IEP Stakeholders News

Greetings IEP PWT Chairs & Stakeholder Group members,

Our next meeting is Wednesday, November 10, 2021 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. We hope you can join us.

Please peruse the agenda (PDF) for meeting topics and to obtain the call-in information. This will be a remote MS Teams meeting.

If you have any questions, please contact Christine Joab at Christine.Joab@wildlife.ca.gov

Kind regards,
Christine Joab
IEP Program Facilitator

Greetings IEP stakeholders,

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy has now opened the registration for their Fourth, Biennial Delta Invasive Species Symposium, which will be held as a virtual Zoom event on December 15, 2021. You must register to attend the event. Register through Zoom, or on the DIISC website, where the agenda and other details will be posted in advance of the Symposium.

About the Symposium

The Symposium is a forum for Delta managers, researchers, and decision-makers to meet, share and synthesize information, and communicate best practices and lessons learned. This year’s Symposium will focus on early detection and rapid response (EDRR) to invasive species. The virtual event will take place on December 15, 2021, from 9:00 a.m. through 2:30 p.m.

The Symposium will highlight EDRR lessons learned, current EDRR efforts across the Delta and beyond, and future challenges and solutions for EDRR work. The Symposium will consist of invited talks, a panel discussion, and an opportunity for participants to provide feedback on the draft Delta EDRR Framework being developed by the Delta Interagency Invasive Species Coordination (DIISC) Team. The Delta Interagency Invasive Species Coordination (DIISC) Team plans and facilitates the Symposium.

Greetings IEP PWT Chairs & Stakeholders,

Our next IEP Project Work Team Chair & Stakeholder meeting is coming up on Wednesday, November 10, 2021. If you have an item you would like to present or discuss at the meeting, or have a specific item or topic that you would like more information to be presented on, please send your request to iep@wildlife.ca.gov no later than Wednesday, October 20.

The meeting will be hosted via MS Teams from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. If you do not have the meeting appointment on your calendar, send an email request to iep@wildlife.ca.gov to be added to the appointment.

If you have any questions let me know.

Kind regards,
Christine Joab
IEP Program Facilitator
Christine.Joab@wildlife.ca.gov

Dear IEP stakeholders,

Do you have data or research you are looking to share with the Delta community? Or perhaps an opinion letter or essay? Consider submitting to the IEP Newsletter! The Newsletter is a triannual product of the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) that publishes perspectives on our Program and community, reviews, data reports, research articles, and research notes. The Newsletter is a forum for resource managers, scientists, and the public to learn about recent important programmatic and scientific topics from across the San Francisco Estuary. Articles in the IEP newsletter are intended for rapid communication and are not peer reviewed.

The deadline to submit articles for the 2021 Summer/Fall issue of the IEP Newsletter is October 15. 
Please send your contributions for the Summer/Fall issue to Geoff Steinhart (Geoffrey_Steinhart@fws.gov).

Additional Resources:

• See the Guide to Authors (PDF) on the IEP Publication Guidelines web page.
• Read the latest newsletters (Winter, Volume 40, Issue 1 and Spring, Volume 40 Issue 2) located on the IEP Newsletter web page.
• Subscribe to the IEP Newsletter listserv and other IEP listservs by visiting our IEP subscription web page.
• Visit the IEP website for additional news and information on IEP activities and upcoming meetings.

Dear California Delta Science Stakeholder:

As the Lead Scientist for Interagency Ecological Program, I am requesting your participation in a survey about your experience with the Delta science enterprise, which is broadly defined as “the collection of science programs and activities that exist to serve managers and stakeholders in a regional system.” With collaboration from the Delta Science Program, the survey is being conducted by research team consisting of the University of California-Davis, University of Colorado-Denver, and University of Arizona. Your responses to this survey are extremely important to understand how to link science and policy more effectively. The results will support strategic planning for Delta science and policy, including ongoing discussions about changing science governance.

The survey has been approved by the UC Davis Institutional Review Board, which governs human subjects protocols. Whether or not you choose to participate, or answer any question, or stop participating in the survey, there will be no penalty to you or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. Your responses to the survey and interview questions will not include information that identifies you.

If you have any questions, please contact Principal Investigator Professor Mark Lubell, UC Davis, mnlubell@ucdavis.edu.

You can access the survey at the following link: Interagency Ecological Program Science Enterprise Survey

Cheers,

Steven Culberson, PhD
Lead Scientist / Program Manager III
Interagency Ecological Program (IEP)

715 P Street, 15-300
Sacramento, CA 95814

Greetings IEP Stakeholders:

Are you interested in learning more about sturgeon? Consider joining the IEP Sturgeon Project Work Team (PWT). As a member, you'll receive notifications on upcoming PWT meetings, webinars and information on North American Sturgeon and Paddlefish Society (NASPS) activities. Contact the Sturgeon PWT Chair, Alicia Seesholtz, to join the IEP Sturgeon PWT.

Here is the latest information from the Sturgeon PWT Chair on some upcoming NASPS activities e.g., the annual meeting, webinar and recent sturgeon articles and papers.

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NASPS 2021 annual meeting
The NASPS governing board has made the decision to host another virtual meeting for 2021. The 2021 virtual meeting is planned for the week of October 25th, with specific days and times to be determined as planning progresses. Stay informed by visiting our North American Sturgeon & Paddlefish Society website.

Abstract submission is now open and abstracts need to be submitted by Friday, July 16, 2021.

Registration: Registration will open in the coming months on the NASPS website and there will be a fee to register for the 2021 meeting:

• $20 for members
• $100 for non-members
• Free for student members
• $25 for student non-members

Funds from registration will be used to support the costs of hosting the 2021 virtual meeting and the 2022 in-person meeting. The 2022 meeting is being planned for October 2022 in Folsom,CA.

NASPS webinar
NASPS will be hosting a webinar in June on early life stage recruitment bottlenecks. There will be 3 presentations followed by a Q&A session. Presentations will highlight research focused on bottlenecks during larval dispersal for a few different sturgeon species. The webinar is free to attend and more details will be circulated via the Sturgeon PWT in the coming weeks.

Sturgeon in the news
Read about current Atlantic sturgeon recovery efforts in the Delaware River Estuary 'E-ZPass for fish.' What tracking sturgeon can tell us about this fragile species - and Delaware Bay

Read about a rare shortnose sturgeon that was caught in the Potomac! Anglers hook rare sturgeon in the Potomac

Recent sturgeon papers
Dittman DE and MA Chalupnicki. 2021. Summer diet of juvenile lake sturgeon reintroduced into the Genesee and St. Regis Rivers. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, online early.

Genz J and RN Hicks. 2021. Response in growth, scute development, and whole ion body composition of Acipenser fulvescens reared in water of differing chemistries. Animals 11:1419

Hilton, EJ and PE McGrath. 2021. Its raining sturgeons: a likely occurrence of avian predation or scavenging of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus, Mitchell 1815) (PDF). Bannisteria 55:N7-12.

Kahn, J.E., J.C. Watterson, C.H. Hager, N. Mathies, and K.J. Hartman. 2021. Calculating adult sex ratios from observed breeding sex ratios for wide-ranging, intermittently breeding species. Ecosphere 12(5):e03504.

Pendleton, R. and R. Adams. 2021. Long-term trends in juvenile Atlantic sturgeon abundance may signal recovery in the Hudson River, NY, USA. North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

Plough LV, AJ Bunch, BB Lee, CL Fitzgerald, CP Stence, and B Richardson. 2021. Development and testing of an environmental DNA (eDNA) assay for endangered Atlantic sturgeon to assess its potential as a monitoring and management tool. Environmental DNA, online early.

Scribner, KT and JF Kenefsky. 2021. Molecular sexing of lake sturgeon. Journal of Great Lakes Research, online early.

Greetings IEP Stakeholders:

The Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University is hosting their final presentation for the 2020/2021 Toxicology and Societies Speaker Series on Thursday, June 3. The presentation is on the Perils of PFAS by Dr. Linda Birnbaum. Registration is required, but the event is free. Please share with others who may be interested.

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Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University – Toxicology and Societies Speaker Series

Hi friends and colleagues, please join us for the final presentation in the 2020/21 Toxicology and Societies Speaker Series. Thursday (6/3), Dr. Linda Birnbaum will talk about the problems with PFAS.

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S. is the former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). After retirement, she was granted scientist emeritus status and still maintains a laboratory. As a board-certified toxicologist, Birnbaum served as a federal scientist for 40 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP Director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research.

The talk is from 11-12 PT. It is free and available to all, so please share this with your colleagues and friends.
Registration can be found on the Western Washington University Speaker Series page.
You can learn more about Dr. Birnbaum and her talk on the WWU Toxicology and Societies page.

Cheers,
Ruth Sofield (Harper), PhD
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University
1-360-650-2181
she/her/hers