CMC at the Chesapeake Bay Program Communications Workgroup bi-annual retreat

Twice a year, the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Communication Workgroup, of which the CMC is a member, gets together to review a specific topic of keen interest to all its participants. This July, the workgroup’s bi-annual retreat focused on how to improve climate change communication with policy makers, resource managers and constituents in the Chesapeake watershed. Held at the Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor’s Center in Chester, MD, the day-long event included an intensive training session led by Coreen Weilminster, Education Coordinator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Weilminster challenged attendees to think about how CBP members develop and deploy messaging strategies that highlight key climate change facts and figures. Weilminster herself provided an example of effective messaging to relay haunting data about the effects of climate change on the state of Maryland: 30, 30, 30. In the last century, Maryland’s annual growing season has increased by 30 days, its annual number of frost days has shrunk by 30 days, and there are 30 more uncomfortably warm nights than there were 100 years ago.

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