IEP Stakeholders News

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

At the August 14 IEP Stakeholder meeting, Dr. Rosemary Hartman (DWR), IEP Synthesis Lead, presented an overview on the new Food Web Synthesis effort. A Food Web Synthesis Proposal has been developed and is now available for review.

• Food Web Synthesis Proposal (pdf)

Please direct your questions, comments, or interest in participating on the Food Web Synthesis Team to Rosemary.Hartman@water.ca.gov.

Kind regards,
IEP Program Support

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

Please see the announcements below on the IEP Workshop, an upcoming Delta Stewardship Council Science for Communities workshop, a call for IEP newsletter articles, and a save the date reminder for our next stakeholder meeting. Please share this announcement with others as appropriate.

2024 IEP Workshop: Feedback and 2025 Planning

The IEP Annual Workshop was held on April 23-25, 2024 at the California Natural Resources Agency headquarters building. A remote Data Training Course was provided a week earlier on April 18. Both events were well attended. We had 280 in-person registrants and 311 remote attendees for the 3-day workshop and ~80 remote attendees for the Data Training Course.

If you attended the 3-day workshop (in-person or remote), we would like to solicit your feedback, which will help us when planning the 2025 workshop. Please take a few moments and complete the online feedback form. If you'd like to participate in planning the 2025 workshop, send us an email at iep@wildlife.ca.gov. Planning will begin in the fall of 2024.

• 2024 IEP Workshop Feedback Form

2024 IEP Workshop: Early Career Award Winners

Each year at the Annual Workshop, we highlight the work of early career scientists and use a volunteer panel of senior researchers and scientists within the IEP community to judge their submitted posters and talks. 

While the judges noted this year's exceptional across-the-board excellence, the following presentations were found to be most outstanding.

The winners for this year's Best Poster are:

• First Place: Taryn Mitoma, UC Davis “2023 pilot experimental gillnet survey to inform an enhanced large fish study design”
• Second Place (tie): Kat Cone, USGS “This or SPATT? Designing a cyanotoxin monitoring program in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (PDF)”
• Second Place (tie): Brian Alper, UC Davis “Developing batch tagging techniques for cultured Delta Smelt (PDF)”

And the winners for Best Presentation are:

• First Place: Jackelyn Lang, UC Davis “An assessment of 6PPD-quinone acute and sublethal toxicity on San Francisco Bay Delta species of conservation concern”
• Second Place: Louise Cominassi, UC Davis “Sublethal exposures to the insecticides bifenthrin and fipronil impact the stress response and behavior of juvenile Chinook salmon”
• Third Place: Nicholas Hudson, UC Davis “Quantifying the stress response of an endangered fish species to support population supplementation”

Congratulations to the winners, all the early career presenters, and every IEP attendee for making our workshop such a welcoming environment for IEP scientists of all stripes to hone their skills.

IEP Workshop: Poster Forum and Workshop Recordings

Don’t forget to visit the online Poster Forum, where you can view available posters. Recordings from the April 18 Data Training Course and the 3-day IEP Workshop will be available soon and shared on the CDFW YouTube site under the IEP Playlist.

See you next year!
IEP Workshop Planning Committee

Delta Stewardship Council's Science for Communities Workshop

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

Please see the announcements below concerning several items of interest.

2024 IEP Annual Workshop

The 2024 IEP Annual Workshop will be April 23-25, 2024. The workshop is a hybrid event with the in-person event held in the auditorium of the California Natural Resources Agency Headquarters building. Registration to attend in-person will be closing April 8, so don't forget to reserve your in-person tickets today. Visit our EventBrite registration page.

For remote attendees, make sure to register on the Zoom 2024 IEP Workshop registration page. The remote registration page will remain open until the end of the workshop. Visit the IEP Annual Workshop web page for more information.

2024 Bay Delta Science Conference - Save the Date

Delta Stewardship Council and U.S. Geological Survey are pleased to announce that the 12th Biennial Bay-Delta Science Conference will be held in person at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento, CA September 30 - October 2, 2024.
 
The theme will be “Cultivating Connections for a Dynamically Changing Environment”. Just as cultivation can nurture the development of a sapling into a tree and the growth of many trees into a resilient forest, connection and cultivation will magnify our positive impact as practitioners, inhabitants, and stewards of the Bay-Delta facing the multiple challenges inherent in rapid change. Embracing connections across ways of knowing, disciplines, and geographies will be the key to fruitful adaptation.
 
A call for abstracts for oral and poster presentations will be released soon, with registration opening shortly after.

Delta Science Program's Call for Proposals: 2025 Delta Research Awards

The Delta Science Program, in partnership with California Sea Grant, has released its call for proposals for the 2025 Research Awards.

With $6 million available for research funding, the Delta Science Program is looking for projects integrated with natural resource managers, community groups, or Tribes and directly addressing the priority science actions identified in the 2022-2026 Science Action Agenda. Proposals with a substantial social science component will be eligible for additional points during the review process.

Letters of Intent are due May 14, 2024. Full proposals are due August 26, 2024.

Visit the solicitation web page for application instructions and more information about the Delta Science Program’s research awards.

Greetings PWT Chair & Stakeholder Group,

At the August 9, 2023 meeting, Steve Culberson and Stephanie Fong presented an item on the schedule and format for future PWT Chair & Stakeholder Group meetings. Attendees requested a survey be sent to solicit input from Group members regarding future meetings.

Please complete the PWT Chair & Stakeholder Questionnaire by October 20, 2023. Results will be discussed at November 8, 2023 meeting.

Questions regarding the questionnaire can be directed to Steve Culberson at Steve.Culberson@deltacouncil.ca.gov.

Kind regards,
IEP Program Support
iep@wildlife.ca.gov

2023 IEP Workshop Registration Links Now Posted!

The registration links for the 2023 Annual IEP Workshop are now posted to the Annual IEP Workshop web page. We are using Eventbrite for the in-person registration platform and Zoom for the remote registration. Registration for in-person attendance will open on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. The Zoom registration for virtual attendance is now open.

For the in-person attendance, it is one ticket per person. On the Eventbrite page, please only register for the day(s) in which you plan to attend in-person. Also, we are looking for people to volunteer to be a guest judge for the Early Career Oral Presentation & Poster Award. This award is given to the student and/or early career scientist who has the best oral presentation and poster. If you are interested in being a judge, please reserve a ticket and we will contact you with more information on how to participate.

For the remote attendance, the link will work for all three days of the workshop. Do not share your Zoom registration link with others as it is unique for each registrant. Remote users will be able to post questions to presenters through the Question-and-Answer feature during the workshop. If a presenter does not have time to answer your question, the questions will be provided to speakers after the workshop. It will be up to the discretion of the speakers to reach out to participants via email to respond to any unanswered questions.

Early Career Luncheon

Also, if you are a student and/or early career scientist and you'll be attending the workshop on Tuesday, sign up to sit and have lunch with a career scientist to discuss career opportunities, pathways and experiences. Our mentor volunteers have experience working in state and federal agencies, academic institutions, and consulting firms. It is a free lunch being sponsored by the State Water Contractors. Seating is limited and registration is required. Visit the Annual IEP Workshop web page for the registration link.

IEP Training Courses

Finally, don't forget to sign up for one of the two IEP training courses! These classes will be held on Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the CNRA Building. Visit the Annual IEP Workshop web page for the registration link.

Kind regards,

IEP Program Support Unit

Greetings IEP Community Members,

The Delta Science Program would like to share that the 2022 edition of the State of Bay-Delta Science (SBDS) is now online in the latest issue of San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science. Seven articles comprise the issue, summarizing the scientific understanding, or “the state of the science,” of plants and algae in the Bay-Delta. Individual articles explore important ecosystem services and disservices, including primary production, the ecology and management of aquatic vegetation, remote sensing methods, harmful algal blooms, and carbon sequestration and subsidence reversal.

Visit the SBDS website to learn more about this ongoing synthesis effort.

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

Below are two announcements from IEP partners that may be of interest to IEP members. Please share this information with others in your organization.

Delta Science Tracker

The Delta Stewardship Council recently announced that the Delta Science Tracker is now available online.

"The Delta Science Tracker is an online tool that hosts a comprehensive inventory of scientific research and monitoring activities conducted in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The website allows users to search for science activities, create visualizations summarizing information about science funding and collaborations, and access reports, publications, and other products generated by these activities. The tracker is intended to promote communication and transparency of science activities and their outcomes, funding opportunities and decisions, and create opportunities for collaboration."

State Water Contractors Request for Proposals

The State Water Contractors (SWC) Science Program has released a 2022/2023 Request for Proposals (RFP)(pdf). This RFP will invest up to $3 million in funding for "high-quality science projects that advance the understanding of complex systems in the San Francisco Bay, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and upper watersheds, consistent with the mission of the SWC Science Program."

Visit the State Water Contractors website for more information on how to apply for the RFP and to review the goals, objectives, and management questions of the SWC 2023 Science Plan (pdf). Full proposal submittals are due by 5:00 p.m. PT on March 27, 2023, with final decisions to be announced in the summer.

Do you have an announcement that you would like to share with the IEP community? If so, send the information to iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

Kind regards,
IEP Program Support Unit

NOW OPEN! Call for Lightning Talks and Poster Abstracts!

The upcoming IEP workshop is scheduled for March 21-24 at the Resources Agency (CNRA) Headquarters Building in Sacramento, CA! If you aren’t already on tap to present at the workshop, we invite you to participate in the Lightning Talks Session (March 21) or the Poster Session (March 21-23).

Currently we are placing a call for Lightning Talks and Poster Abstracts. Space is limited to present, so if you’d like to participate don’t wait to respond!

Submission deadlines vary, so check out the flyers for submission requirements:

• Call for Lightning Talks (pdf) Lightning Talk Deadline: November 30, 2022
• Call for Poster Abstracts (pdf) Poster Abstract Deadline: February 10, 2023

Questions regarding the Lightning Talk Session can be directed to Lynn Takata at Lynn.Takata@Deltacouncil.ca.gov.

Questions regarding the Poster Session can be directed to Jordan Buxton at jbuxton@usgs.gov or Anna Feerick at afeerick@ucdavis.edu.

Kind regards,
IEP Program Support Team
iep@wildlife.ca.gov

Save The Dates March 21-24, 2023 for the 2023 IEP Annual Workshop!

Greetings IEP Stakeholders,

The IEP Annual Workshop for 2023 will take place March 21-24 at the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) Headquarters Building located at 715 "P" Street in downtown Sacramento.

The workshop will be a FREE hybrid (in-person and virtual) event!

The in-person events will consist of the workshop presentations being shared inside the CNRA's 300-seat auditorium and the posters being showcased in conference rooms on the 2nd floor. These events will occur March 21-23, while the 4th day of the workshop will be reserved for training courses. Space is limited for the auditorium and training courses, so registration for those events will be required for each day. The workshop presentations in the auditorium will be live streamed for remote participants.

Registration

Registration for the in-person workshop events will open in early 2023.

Poster Session and Call for Abstracts

The Poster Session will be incorporated into the daily workshop schedule rather than an evening poster reception. So, there will be plenty of opportunity for community members to engage with the poster authors each day. No registration is required to come and peruse the posters, so if you are unable to register for the in-person event in the auditorium, you can still come to the CNRA building and peruse the posters on the 2nd floor and interact with poster authors during the daily poster session schedule.

A call for poster abstracts will be announced in early November. Posters will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To be eligible for consideration, the primary poster author must register to attend the workshop in-person.

Mentor Luncheon

The IEP Workshop will be offering an in-person Mentor Luncheon for students and early career professionals. This event allows a limited number of students and early career scientists to be paired with established career professionals to discuss their research interests and career building pathways. Seating is limited and registration is required. More information on the luncheon and how to register will be coming soon. This event is being sponsored by the State Water Contractors.

Questions?

We'll be sharing more information on the workshop and how to register as we move closer to the event. Information will be posted on the IEP website under our IEP Annual Workshop web page and through the IEP Annual Workshop email listserv. If you are not receiving emails on the workshop, don't forget to subscribe to the workshop listserv by visiting our IEP Subscription web page. Feel free to share this announcement and the Save the Dates flyer (PDF) with others.

Additional questions regarding the workshop can be sent to iep@wildlife.ca.gov.

We look forward to seeing many of you there!

Kind regards,

IEP Program Support Unit

Greetings IEP Stakeholders:

On September 13 the State Water Contractors (SWC) are hosting a Science Symposium on spring-season San Joaquin River flows and South Delta exports.

Date: September 13, 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (registration opens at 8:30 a.m.)
In Person: Capitol Event Center at the M.A.Y. Building, 1020 11th Street, Sacramento
Online: This will be a hybrid event and virtual attendance information will follow
RSVP: Send email to science@swc.org and indicate if you plan to attend in person or virtually

Seeking to provide protections and benefits to San Joaquin origin juvenile salmonids, the 2009 NMFS Biological Opinion imposed a new regulatory export limit: the San Joaquin River inflow to export ratio (I to E ratio). Under the I to E ratio, exports are limited to a fraction of the San Joaquin River inflow, with proportionally less exports in wetter year types. Since 2009, numerous scientific investigations-- particularly acoustic tagging of juvenile salmonids-- have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of the I to E ratio and San Joaquin River inflows. The symposium will discuss the numerous scientific investigations since 2009 — particularly acoustic tagging of juvenile salmonids — that have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of the I to E ratio and San Joaquin River inflows.

Questions on this symposium can be directed to Darcy Austin, Science Manager, State Water Contractors.

Darcy Austin | Science Manager
State Water Contractors
1121 L Street, Suite 1050 | Sacramento, CA 95814
daustin@swc.org

Visit the State Water Contractors website for more information on their Science Program.