Greetings,

It has been too long since my last post! I have been very busy here at the WA State Dept of Ecology with my Fellow’s project. I have made great strides creating Soft Shoreline Stabilization guidance for local jurisdictions in Puget Sound. I spent a long spring and summer writing, and my guidance is now undergoing review from local jurisdiction staff. It is very important to me that my audience, local jurisdiction staff, have the opportunity to review and comment on my guidance.

Creating this guidance has been a great learning experience, and I have had wonderful experience talking with local jurisdictions, state employees, and other stakeholders in soft shorelines. I am looking forward to wrapping up the review process, incorporating comments, and completing my guidance by Spring 2014! I am planning to spend my last couple of months as a fellow participating in outreach and training related to my guidance.

In addition to writing, I’ve also been able to attend forums, conferences, and other meetings where I have been a part of the soft shoreline discussion. Last week, I presented at the National Coastal Conference held by the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. I also lead a field trip as a part of a training for real estate professionals on soft shorelines put on by the Coastal Training Program and Washing State University Extension in early October.

On a separate note, I, along with some partners at Oregon Sea Grant, were awarded a grant from OSG to create a mobile website that will host the NOAA Trust Species and Aquatic Pesticides Toxicity Database I created while completing my M.S. at OSU. It has been a great experience so far, and I’m excited that my database will be publicly available in a user-friendly format!

That is all for now. Next week I am attending the Coastal and Estuarine  Research Federation’s annual conference in San Diego. Hoping to catch up with some current and past OSG’ers while I’m there!

Until next time,

Kelsey Gianou