Maryland

With $100,000 from NOAA, the National Aquarium in Baltimore has kicked off a Chesapeake Bay habitat restoration program to support community efforts to restore critical fisheries. The award will be used to create and restore nearly 20 acres of wetlands, improve shoreline stabilization, create habitat and engage the public. A portion of the funds will also be used to expand a minority student internship program between the aquarium and Morgan State University.


Courtesy of National Aquarium of Baltimore

Working with the aquarium and NOAA, faculty and students will monitor water quality and collect data on temperature, nutrients, dissolved oxygen and salinity. Using the most current technology, students will analyze the data following the strict protocols of NOAA scientists. This hands-on connection to the Chesapeake reflects funds provided from NOAA Fisheries through its Community-Based Restoration Program.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration


Colorado

By all accounts, NOAA's Boulder staff did a bang-up job in showcasing what might be for young women attracted to science. Continuing its innovative series for young women intrigued by the possibilities of scientific careers, the Women in Science program brought nearly 40 Wyoming students to Boulder where they were exposed to the inspiring successes of female scientists.

At the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Wendy Abshire, a storm chaser turned operational meteorology instructor, shared her passion with the entire group. Students then visited the center's new 3-D atmospheric simulator. Seeing tornadoes in 3-D was a hit of the trip.

The junior high students, including 12 boys, took part in the daily weather briefing given by Tom Lefebvre, toured the Space Environment Center with Larry Combs, and were shown around the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory by Tom Conway. The National Center for Atmospheric Research pulled out all stops with simulations in the 3-D visualization lab of thunderstorm development, clear air turbulence and even wildfires. Ann Bradford and Rene Mumoz helped steer the day.

Women in Science was co-founded by Bill Parker, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service's Cheyenne forecast office, and Paul Crips, a local science teacher. For more about the Boulder visit, http://www.crh.noaa.gov/cys/wis/2001/Boulder/index.html.


Michigan



The latest automatic weather station deployed by the National Data Buoy Center is atop a lighthouse. The Lake St. Clair Lighthouse near Detroit is now home to the 57th station of the Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN). Operating in waters across the nation, C-MAN stations give forecasters hourly reports about wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, and more. Some also measure water temperature and tides. While there are already weather-reporting buoys in the lake, they do not operate from mid-November until April. Greg Mann, of the National Weather Service's Detroit forecast office, said "the worst storms usually occur in late fall or early spring." Winds speeds reported by the new station are also higher than the nearby buoys. These are the winds that bigger ships experience. http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov


Florida




In Madeira Beach, during one very full day, NOAA Fisheries Chris Smith talked to 150 7th grade science students in six classes. He interacted with the students about protecting natural resources, keeping them alive and healthy, NOAA's work for the nation, and careers in marine science.





Patricia Schmidt, of the National Weather Service's Key West forecast office, caught this bald eagle on camera. The eagle landed on the forecast office's upper air dome.



California

NOAA Fisheries has launched two more community initiatives in the southwest region. Rod McInnis is acting regional administrator. Community-based eelgrass restoration in the Channel Islands will help rehabilitate habitat essential to the health of fisheries. Funded through NOAA Fisheries, the ChannelKeeper project will restore an historic eelgrass bed. Eelgrass, a type of seagrass which grows in beds in shallow bays and lagoons, supports complex food webs. In California, eelgrass beds are nurseries for many common and commercially important fish. Although relatively untouched by pollution, the eelgrass bed targeted for this project, was devoured by a population explosion of sea urchins after the strong 1983 El Nino.

Also funded through NOAA Fisheries Community-Based Restoration Program, two community-level restoration projects have been designed to fairly quickly improve northern California coastal stream habitats. The aim is to improve and restore waterways key to salmon, steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout. One project will repair several fish migration barriers, allowing native fish to return to their spawning grounds. The second project will reduce stream sedimentation caused by roads in the watershed of two counties. Abandoned logging roads and stream crossings will be removed.

A four-foot drop at this northern California site prevented coho salmon and steelhead trout from migrating upstream to their historic spawning sites. With help from the NOAA Restoration Center, a series of rock step pools were created at the site, restoring upstream fish passage. Senior citizens from an adjacent mobile home park video taped the project and helped plant native plants at the site. With the aim of documenting successful fish passage, junior and senior high students will monitor the work. This portion of the restoration efforts was completed in October.

Photos by Leah Mahan, NOAA Restoration Center

Texas



NOAA Fisheries' Southeast Science Center Galveston Laboratory was cited for outstanding public outreach programs by the Mid-Continent Federal Laboratory Consortium, an unusual honor for a smaller federal agency. Lab staff were organized hundreds of volunteers to help restore coastal wetlands, developed a broad sea turtle education program, formalized a partnership with local school district, and crafted an award-winning exhibit about the history of shrimp fishing in cooperation with Texas Sea Grant. Roger Zimmerman, (right), director of NOAA Fisheries Galveston Laboratory, accepted the award. Shown (left to right) are Susan Sprake, the Federal Laboratory's regional coordinator; Tom Meyer, of Los Alamos National Lab; Gary Hareland, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Harold Metcalf, the consortium's originator.


Mississippi



NOAA Corps Ensign Andrew Hall (left) puts Mississippi State University students to work on NOAA's GORDON GUNTER. In waters south of Mississippi and Alabama, the students recorded data on the fish--such as quantity, size, weight, age--and other catch caught in trawl nets, and then compared it to the catch on NOAA's OREGON II to correlate fisheries data between the two vessels. This helps scientists determine whether a difference in catches between the two vessels is due to changes in fish populations or because of differences between the vessels. In addition to the U.S., students were from Scotland and Malaysia.

Maine



The town of Fort Fairfield is New England's first StormReady community, a designation given by NOAA's National Weather Service to communities who plan proactively. There are now 309 24-hour StormReady communities in 39 states. In flood-prone Fort Fairfield, weather service staff from the Caribou forecast office forged a partnership with the town and Maine's state police. NOAA Weather Radios receivers are also now installed in every school and public building. Shown (left to right) are Hendricus Lulofs, warning coordination meteorologist; Mike Eisensmith, StormReady coordinator; U.S. Representative John Balducci; and Larry Gabric, meteorologist in charge. Weather service offices are in Caribou, Maine.

Washington



In Seattle, all 11 members of NOAA's Western Administrative Support Center staff helped clean up a children's center during the area's annual Day of Caring. You can see them scraping and painting at http://www.wasc.noaa.gov/internal/general/CaringDay/Caring.htm.

Long Beach has just been designated as the second TsunamiReady community in the nation. Ocean Shores, Washington is the first. At the awards ceremony, Long Beach was honored for establishing evacuation routes and safe zones, ensuring that vital information is provided to schools and the community generally, and creating opportunities to educate about tsunamis and other weather hazards.



Steve Todd (right), meteorologist-in-charge of Portland, Oregon's National Weather Service Forecast Office, is with emergency manager Stephanie Fritts and Long Beach Mayor Dale Jacobsen.

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Date Last Updated:03/06/02