On Monday of last week, Austin and Lauren headed to Martha's Vineyard for a meeting with collaborators on this summer's living shorelines restoration project. The Humphries lab members joined US Environmental Protection Agency's Atlantic Ecology Division team, Marty Chintala, Suzy Ayvazian, and Mary Schoell to ferry over to Mass Audubon Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary director Suzan Bellincampi and Oak Bluffs shellfish constable Dave Grunden. The meeting marked the first time the whole team got to sit around the same table and the opportunity was used to hash out details of project installation and plans for sanctuary visitor interviews. The team also got out to the marsh to take some pre-installation measurements. Greeted by unseasonably warm February weather and always thankful for a brief respite from the office, the day marked another exciting step forward in some novel social-ecological research.
In the upcoming month, project supplies will make their way to the island and Lauren will attend the first of a number of meetings with sanctuary staff and volunteers to develop citizen science programming.
