Tommi Drum's blog

The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders (ACFS) is soliciting proposals including expressions of interest, statements of qualifications, and cost quotations from highly skilled environmental conflict resolution practitioners (the candidate) with substantial Environmental Conflict Resolution skills to provide independent neutral facilitation services for Governing Board and Committee meetings. The nature of the program includes working with a diverse and large group of stakeholders, along with numerous state and federal agencies with interests in the ACF Basin.

Proposals are due on June 30. For more information look at our Requests for Proposals page under the Opportunities Tab or Click Here for the full RFP.

Crassostrea virginica, the Eastern oyster fishing season ends on March 31st. This season, because the oyster stock has been depleted by overfishing, pollution and diseases, the Maryland Natural Resources Police have been busy patrolling waters and suspending fishing licenses with a new urgency.

This morning the Washington post article, "As oyster war heats up, Maryland cracks down on poachers," begins;

March 19th is the deadline to apply to be among a select number of exhibitors at the Technology Fair that will be taking place concurrent with the opening reception of the bi-annual USIECR conference: ECR 2010 in Tucson. Exhibitors will be chosen that demonstrate new and innovative technologies and how these enhance and support collaborative environmental processes.

Back in December Colin posted:

This is a great opportunity to get any cutting-edge ECR technologies in front of the movers and shakers in the field. The conference usually draws between 300-400 practitioners, agency staff, NGO's and others, so it’s a great opportunity to educate and reach out to folks.

The New York Times reports that the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY has been listed as a superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency, which proposed the Superfund designation last April at the urging of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, made its decision after a long public comment period that involved more than 50 meetings with city officials, developers, community groups and others. Nine other Superfund sites across the country were also designated on Tuesday.

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park In collaboration with George Mason University, is offering a short course this May on natural resource conflicts. The Conservation Conflict Resolution Course will takes place at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (formerly CRC) in Front Royal, Virginia, USA, about two hours from Washington, D.C., and adjacent to Shenandoah National Park on May 13-22, 2010.

You can download a PDF announcement for this course and learn about other training opportunities here.

TIME magazine reported this week that the White House convened an "Asian Carp Summit" on Monday, because;

Asian carp are particularly dangerous. Native to China and parts of Southeast Asia, the freshwater fish have been cultivated for aquaculture for more than 1,000 years, often raised in submerged rice paddies. Catfish farmers in the U.S. imported Asian carp decades ago to eat up the algae in their ponds; the fish slowly escaped into the wild and have been making their way up the Mississippi River. They are eating machines; bighead carp can grow incredibly quickly and reproduce rapidly as well. "They just eat so much," says David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. "They're like the locusts of the river."

Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service reports a recent forum, co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, highlighted a new CRS publication, "Water and Conflict: Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development." Read the PDF here.

Speaking with William Hall, an adjunct professor in the conflict resolution studies program at Georgetown University in Washington Pattison recounts,

Nominations are now being accepted for the first "Innovation in Technology and ECR" Award. The award will recognize new and innovative applications of technologies within collaborative environmental processes. The Award will be presented at the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution’s ECR 2010 conference to be held in May 2010 in Tucson, Arizona. Nominated projects will also be featured in an "Innovations Gallery" during the event

To make nominations check out the full announcement. Note that the deadline is 1/22.

Google labs is now offering "complete coverage" of on-going news stories in a new living stories page.

The Living Stories project is an experiment in presenting news, one designed specifically for the online environment. The project was developed by Google in collaboration with two of the country's leading newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

For now, The Post is launching three such pages, on health-care reform, D.C. schools and the Washington Redskins. The Times has five, devoted to Afghanistan, executive compensation, global warming, swine flu and health care.

Last week Foreign Policy was investigating "Who Killed Copenhagen." Today an interim agreement was given new life because "Obama is coming to Copenhagen." He has committed to making a one-day stop-over and will carry with him a commitment from the U.S. to specific short-term targets for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The Washington Post reports: