Day Two

Climate Change Session:

• Tim Doherty from the San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission, presented on what climate change means for the Bay Area.

• Dolan Eversole, from the University of HI discussed what sort of planning & policy initiatives are taking place in Hawai'i given the implications of sea level rise (powerpoint) (not good, the implications not the initiatives).

• the next presentation was interesting, in that it came from the tourism sector. David Edgell & Carolyn McCormick described what that sector's take on the climate change issue is. Given that a) it is such a large sector & b) so much of it takes place in areas that are susceptible to climate change, it was an interesting voice adding some diversity to the discussion.

• Meghan Higgins (big ups) had some very interesting points on what sea level rise means when it comes to the legal aspects of how we define the coast, ownership issues, etc. etc.
  

Land & Watershed session:

• I didn't stay long for this one because it was largely a lot of geology, some of which went clear over my head. However, the session was titled Starving the Pacific Coast Beaches of California, Oregon, and Washington, and there were (to me anyway) a couple of shockers provided by Orville Magoon & Co., namely that sand & gravel mining contribute to over half of the sediment loss on our western coastlines.
  

I then ran to the Effective Intergration* session:

• Danielle Bamford had a presentation on the use of Participatory GIS. The NOAA CSC Habitat Priority Mapper seems like a great tool and I'd be neat to see how it is used by future projects.
  
• Mara Dias (mp3 interview) shared the efforts of the Surfrider Foundation's Blue Water Task Force.
  

• Susan Lovelace discussed the differences in attitudes and knowledge between decision makers and stakeholders along coastal communities, and how this disconnect is making our jobs as coastal planners & managers that much more difficult.

Land & Watershed session (pt.2)

• Began with some interesting conclusions drawn by the research of Jeffrey Onsted on the effectiveness of the California Coastal Act.
  
• Wes Shaw gave a great presentation on his work within the Massachusetts "StormSmart Coasts" Program. I, unfortunately didn't manage to catch up with Wes during the conference but think everybody should take note of his presentation particularly his points about making material and resources interesting, useful and pertinent to stakeholders.