BEACHNET==> Dunes Lakeshore and State Park to host beach health science spectacular next week

[Richard L Whitman <rwhitman@usgs.gov>]

Richard Whitman
Research Ecologist/Station Chief
Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station
219-926-8336 Ext. 424
1100 North Mineral Springs Road 
Porter, IN 46304
----- Forwarded by Richard
L Whitman/BRD/USGS/DOI on 09/12/2008 10:54 AM -----

Ruthanne_Slamka@nps.gov

09/12/2008 07:42 AM

To	Bob_Daum@nps.gov, Bruce_Rowe@nps.gov, Christopher_Light@nps.gov, Constantine_Dillon@nps.gov, Eric_Ehn@nps.gov, Garry_Traynham@nps.gov, Janet_Ambrose@nps.gov, John_Kowlok@nps.gov, Mike_Bremer@nps.gov, Ruthanne_Slamka@nps.gov, rwhitman@usgs.gov, chandly@usgs.gov
cc
Subject	Beach Seminar (Yesterday's Chesterton Tribune)

Dunes Lakeshore and State Park to host beach health science spectacular
next week
                  Chesterton
Tribune, September 11, 2008
  As the 2008 swimming season comes to a close, beach managers, scientists,
and  policy-makers from across the Great Lakes and the nation will
converge
on  Duneland  next  week  to  share new findings,
advances, challenges, and
opportunities  to  improve  beach  health, at the eighth
annual Great Lakes
Beach  Association  (GLBA),  to  be held Sept. 15-17
at Indiana Dunes State
Park and the Indiana Dunes Learning Center.
  There  will  be workshops, presentations, and symposia
enough for all 860
members  of  the  GLBA:  among  them, representatives
of local, county, and
state public-health agencies, environmental groups, universities, and state
and federal regulatory and research agencies. All eight Great Lakes states,
as  well as other Midwest and coastal states and Canada, are represented
on
the GLBA.
  The  mission  of  the GLBA is to pursue healthy beach
water conditions in
the Great Lakes and annual meetings are convened in a different Great Lakes
state  every  year,  typically  coordinated with other
regional or national
meetings.
  This  year  sessions  will  be hosted at Indiana
Dunes National Lakeshore
(INDU)  and  Indiana  Dunes  State Park (IDSP), two
locations where seminal
beach  research  has  been  conducted  and  where
managers are committed to
protecting public health at the beaches.
  “The  National  Park  Service  is  pleased
to be a part of this effort in
improving beach research,” INDU Superintendent Constantine Dillon said
in a
statement  released by GLBA on Wednesday. “The public has a right
to expect
healthy  beaches  and  we  all play a part in making
and keeping our waters
safe.”
  Since  its  inception,  the  GLBA has garnered
national and international
attention  for  its  coordination  among  agencies
and interests to promote
beach  health. This year attendees will include representatives from
as far
as  Alaska, Texas, South Carolina, Connecticut, and Florida. Hawaii
will be
represented  by  Roger  Fujioka  of the University
of Hawaii at Manoa. “The
Great  Lakes beach area is the region of the country where there is
maximum
cooperation,  education,  and  continuous  update of
all activities in that
region   via   the   Beachnet,   a  very  active
 and  effective  means  of
communication.”
  “Beachnet” is the host communication network and listserv for
the GLBA at
http://beachnet.info/
  “The annual meeting is a great place for scientists and beach managers
to
take  an  in-depth  look  at  monitoring  data
and present new ideas,” said
former  GLBA  president  Shannon  Briggs.  “We
 have group discussions with
speakers  and  one-on-one conversations during the poster session
that help
us  discover  how  we  can work together to improve
beach water quality and
protect public health.”
  Included  on  the  agenda  this year are seminars
covering such topics as
“Introduction  to  Beach  Monitoring,”  “Beach  Sanitary
 Surveys,” “Source
Tracking,”  and  “Predictive  Models.”  These seminars
are designed to help
beach  managers  stay  abreast of the latest research and
policies so as to
better   protect   public   health   at   their
 facilities.  In  addition,
presentations  and  a  poster session are planned at which
findings will be
discussed  on the use of rapid methods of determining microbiological
water
quality,  determining  potential  sources  of  fecal
 indicator bacteria to
bathing  beaches,  sanitary  surveys for beaches, and the
use of predictive
models for determining real-time water quality. Several intensive workshops
will  also  be held on topics like monitoring data, fecal bacteria
in sand,
and rapid testing methods.

  Posted 9/11/2008