackling social and environmental challenges being exacerbated by climate change. This video was produced as part of DIPP's Engaging Faith Communities for Coastal Resilience project, which applied collaborative learning approaches to engage churches, government decision-makers, and NGOs living and working in Dorchester County, Wicomico County, and on the Deal Island Peninsula in climate change adaptation discussions. 

On the Front Lines of Climate Change:

Sentinel Sites and CBNERR-MD

By Kyle Derby, CBNERR Research Coordinator

Situated all around the coasts of the United States, National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) - of which Monie Bay is a part - are located in the best position to witness and measure the ways climate change impacts our coastal resources. To this end, the federal parent organization of the NERRs - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - identified “Sentinel Sites” within the nation that represented diverse environments, each having strong connections to the coastal areas and estuaries that defined them. Five sites across the country were ultimately chosen, the Hawaiian Islands, San Francisco Bay, the Northern Gulf of Mexico, the North Carolina Coast, and our own Chesapeake Bay. Each of these sentinel sites have formed a cooperative network of expertise that understands the needs of each region. The Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve of Maryland, as well as its companion reserve in Virginia, are active members of the Chesapeake Bay Sentinel Site Cooperative (CBSSC), which is coordinated by the Maryland Sea Grant. This cooperative also includes several members from local universities and federal agencies in the Chesapeake region.

The goals of the CBSSC are to use collected data to inform management decisions. Products currently in development include an inventory and map of all elevation study sites in the Chesapeake Bay to show the long term trends of the data collected there; as well as a mapping project, led by the US Geological Survey which will help identify wetland areas that are priorities for study or even restoration. The CBSSC hosted a marsh resilience summit in February 2019, which brought together scientists, local governments and other stakeholders in discussions on how to best protect marsh resources in the Chesapeake. 

In addition to the Sentinel Site Cooperatives, NERRs also uses its sentinel sites to answer specific scientific and management questions. Reserves are using current sentinel sites to monitor how climate change, specifically rising sea levels impact coastal habitat. In order for a NERR to become a sentinel site, they must develop a plan describing how they will utilize their current and future research infrastructure to answer how rising sea levels impact marsh habitat. Currently, the Jug Bay component of CBNERR participates as a sentinel site, and we will achieve this status for the Monie Bay component of the reserve by the end of 2019. Once completed, Monie Bay - as is already happening at Jug Bay - will be able to better monitor how its wetland habitats change as sea level rises. 

Both of these Sentinel Site efforts further the Reserve’s ability to measure how rising waters impact the marshes, waterways and upland areas of the Chesapeake Bay. Our increased understanding of these processes is critical in determining how we will be able to adapt to them in the future. The partnerships created through both the CBSSC, and the answers to the questions posed through the reserve system will ensure that the research being done at all of CBNERR will keep us on the front lines of our ever changing estuary.

A diagram of how rising sea level’s impact on marsh elevation is measured. A stable reference point with a known elevation (called a benchmark) allows elevations to be transferred to the changing water levels and wetland surfaces to monitor long-term changes. Establishing known elevation networks within a reserve is crucial to monitoring changes in wetland systems. Photo Credit: NOAA/NGS

Other News of Interest

• All about the Bay: Exploring history, heritage, and habitat at the Chesapeake Studies conference (Blog Post by Suzanne Spitzer, IAN UMCES): Michael Paolisso, Liz Van Dolah, Sasha Land, Jen Dindinger, and Andrew Webster shared the Deal Island Peninsula Project's collaborative approach with interested researchers at the Chesapeake Studies Conference, hosted June 5-7th at Salisbury University. Read more about the conference, and their presentation on DIPP through this blog post.