-Remind us what your project is: My project is to create a summarized report of the visitor intercept surveys that were conducted at the Oregon Marine Reserves from 2012-2015.

-What have you been doing in your first few weeks on the job? My first few weeks I’ve been reading relevant literature and reading about the Marine Reserves history (when it was created, how the surveys were administered, etc.). I’ve been attending the weekly Marine Reserves Program team meetings and the Human Dimensions team meetings as well. I’ve just received the synthesized data of the surveys on Wednesday so I’m starting to write the report now.

-Describe your daily routine in the time of COVID-19 remote (or in person) work:

Do you work 8 hours straight? I don’t but I think I’m going to possibly try that next week to optimize productivity.

Do you multitask? I do in a way. I think if my brain starts getting burnt out from reading one thing, I will switch things up and go through other material.

Do you have “coffee” with colleagues/co-workers/other interns? I don’t but I’m open to it! I joined in on Angela’s, Jenna’s, and Em’s last coffee hour this morning and that was great to check in with the other scholars and see how they were doing.

How often do you check in with your supervisor? I check in with him in the beginning of every week. We were doing Monday at 1030 am but sometimes push it to Tuesdays afternoon if our schedule can’t accommodate the Monday morning meeting.

How often are team meetings? Team meetings are every week as well. I meet with the Human Dimensions team every Wednesday at 11am for about an hour and a half then the weekly Marine Reserves Program team meetings are also on Wednesdays but at 130pm till 3pm.

How do you stay motivated (exercise breaks, phone calls with friends, walking meetings…)? To stay motivated I make lists. I write down what I need to read and get done. I also try to make sure I have a clean work space before I begin doing work so I’m not distracted by any messes around me.

-What is one downside or your COVID-19 work routine? This is a huge downside but one downside of my COVID-19 work routine is not being able to interact with people face-to-face. I’m sure many others feel the same way. I do appreciate we have Zoom and other forms of meeting with others still but it’s definitely not the same as in-person interaction!   

-What is one upside of your COVID-19 work routine? One upside is that even though we are all doing remote work, I am still able to network and meet new people, and possibly meet people I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet if I was doing an in-person internship. I think that more people are willing to do meetings because of COVID. Mostly all of us are still doing remote work so I think that people are freer than they’d normally be.

One of the most interesting things about my fellowship is that while I technically work for the West Coast Ocean Alliance (WCOA) and West Coast Ocean Data Portal (WCODP), my duties require that I interact frequently with staff from federal agencies, state governments, and tribal governments, and liaise with them on specific projects. One project that I am working on at the moment is the development of an Oregon Offshore Wind Planner tool for the State of Oregon and Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM), which is being hosted by the WCODP.

BOEM is the federal agency responsible for for issuing leases for renewable energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and they have a Renewable Energy Authorization Process that they engage in before any decisions about leases are made in an area. BOEM must coordinate with governmental partners for this process, and the primary way that they do so is through Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Forces. These Task Forces consist of federal agencies, state governments, local governments and federally recognized tribes; there are currently fourteen Task Forces in the United States. While Oregon held its first Task Force meeting in 2011, they paused meetings for several years until September 2019. At this meeting, BOEM and the State of Oregon announced their intention to begin an offshore wind planning process, which could take 5 – 10 years and eventually culminate in the construction of offshore wind operations off the coast of Oregon— or, depending on the input from state, local, and tribal governments, and stakeholders— nothing at all. Since it is an effort that is ultimately about building trust amongst all of these groups, the beginning of this process involves a lot of planning and analysis— and the collection of lots of data and input from interested parties and stakeholders.

In order to publicize and receive feedback on their strategy to gather and analyze data, the Task Force produced a Draft Data Gathering and Engagement Plan, which they presented at a remote Task Force meeting in June 2020 and received comments on for several weeks afterward. In this plan, the Task Force outlines their intention to use the West Coast Ocean Data Portal as a platform to house a map-viewer tool that highlights all the data to be used in the planning process, and that could lead to the eventual selection of what are called ‘Call Areas.’ The term Call Areas comes from the publication in the Federal Register of a ‘Call for Information and Nominations,’ which means that BOEM wants more information from researchers and stakeholders about that area, and nominations from developers saying that they would be interested in bidding on a lease there. In other words, they are specific geographic areas that will undergo further review to see if BOEM will accept competitive bids for leases there at the appropriate time in the future.

The working title for this tool is the Oregon Offshore Wind Planner, and this is where I come into the picture. I have been working with staff from the State of Oregon and BOEM to identify the datasets we want to include in this tool, and to make sure that we have the most up-to-date data as possible. Sometimes, this requires a bit of sleuthing, and in one case the data we were looking for seemed to have been lost in a fire where a server was destroyed. Fortunately, we tracked it down somewhere else!

Some of the places we’re looking include ERDDAP (a data access program belonging to NOAA), Marine Cadastre (A joint BOEM and NOAA initiative providing data to meet the needs of offshore energy and marine planning communities) and the Oregon Spatial Data Library (a joint effort between the Department of Administrative Services Geospatial Enterprise Office and Oregon State University). We’re also reviewing existing BOEM-funded reports on the West Coast to make sure we capture any relevant spatial data that comes from them.

Right now, the plan is to conclude this initial data-gathering process and release the draft version of the Oregon Offshore Wind planner tool this fall. At that point, BOEM and the State of Oregon will collect feedback from affected parties and stakeholders about whether they have all the data they should in order to inform the larger process that could lead to the creation of Call Areas off the coast of Oregon. This whole process is one that I was generally aware of, but never involved with prior to my fellowship— now, I’ve learned a lot about data management, made some interesting connections in the hunt for spatial data, and am looking forward to tracking this process long-term. For more information on renewable energy activities and future public meeting announcements for the Task Force, you can visit boem.gov/Oregon.

I’ve learned a lot about how science plays an active role in policymaking since the beginning of my internship. One key point I’ve learned is how important communicating scientific findings to non-scientific crowds is. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity in the past to teach a small after school program about science to children in elementary school because it has taught me how to make complex ideas more accessible to others. Science can be especially intimidating and being able to explain things in a way that doesn’t go over the audience’s head or make them feel overwhelmed or inadequate is important but challenging.

My view of science policy has changed since the beginning of my internship and my mentor has certainly opened my eyes to what may lie ahead if I were to go into this type of work myself. In an effort to not be overly political, I have feared that if I were to go work for a government organization such as the EPA, that dealing with the frustrations of potentially having a boss who denies the problem I am researching even exists would be too much for me to cope with. My mentor has worked under two different administrations so far and has mentioned that even though there may be disagreements between the administration and the scientists working for them, everyone deserves their fair shot at making the world a better place according to their vision. Talking with my mentor about this has helped immensely though and has further inspired me to want to work for such an organization so that maybe I could try to help better explain the issues at hand in an understanding and non-threatening way.