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.GMF
President/CEO Quenton Dokken has been traveling the Gulf and
beyond, giving his perspective on the Gulf oil spill. |
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Dokken spreads message far and wide
April 2011 - GMF President/CEO Dr. Quenton Dokken has been active on the
speakers’ circuit this spring. The
one-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill on April 20 has brought the
event back into the media's spotlight, prompting reporters to seek
out the marine science community for answers. They report Dokken's
voice as one that speaks not of doom and gloom but of the Gulf's ability to
rebound from the disaster. He's spreading
the message far and wide that the answer is not to stop drilling
oil in the Gulf of Mexico but to develop better and safer prevention and response
technology. "We must critically review the past and manage the
present," he says. His May engagements include speaking at an
environmental conference of the International Association of
Drilling Contractors and at a conference of the International Oil
Spill Committee. In June he will speak at an international
conference on sustainability in Germany.
READ PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE |
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STAFF
Offshore Technology Conference to recognize GMF for achievement
May 2011 – On May 1 the
Offshore Technology Conference
in Houston will recognize the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, presenting it
with the Distinguished Achievement Award. The GMF is the first
non-profit to receive the award, which benefits a group that is
making a difference in protection and preservation of the Gulf of
Mexico. "Receiving this award communicates that our programs and initiatives are seen as significant contributions. We at the Foundation pride ourselves in representing all Gulf of Mexico stakeholders
and are elated to receive this award for our work in the region," said GMF's Deputy
Director Ryan Fikes. |
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GMF speaks up for Gulf restoration efforts after Gulf oil spill
March 2011 – GMF Deputy Director Ryan Fikes recently attended a
meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in New
Orleans to hear an update on Task Force actions, as
well as to attend listening sessions for business, industry, NGO’s, academia and the
general public. The Task Force asked participants what
would make them feel like the Task Force was being respectful of them as constituents.
In general, participants responded that they were seeking transparency
in Task Force actions and wanted to have their voices included in the
decision-making process. The Task Force embodies only state and federal
government representatives and is being chaired by EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson. Public listening sessions scheduled to take place
around the Gulf Coast are open to the public. The Task
Force was created by Executive Order in 2010 upon the recommendation by
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ report on long-term recovery following the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. A year later, the Task Force was charged
with development of a restoration strategy that proposes a Gulf Coast
ecosystem restoration agenda.
TASK FORCE WEBSITE |
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Nañez-James attends NOAA evaluation training
March 2011 – GMF staff member Suraida Nañez-James attended the NOAA
Coastal Services Center Training Program, "Planning for Meaningful
Evaluation," March 1-2 in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The
training focused on the increasing demand for evidence of program
accountability and impact and provided an in-depth understanding of the
elements of evaluation. "This workshop will help me make informed
choices to create fundamentally sound evaluation plans for existing or
longstanding programs here at GMF," said Nañez-James. Other plans
include sharing the resources provided by the workshop with other GMF
staff members so they too can apply the training when evaluating various GMF
programs. |
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GMF’s Richard Gonzales recognized in environmental awards
April 2011 – The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will recognize GMF's
Project Coordinator Richard Gonzales as a finalist in the Individual category during its
annual Environmental Excellence Awards banquet at the Convention Center in
Austin, Texas, on May 4.
SSCN's Richard
Gonzales (right) will receive a TCEQ award, along with Fulton
faculty Jan Garcia and Principal Jeremy Saegert. |
Gonzales heads the GMF's
Science & Spanish Club Network (SSCN). The TCEQ also awarded Fulton
Learning Center with an award in the Youth category and Valley Proud Environmental Council with an award in the Community/Civic category.
Gonzles has worked with both of those groups through the GMF's SSCN. The
Fulton students participated in the GMF's
World Seagrass Day Festival of
Knowledge and the Valley Proud group from Harlingen, Texas,
participated in the 2011 Limpienato Parade organized by the GMF to
educate people about the problem of litter on
the South Texas coast. "I am so proud to know that I have been
working with other individuals and organizations that share the same
passion for coastal environmental education and outreach efforts," said
Gonzales. |
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CONSERVATION/RESTORATION
Foundation's conservation efforts merge with Mexico's LME
February 2011 –
After hosting the First International Workshop on Integration
Efforts in October 2010, the GMF joined forces with the Gulf of
Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem (GoM LME) Project. GMF’s
International
Integration project seeks to integrate Gulf of Mexico conservation
activities on both sides of the border. The GoM LME, a project funded by
the United Nations Industrial
The Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystem International Forum
held February 21-23 continued the progress made in an international workshop
that the GMF sponsored in 2010. |
Development Organization, shares that
objective. The GMF project falls under its work with the
Habitat
Conservation & Restoration Team of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. To
capitalize on the synergies between the two efforts, the GMF
incorporated its second workshop into the GoM LME International Forum
held February 21-23 in Veracruz, Mexico. This strategy added new
dimensions to the transboundary analysis of issues, capacities, and
constraints that will lay the foundation for coordinated Gulf management
at an international scale. Scientists and government representatives
from both countries met together to foster a more cohesive vision of how
resources, personnel and strategies can be pooled by the partners to
advance stewardship objectives in the Gulf of Mexico. The group hopes
that this international collaboration will yield concrete and focused
actions geared to viable, evolutionary change. |
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Smith participates in EPA Wetland Review on Galveston Bay
February 2011 - In an effort to better understand the status of
coastal wetlands and the factors affecting them most, the EPA Coastal
Wetlands Team is taking a close look at several coastal watersheds on
the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. At a Coastal Wetlands Team "Wetland
Review" meeting
on February 23 in Galveston, Texas, GMF Project Coordinator Mikell Smith
brought several Galveston-area GMF/Gulf of Mexico Alliance projects to
the table, including a plan for
GMF is working to minimize impacts to marshes from sea level rise
and brought that information to the table in Galveston on February
23. |
managing sediment resources in West Galveston Bay, another that projects sea
level rise (SLR) impacts to marshes, and an evaluation of the benefits
from marsh habitat (ecosystem services). To leverage local knowledge
with other available information, the EPA team is engaging local
stakeholders through workshops like the one in Galveston, where
participants identify factors causing stress to area wetlands, along
with tools and strategies. Then they prioritize them through a consensus
process. Stakeholders who could not attend the Galveston workshop were
given the opportunity to participate via telephone conference. Local
experts expounded to further characterize the stressors and identified
additional information resources for EPA Environmental Scientist
Jennifer Linn, who facilitated the workshop. Programmatic and Regulatory
Issues came in as the top vote-getter on the list of stressors, with
Development/Upland Conversion close behind. The review process will
inform potential program and policy changes to help reverse the decline
of coastal wetlands. |
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PARTNERSHIPS
Foundation joins as partner, sponsor for State of the Gulf Summit
Spring 2011 - The Gulf of Mexico Foundation is proud to be a
partner for the State of the Gulf of Mexico Summit 2011 , which
will be held December 4-8 in Houston. Hosted by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of
Mexico Studies, the event is committed to the ecological and economic
interests in the Gulf of Mexico and is focused on action. The diversity
of public and private actors working on conservation and recovery in the
Gulf and the very broad range of issues involved suggests a strong need
for a platform to develop a shared vision of a healthy Gulf. The Summit
will provide this platform, allowing government, non-governmental
organizations and academic experts to share knowledge and lessons
learned and to formulate a roadmap for restoring the Gulf. Issues to be
discussed will include loss of wetlands, hypoxia, coastal resiliency,
ecosystem health, marine protected areas, international cooperation, oil
spill recovery, and social and economic recovery. |
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EDUCATION/TRAINING
Second annual IWWE trip reaches educators, then students
March 2011 – Educators from
Texas, New Jersey and Mexico spent their Spring Break exploring the Intracoastal Waterway from
Texas to Louisiana March 13-18, learning about the living and
GMF's Suraida Nañez-James, left, is leading and organizing GMF's expeditions for educators. |
working Gulf coast. The trip marked the GMF's second annual
Intracoastal Waterway
Wetlands Expedition (IWWE), one of the newest educational
programs sponsored by ConocoPhillips. The five-day live-aboard
expedition gives educators the chance to learn about the importance of
balancing the environment and the economy not only through lectures,
discussions and activities, but through first-hand observations of
natural habitats mixed with tourism, industry and
development activity. GMF Project Coordinator Suraida Nañez-James
runs the program and leads many of the onboard and field educational
components. In addition to the experience, educators also receive a bag
of classroom resources that are donated for the trip to supplement their
school's curriculum and to share with their students. The Spring Break
expedition culminated with the teachers planting 300 black mangrove
plants in a Houston-area marine restoration project to create new bird
habitat. A second IWWE is set for this summer, June 19-24. Application
deadline is April 27.
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