Our second community workshop, held on October 19 at the Rock Creek Church Hall in Chance, served as another great opportunity for our project stakeholders to interact and learn from each other.  The workshop provided stakeholders with general project updates as well as a time for the collaborative research project groups (“CRPs”:  heritage, flooding, and marsh restoration) to meet and plan. A few key presentations outlined work-to-date that we’ve accomplished on the project.

Brian Needelman discussed several features of scientific work related to ditch-drained marsh restoration, geospatial data, marsh accretion (marsh peat growing upwards), and land subsidence (land sinking down). Brian also stressed that sea-level rise is not a new phenomenon in our region--he played a great video clip showing 15,000 years of change for the Delmarva peninsula, and how the land mass has been getting smaller and smaller.

Other presentations included one by economist Lisa Wainger, who outlined some preliminary findings drawn from the group activity at our previous workshop.  She was able to give us some initial ideas about what socio-ecological services are prioritized by the stakeholder community. Jo Johnson presented on plans to begin conducting interviews related to socio-ecological resilience of the Deal Island Peninsula area. Sasha Land and Natasha Leuchanka discussed using our website and other web-based interfaces as potential resources for the conduct and promotion of our work on the Deal Island Marsh and Community Project. If you have any ideas about how we should better communicate the work we’re doing- let us know!

The CRPs met twice during our day-long workshop, first to prioritize intersets and then to begin developing implementation plans. With everyone’s busy schedule it’s difficult to get going on projects that have a shared workload. The CRPs are now in the process of finalizing some work plans that identify their group priorities, create timelines, and identify resources needed in order for the groups to move forward. The workshop concluded with the CRPs presenting their ideas.

The workshop was a big success because everyone gained a better idea of the scientific work that the project has undertaken and how that science is linked to the collaborative work that the CRPs intend to do. While the CRP groups are small, each has within it a diversity of people from different backgrounds. Conversation was lively and everyone seemed pleased by the discovery of common ground. The delicious fried chicken and mac and cheese for lunch probably helped too!