Nov 4 Beach Research Workshop in Green Bay, WI

["Shannon Briggs" <briggssl@michigan.gov>]

Beach Health Research Needs Workshop, November 4, 2005

The Great Lakes Beach Association, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency are holding a Beach Health Research Needs Workshop on November 4, 2005 from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. in conjunction with the Great Lakes Beach Conference.  The purpose of this workshop is to listen to the needs and concerns of beach managers, public health officials, and other stakeholders and to define research priorities for addressing beach closure and recreational water quality issues in the Great Lakes.  One of the goals of this workshop is to forge a new cooperation between federal agencies and state, tribal, and local groups concerned with beach health.  It is crucial that we join together and focus our research efforts in a unified direction that will best serve the beach health community.

We plan to run this workshop using 3 key reports to guide us: 
1)  Action Plan for Beaches and Recreational Waters (1999) www.epa.gov/ord/htm/documents/600r98079.pdf 
2)  Great Lakes Strategy (2002) www.epa.gov/grtlakes/gls/index.html 
3)  Coastal Health Strategy Team draft report for the GLRC (2005) www.glrc.us 

Key beach health and recreational water quality issues have been identified within these documents. These issues can help drive our research direction and will assist us in the development of an inter-agency science plan for improved beach health and recreational water quality.  Your feedback and input are critical to the success of this workshop and we look forward to your active participation.


Some Key Questions

*	What are the current needs?
*	Can we prioritize and direct research to better address these needs?
*	How can federal agencies help synthesize inter-jurisdictional research information?
*	What are the roles of various Great Lakes initiatives that deal with beach health and how can we better integrate them?
*	How quickly is the daily and regional information required?
*	Are there emerging issues we should begin addressing?
*	How can we effectively focus our research at different scales (i.e. regional to local to private beach)?
*	Are timetables realistic and what needs to be done to meet or revise them?
*	Is there a role for the Great Lakes Beach Association as an interface between agencies, managers, and scientists?
*	Should we communicate these findings into a plan that will help guide beach health opportunity, research, and cooperation?



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