Podcasts about us army corps

Listen, Watch, & Support DTP:  www.thereadinesslab.com/dtp-linksBoost the signal with a $5 monthly donation! Become a TRL Insider Member with a ton of extra content!--------------"We solve complex problems, and we help people."This mantra has embodied the work of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the past 250 years.On this, the 250th Birthday of the Corps, the Disaster Tough Podcast hears the perspective of Major General Jason Kelly, its Deputy Commanding General of Civil & Emergency Operations.MG Kelly has an extensive military background, including 30+ years in USACE.  In this episode, he and DTP host, John Scardena, discuss a wide range of topics including:USACE's history dates back to the birth of America shortly after the RevolutionThe corps' efforts to make sure disasters don't do MORE damage than is necessaryHow USACE thinks about infrastructure from a security, risk management, response, and financial point of viewCounseling and advising leaders and stakeholders from a technical standpoint, regardless of politicsUSACE's work with FEMA and other entities is to be ready for disasters such as the upcoming hurricane season on the East Coast, or the recent fire season and cleanup efforts on the West Coast.As Major General Kelly says, "We deal with concrete and steel, but we don't PLACE concrete, and we don't PLACE any steel.  We do that with partners."On this Monday, June 16, DTP celebrates and honors the US Army Corps of Engineers for the way they have fulfilled this mission, and their partnership and contribution to America's prosperity and success.--------------Impulse: Bleeding Control Kits by Professionals for Professionals: https://www.dobermanemg.com/impulseDoberman Emergency Management Group provides subject matter experts in planning and training: www.dobermanemg.comFor sponsorship requests, check out our Sponsorship Portfolio here or email us at contact@thereadinesslab.com

In this edition we talk with US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Brian Ellis with the US Army Corps of Engineers Aviation Program Office based in Huntsville, Alabama. Brian spent a career in uniform in the aviation field, and is now applying that expertise and knowledge to drive innovation within the Corps of Engineers.

We are joined by the baddest boys in the Ozarks - We Always Lie To Strangers - to discuss the I-40 Bridge Disaster, which saw the towboat Robert Y. Love impact a bridge over the Arkansas river near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, on May 26 2002.(Wish we could claim the foresight to have scheduled this for the anniversary but that is entirely 100% coincidental) You can find everything WALTS-related heregazafunds.comSources:"5NEWS Vault | I-40 Bridge Collapse in Webbers Falls (Part 2)." 5NEWS, 25 Apr 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQVicEbWakBaird, Austin. "The curious cases of William James Clark." Anchorage Daily News, 25 Aug 2011. https://www.adn.com/features/article/curious-cases-william-james-clark/2011/08/26/Doucette, Bob. "Missourian charged with impersonation at bridge collapse." The Oklahoman, 14 June 2022. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2002/06/14/missourian-charged-with-impersonation-at-bridge-collapse/62091068007/"Heartbreak And Hope: 20 Years After The I-40 Bridge Collapse." News 9 YouTube, 4 June 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OApNUebSC54"MKARNS 12-foot Channel." US Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District. https://www.swl.usace.army.mil/Missions/Planning/MKARNS-12-foot-Channel/"MKARNS marks 50th anniversary." Oklahoma Department of Transportation. https://oklahoma.gov/odot/programs-and-projects/programs/multimodal/freight-transportation/waterways/mkarns-50th-anniversary.htmlUnited States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. "United States of America v. William James Clark." 6 Apr 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20100903160625/http://ca10.washburnlaw.edu/cases/2004/04/03-7100.htm"U.S. Towboat Robert Y. Love Allision With Interstate 40 Highway Bridge Near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, May 26, 2002." National Transportation Safety Board, 31 Aug 2004. ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR0405.pdfSupport the show

In this week's episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Angela Parker, an assistant professor at the University of Denver and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Cree Tribes. Parker recently published a book on the history of the Three Affiliated Tribes—the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara—who live on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. This land, situated along the Missouri River, became the site of the Garrison Dam, a project built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s and 1950s that flooded parts of the reservation and forced roughly 90 percent of the Native population to relocate to higher ground. Parker discusses the cultural and ecological significance of the Missouri River to the Three Affiliated Tribes, the efforts of community members to resist the dam's construction, and the lasting negative impacts of the dam. References and recommendations: “Damming the Reservation: Tribal Sovereignty and Activism at Fort Berthold” by Angela K. Parker; https://www.oupress.com/9780806194615/damming-the-reservation/ Image of George Gillette signing a contract for the sale of Fort Berthold land; https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-weeps-at-land-sale-washington-dc-george-gillette-news-photo/515360260 “The Effects of Dams on Tribal Lands, with Heather Randell” episode of the Resources Radio podcast; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/the-effects-of-dams-on-tribal-lands-with-heather-randell/ “The Pitt” television show; https://www.max.com/shows/pitt-2024/e6e7bad9-d48d-4434-b334-7c651ffc4bdf “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250391230/carelesspeople/

M2S2 will be presenting three webinars in FY25, titled "Sessions from the STAND DOWN" highlighting presentations from the FY25 M2S2 Stand Down hosted by US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in December 2024. These online events will bring together USACE, DoD leaders, federal land managers, state and federal regulators and contractors to discuss munitions response cleanup issues and initiatives.  Presenters and attendees will discuss programmatic information, and share lessons learned to foster strong working relationships. The first webinar in this series will focus on Remedial Actions and include the following presentations:"RA Lessons learned" — Elise Goggin"Regulatory perspective on ROD's" — Jeff Swanson "Common challenges implementing the remedy" — DJ Myers"Records we need in the Record of Decision" — Nancy Heflin To view this archive online or download the slides associated with this seminar, please visit http://www.clu-in.org/conf/tio/STAND-DOWN-1_042925/

M2S2 will be presenting three webinars in FY25, titled "Sessions from the STAND DOWN" highlighting presentations from the FY25 M2S2 Stand Down hosted by US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in December 2024. These online events will bring together USACE, DoD leaders, federal land managers, state and federal regulators and contractors to discuss munitions response cleanup issues and initiatives.  Presenters and attendees will discuss programmatic information, and share lessons learned to foster strong working relationships. The first webinar in this series will focus on Remedial Actions and include the following presentations:"RA Lessons learned" — Elise Goggin"Regulatory perspective on ROD's" — Jeff Swanson "Common challenges implementing the remedy" — DJ Myers"Records we need in the Record of Decision" — Nancy Heflin To view this archive online or download the slides associated with this seminar, please visit http://www.clu-in.org/conf/tio/STAND-DOWN-1_042925/

Today on America in the Morning   Van Hollen Not Allowed To Visit El Salvador Prison Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen was unable to visit a deported immigrant being held in El Salvador despite the Justice Department admitting that he was mistakenly removed from the US. Correspondent Rich Johnson has the update.     Judge Considering Contempt Against Trump Administration A U-S District Judge says there could be grounds to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for violating his orders surrounding deportations to El Salvador. Correspondent Clayton Neville reports.    WH Sues Maine The Trump administration is suing the state of Maine over letting transgender athletes take part in girl's and women's sports. Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports.    Latest On Pennsylvania Arson Attack New details are emerging about the suspect and security in the ongoing investigation into the arson attack on the Pennsylvania's governor mansion. Correspondent Haya Panjwani reports.    Animal Hits Airplane There were scary moments after flames started pouring out of a United Airlines jet taking off from Denver. The FAA believes Flight 2325 destined for Edmonton may have somehow hit an animal, after a number of rabbits were observed on the runway.     Prison Guards Under Arrest In Upstate New York, 10 jail guards find themselves on the wrong side of the law, charged over the fatal beating of an inmate. Correspondent Julie Walker reports.        Federal Judge Targets Trump Administration A federal judge said he has found probable cause for holding the Trump administration in contempt of court, the latest announcement in what is becoming a showdown between the Department of Justice and the Federal judiciary. Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports.    Budget Limbo There could be trouble on the Congressional horizon as a dozen moderate House Republicans are sending a message to House GOP leaders that they will not support the “one big beautiful bill” that reflects President Trump's legislative agenda if it includes Medicaid cuts. Correspondent Clayton Neville reports.     WH Reaction To Biden Speech Former President Joe Biden for the first time has returned to the national stage with a warning about his successor and Social Security, a speech that the White House is pushing back on. Correspondent Ben Thomas reports.    California's Tariff Lawsuit California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the Golden State will fight President Trump in court over tariffs. Sue Aller reports on California's plans, which it says will lose billions in revenue over the tariffs and trade war.      Permit Approved Following through on a campaign promise, the Trump administration announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers are fast tracking a Great Lakes tunnel permit. With the details, here's correspondent Haya Panjwani.   More Trouble At DOD A third high-level Pentagon staffer has been placed on administrative leave in the past two days as part of a probe into media leaks.  Tech News There was bad news for big tech companies, after a warning from NVIDIA, and AMD losing about 25% of its sales, and takes a big chargeback, due to the Trump tariffs on China. Here's Chuck Palm with today's tech news. Finally   Disturbing images and concerning bodycam footage from the investigation into the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife has been released. Kevin Carr has the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talk or type with our new Team Bot: https://realestateteamos.com/botA Division I college athlete, Chief of Logistics with the US Army Corps of Engineers, licensed real estate agent, franchise founder, and entrepreneur, Harvey Yergin discovered EOS like you … the hard way.  A friend gave him a copy of Traction, which he didn't read … until he experienced pain, frustration, confusion, and misalignment within one of his businesses. Today, because of the value it brought him, Harvey's one of about 900 EOS Implementers helping entrepreneurs around the world. And he's here to help you create vision, traction, and health in your business faster with EOS principles and tools for beginners, as well as for agents and teams already using EOS.Watch or listen to this EOS episode for insights into:- The relationship between vulnerability, trust, and speed- Harvey's background in real estate, entrepreneurship, logistics, and sports- Entrepreneurship before and after implementing EOS- The three goals of EOS, what types of companies it's designed for, and how it can help real estate teams in particular- Where the terms Visionary and Integrator come from and exactly what they mean- Whether and when to modify or customize EOS for your business - and how the decision can speed you up or slow you down- Two questions to ask (and one resource - linked below) to help you know if you're using EOS effectively- How to get started with EOS (yes, you can do it yourself) - Three things your team should have to get started with EOS effectively- How to separate the person on your team from a seat, role, or function for better decision-making- The six key components of EOS (Vision, Data, Process, Traction, Issues, and People)- The importance of the L10 meeting and the pulse of your businessEOS Organizational Checkup:- https://organizationalcheckup.com/Find a local EOS Implementor:- https://www.eosworldwide.com/implementerEOS on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/EOSWorldwideLibrary of EOS books:- https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-library Harvey Yergin:- https://www.eosworldwide.com/harvey-yergin- https://www.facebook.com/harvey.yerginiv- https://www.instagram.com/harveyyergin/- harvey.yergin at eosworldwide dot comReal Estate Team OS:- https://www.realestateteamos.com- https://linktr.ee/realestateteamos- https://www.instagram.com/realestateteamos/ Talk or type with our new Team Bot: https://realestateteamos.com/bot

Lorrie Boyer and Nick Papagni, “The AgMeter” discuss the Waters of the US (WOTUS) rule under the Clean Water Act with Mary-Thomas Hart, Chief Counsel of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). Thomas-Hart highlights that farmers and landowners have faced 14 iterations of WOTUS since 1972. Recent developments include EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's announcements on enforcement and a 30-day Request for Information. The Supreme Court's 2023 decision declared the significant nexus test unconstitutional. NCBA aims to ensure EPA aligns with the Supreme Court's intent. Thomas-Hart emphasizes the importance of public comments and collaboration with agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers and USDA to avoid unintended harm to cattle producers. The discussion on the Ag Net News Hour continued on the Waters of the US under the Clean Water Act, emphasizing the need for clear definitions to avoid federal jurisdiction over agricultural land. California's water issues were highlighted, with concerns about water allocation and environmental policies favoring fish over human needs. The conversation also touched on the potential benefits and risks of genetically modified soybeans and corn, noting that 90% of soybeans and corn are genetically modified. The debate includes the impact of GMOs on human health and the role of the Food and Drug Administration in ensuring food safety. In the last segment, Nick Papagni and Lorrie Boyer discussed the growing gray wolf population in California, which has led to cattle depredation, prompting a local emergency in one county. Between October and December 2024, wolves killed 19 cattle in rural counties. The issue mirrors that in Colorado, where wolves were reintroduced via a ballot measure. The conversation highlighted the challenges farmers face, including financial losses and the fear of reporting losses due to potential harassment from environmentalists. California has a $3 million compensation program for non-lethal deterrence measures.

In this episode of the AgNet News Hour, hosts Lorrie Boyer and Nick Papagni discuss various agricultural topics, including citrus updates, weather events, the California hay sector, and a new GMO strawberry consortium. The Almond Board of California reminded growers to report crop damage to local county Ag Commissioners for disaster assistance. Nick Folio from Folio Commodities noted potential stagnation in the hay market due to delayed first cuttings. The conversation also touched on the impact of wildfires on hay supply, which was minimal. Additionally, the show highlighted the importance of timely updates on hay and alfalfa market conditions, including weather, pest pressure, and quality. Nick discussed the current state of the California citrus industry, noting a decline in lemon and clementine markets due to smaller fruit sizes attributed to weather conditions. The segment then shifted to the formation of the OHalo Strawberry Consortium, a collaboration aiming to revolutionize strawberry breeding with uniform, true seeds. This initiative, led by Dr. Phil Stewart, promises non-GMO strawberry varieties that will improve flavor, shelf life, and yield. The new hybrid breeding system is expected to accelerate breeding and reduce production costs, benefiting farmers and the entire value chain. The conversation also touched on the potential competition among consortium members and the need for further testing and consumer acceptance. Discussion turned to the upcoming Citrus and Specialty Crop Expo in Tampa, Florida, on August 20-21, featuring experts and innovations in farming. A federal court awarded over $10 million to three Missouri farmers for damages caused by the US Army Corps of Engineers' flood management changes, but payments have been delayed. The farmers face significant losses, including infrastructure damage and lost crops, and have incurred substantial litigation costs since 2014. The discussion highlighted the impact of flooding on farmland, the potential for future land usage issues, and the broader implications of environmental regulations on agricultural operations.

President Trump has been threatening to “take back” the Panama Canal since he regained power. In this episode, listen to testimony from officials serving on the Federal Maritime Commission who explain why the Panama Canal has become a focus of the administration and examine whether or not we need to be concerned about an impending war for control of the canal. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes Current Events around the Panama Canal March 5, 2025. the Associated Press. Sabrina Valle, Suzanne McGee, and Michael Martina. March 4, 2025. Reuters. Matt Murphy, Jake Horton and Erwan Rivault. February 14, 2025. BBC. May 1, 2024. World Weather Attribution. World Maritime News Staff. March 15, 2019. World Maritime News. July 29, 2018. Reuters. Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 U.S. Department of State. The Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative” Michele Ruta. March 29, 2018. World Bank Group. The Trump-Gaza Video February 26, 2025. Sky News. Laws Audio Sources Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation January 28, 2025 Witnesses: Louis E. Sola, Chairman, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Daniel B. Maffei, Commissioner, FMC , Professor, Scalia Law School, George Mason University Joseph Kramek, President & CEO, World Shipping Council Clips 17:30 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Between the American construction of the Panama Canal, the French effort to build an isthmus canal, and America's triumphant completion of that canal, the major infrastructure projects across Panama cost more than 35,000 lives. For the final decade of work on the Panama Canal, the United States spent nearly $400 million, equivalent to more than $15 billion today. The Panama Canal proved a truly invaluable asset, sparing both cargo ships and warships the long journey around South America. When President Carter gave it away to Panama, Americans were puzzled, confused, and many outraged. With the passage of time, many have lost sight of the canal's importance, both to national security and to the US economy. 18:45 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): But the Panama Canal was not just given away. President Carter struck a bargain. He made a treaty. And President Trump is making a serious and substantive argument that that treaty is being violated right now. 19:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): President Trump has highlighted two key issues. Number one, the danger of China exploiting or blocking passage through the canal, and number two, the exorbitant costs for transit. 19:20 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Chinese companies are right now building a bridge across the canal at a slow pace, so as to take nearly a decade. And Chinese companies control container points ports at either end. The partially completed bridge gives China the ability to block the canal without warning, and the ports give China ready observation posts to time that action. This situation, I believe, poses acute risks to US national security. 19:50 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Meanwhile, the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans, because US cargo accounts for nearly three quarters of Canal transits. US Navy vessels pay additional fees that apply only to warships. Canal profits regularly exceed $3 billion. This money comes from both American taxpayers and consumers in the form of higher costs for goods. American tourists aboard cruises, particularly those in the Caribbean Sea, are essentially captive to any fees Panama chooses to levy for canal transits, and they have paid unfair prices for fuel bunkering at terminals in Panama as a result of government granted monopoly. Panama's government relies on these exploitative fees. Nearly 1/10 of its budget is paid for with canal profit. 21:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama has for years flagged dozens of vessels in the Iranian ghost fleet, which brought Iran tens of billions of dollars in oil profits to fund terror across the world. 21:40 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): And Chinese companies have won contracts, often without fair competition, as the infamous Belt and Road Initiative has come to Panama. China often engages in debt trap diplomacy to enable economic and political coercion. In Panama, it also seems to have exploited simple corruption. 32:40 Louis Sola: The Panama Canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority, ACP, an independent agency of the Panamanian government. The ACP is a model of public infrastructure management, and its independence has been key to ensure a safe and reliable transit of vessels critical to the US and global commerce. 33:25 Louis Sola: In contrast, the broader maritime sector in Panama, including the nation's ports, water rights, and the world's largest ship registry, falls under the direct purview of the Panamanian government. 33:35 Louis Sola: Unfortunately, this sector has faced persistent challenges, including corruption scandals and foreign influence, particularly from Brazil and China. These issues create friction with the ACP, especially as it works to address long term challenges such as securing adequate water supplies for the canal. 33:55 Louis Sola: Although the ACP operates independently, under US law both the ACP and the government of Panama's maritime sector are considered one in the same. This means that any challenges in Panama's maritime sector, including corruption, lack of transparency, or foreign influence, can have a direct or indirect impact on the operations and long term stability of the canal. This legal perspective highlights the need for diligence in monitoring both the ACP's management and Panama government's policies affecting maritime operations. 34:30 Louis Sola: Since 2015, Chinese companies have increased their presence and influence throughout Panama. Panama became a member of the Belt and Road Initiative and ended its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Chinese companies have been able to pursue billions of dollars in development contracts in Panama, many of which were projects directly on or adjacent to the Panama Canal. Many were no bid contracts. Labor laws were waived, and the Panamanian people are still waiting to see how they've been benefited. It is all more concerning that many of these companies are state-owned, and in some cases, even designated as linked to the People's Liberation Army. We must address the significant growing presence and influence of China throughout the Americas and in Panama, specifically. 35:20 Louis Sola: American companies should play a leading role in enhancing the canal's infrastructure. By supporting US firms, we reduce reliance on Chinese contractors and promote fair competition. 36:55 Daniel Maffei: Because the canal is essentially a waterway bridge over mountainous terrain above sea level, it does depend on large supplies of fresh water to maintain the full operations. Panama has among the world's largest annual rainfalls. Nonetheless, insufficient fresh water levels have occurred before in the canal's history, such as in the 1930s when the Madden Dam and Lake Alajuela were built to address water shortages. Since that time, the canal has undertaken several projects to accommodate larger, more modern ships. In the last couple of years, a trend of worsening droughts in the region, once again, has forced limits to the operations of the canal. Starting in June of 2023 the Panama Canal Authority employed draft restrictions and reduced the number of ships allowed to transit the canal per day. Now the Panama Canal limitations, in combination with the de facto closure of the Suez Canal to container traffic, has had serious consequences for ocean commerce, increasing rates, fees and transit times. 39:30 Daniel Maffei: Now, fortunately, Panama's 2024 rainy season has, for now, alleviated the most acute water supply issues at the canal, and normal transit volumes have been restored. That said, while the Panamanian government and Canal Authority have, with the advice of the US Army Corps of Engineers, developed credible plans to mitigate future water shortages, they also warned that it is likely that at least one more period of reduced transits will occur before these plans can be fully implemented. 41:55 Eugene Kontorovich: We shall see that under international law, each party to the treaty is entitled to determine for itself whether a violation has occurred. Now, in exchange for the United States ceding control of the canal which it built and maintained, Panama agreed to a special regime of neutrality. The essential features of this regime of neutrality is that the canal must be open to all nations for transit. That's Article Two. Equitable tolls and fees, Article Three. An exclusive Panamanian operation, Article Five. The prohibition of any foreign military presence, Article Five. Article Five provides that only Panama shall operate the canal. Testifying about the meaning of the treaty at the Senate ratification hearings, the Carter administration emphasized that this prohibits foreign operation of the canal, as well as the garrisoning of foreign troops. Now, Article Five appears to be primarily concerned about control by foreign sovereigns. If Panama signed a treaty with the People's Republic of China, whereby the latter would operate the canal on Panama's behalf, this would be a clear violation. But what if Panama contracted for port operations with a Chinese state firm, or even a private firm influenced or controlled in part by the Chinese government? The Suez Canal Company was itself, before being nationalized, a private firm in which the United Kingdom was only a controlling shareholder. Yet this was understood to represent British control over the canal. In other words, a company need not be owned by the government to be in part controlled by the government. So the real question is the degree of de jure or de facto control over a Foreign Sovereign company, and scenarios range from government companies in an authoritarian regime, completely controlled, to purely private firms in our open society like the United States, but there's many possible situations in the middle. The treaty is silent on the question of how much control is too much, and as we'll see, this is one of the many questions committed to the judgment and discretion of each party. Now turning to foreign security forces, the presence of third country troops would manifestly violate Article Five. But this does not mean that anything short of a People's Liberation Army base flying a red flag is permissible. The presence of foreign security forces could violate the regime of neutrality, even if they're not represented in organized and open military formations. Modern warfare has seen belligerent powers seek to evade international legal limitations by disguising their actions in civilian garb, from Russia's notorious little green men to Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals or disguised as journalists. Bad actors seek to exploit the fact that international treaties focus on sovereign actors. Many of China's man made islands in the South China Sea began as civilian projects before being suddenly militarized. Indeed, this issue was discussed in the Senate ratification hearings over the treaty. Dean Rusk said informal forces would be prohibited under the treaty. Thus the ostensible civilian character of the Chinese presence around the canal does not, in itself, mean that it could not represent a violation of the treaty if, for example, these companies and their employees involved Chinese covert agents or other agents of the Chinese security forces. So this leads us to the final question, Who determines whether neutrality is being threatened or compromised? Unlike many other treaties that provide for third party dispute resolution, the neutrality treaty has no such provision. Instead, the treaty makes clear that each party determines for itself the existence of a violation. Article Four provides that each party is separately authorized to maintain the regime of neutrality, making a separate obligation of each party. The Senate's understanding accompanying to ratification also made clear that Article Five allows each party to take, quote, "unilateral action." Senator Jacob Javits, at the markup hearing, said that while the word unilateral is abrasive, we can quote, "decide that the regime of neutrality is being threatened and then act with whatever means are necessary to keep the canal neutral unilaterally." 46:35 Joseph Kramek: My name is Joe Kramek. I'm President and CEO of the World Shipping Council. The World Shipping Council is the global voice of liner shipping. Our membership consists of 90% of the world's liner shipping tonnage, which are container vessels and vehicle carriers. They operate on fixed schedules to provide our customers with regular service to ship their goods in ports throughout the world. 47:15 Joseph Kramek: As you have heard, using the Panama Canal to transit between the Atlantic and Pacific saves significant time and money. A typical voyage from Asia to the US or East Coast can be made in under 30 days using the canal, while the same journey can take up to 40 days if carriers must take alternate routes. From a commercial trade perspective, the big picture is this. One of the world's busiest trade lanes is the Trans Pacific. The Trans Pacific is cargo coming from and going to Asia via the United States. Focusing in a bit, cargo coming from Asia and bound for US Gulf and East Coast ports always transits the Panama Canal. Similarly, cargo being exported from US and East Coast ports, a large share of which are US Agricultural exports, like soybeans, corn, cotton, livestock and dairy also almost always transits the Panama Canal. The result is that 75% of Canal traffic originates in or is bound for the United States. 48:55 Joseph Kramek: We've talked about the drought in 2023 and the historic low water levels that it caused in Lake Gatún, which feeds the canal locks, a unique system that is a fresh water feed, as contrasted to an ocean to ocean system, which the French tried and failed, but which is actually active in the Suez Canal. These low water levels reduced transits from 36 transits a day to as low as 22 per day. Additionally, the low water levels required a reduction in maximum allowable draft levels, or the depth of the ship below the water line, which for our members reduced the amount of containers they could carry through the canal. This resulted in a 10% reduction in import volumes for US Gulf and East Coast ports, with the Port of Houston experiencing a 26.7% reduction. 51:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Are you aware of allegations from some vessel operators of disparate treatment such as sweetheart deals or favorable rebates by Panama for canal transits? Louis Sola: Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman, we have become aware through some complaints by cruise lines that said that they were not getting a refund of their canal tolls. When we looked into this, we found a Panamanian Executive Order, Decree 73, that specifically says that if a cruise line would stop at a certain port, that they could be refunded 100% of the fees. And as far as I know, that's the only instant where that exists. 53:05 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): So Panama was the very first Latin American country to join China's Belt and Road Initiative, and right now, China is building a fourth bridge across the Panama Canal for car traffic and light rail. Chairman Sola, why should Chinese construction of a bridge near Panama City concern the United States? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, we all saw the tragedy that happened here in the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident and the devastation that had happened to Baltimore. We also saw recently what happened in the Suez Canal, where we had a ship get stuck in there. It's not only the construction of the bridge, but it's a removal of a bridge, as I understand it, called the Bridge of the Americas. It was built in 1961 and that would paralyze cargo traffic in and out of the canals. 53:55 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama also recently renewed the concessions for two container ports to a Chinese company, Hutchison Ports PPC. Of course, Chinese companies are controlled by the Communist Party. How does China use control of those ports for economic gain? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, I am a regulator, a competition regulator. And the Chinese ports that you're referring to, let me put them into scope. The one on the Pacific, the Port of Balboa, is roughly the same size as the Port of Houston. They do about 4 million containers a year. They have about 28 game tree cranes. The one on the Atlantic is the same as my hometown in Miami, they do about 1 million containers. So where Roger Gunther in the Port of Houston generates about $1 billion a year and Heidi Webb in Miami does about $200 million, the Panama ports company paid 0 for 20 years on that concession. So it's really hard to compete against zero. So I think that's our concern, our economic concern, that we would have. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Commissioner Maffei, anything to add on that? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, I do too also think it is important. I would point out that you don't have to stop at either port. It's not like these two ports control the entrance to the canal. That is the Canal Authority that does control that. However, I think it's of concern. I would also point out that the Panamanian government thinks it's of concern too, because they're conducting their own audit of those particular deals, but we remain very interested as well. 56:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Would the facts discussed here be considered violations of the neutrality treaty in force right now between the United States and Panama? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think Senator, I think potentially they could, but it's impossible to say definitively without knowing more, in particular, about the degree of Chinese control and involvement in these companies. I think it's important to note that these port operation companies that operate the ports on both sides, when they received their first contract, it was just a few months before Hong Kong was handed over to China. In other words, they received them as British companies, sort of very oddly, just a few months before the handover. Now, of course, since then, Hong Kong has been incorporated into China, has been placed under a special national security regime, and the independence of those companies has been greatly abridged, to say nothing of state owned companies involved elsewhere in in the canal area, which raised significantly greater questions. Additionally, I should point out that the understandings between President Carter and Panamanian leader Herrera, which were attached to the treaty and form part of the treaty, provide that the United States can, quote, "defend the canal against any threat to the regime of neutrality," and I understand that as providing some degree of preemptive authority to intervene. One need not wait until the canal is actually closed by some act of sabotage or aggression, which, as we heard from the testimony, would be devastating to the United States, but there is some incipient ability to address potential violations. 58:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): If the United States determines that Panama is in violation of the treaty, what is the range of remedies the United States would have for that treaty violation? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think it may be shocking to people to hear today, but when one goes over the ratification history and the debates and discussions in this body over this treaty, it was clear that the treaty was understood as giving both sides, separately, the right to resort to use armed force to enforce the provisions of the treaty. And it's not so surprising when one understands that the United States made an extraordinary concession to Panama by transferring this canal, which the United States built at great expense and maintained and operated to Panama, gratis. And in exchange, it received a kind of limitation, a permanent limitation on Panamanians sovereignty, that Panama agreed that the United States could enforce this regime of neutrality by force. Now, of course, armed force should never be the first recourse for any kind of international dispute and should not be arrived at sort of rationally or before negotiations and other kinds of good offices are exhausted, but it's quite clear that the treaty contemplates that as a remedy for violations. 1:03:20 Louis Sola: I believe that the security of the canal has always been understood to be provided by the United States. Panama does not have a military, and I always believed that there's been a close relationship with Southern Command that we would provide that. And it would be nice to see if we had a formalization of that in one way or another, because I don't believe that it's in the treaty at all. 1:05:05 Daniel Maffei: While we were down there, both of us heard, I think, several times, that the Panamanians would, the ones we talked to anyway, would welcome US companies coming in and doing a lot of this work. Frankly, their bids are not competitive with the Chinese bids. Frankly, they're not that existent because US companies can make more money doing things other places, but even if they were existent, it is difficult to put competitive bids when the Chinese bids are so heavily subsidized by China. 1:06:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): What would China's incentive be to heavily subsidize those bids to undercut American companies and other companies? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, it's not a real short answer, but Senator, China's made no secret of its ambitious policies to gain influence of ports throughout the globe. It's invested in 129 ports in dozens of countries. It runs a majority of 17 ports, that does not include this Hong Kong company, right? So that's just directly Chinese-owned ports. So it has been a part of their Belt and Road strategy, whatever you want to call it, the Maritime Silk Road, for decades. So they believe that this influence, this investment in owning maritime ports is important to their economy. 1:07:05 Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): In 2021, Hutchison was awarded those two ports, Port Balboa and Port Cristobal, in a no-bid award process. Can you tell me, does the United States have any authority or recourse with the Panama Canal Authority under our current agreement with Panama to rebid those terminal concession contracts. And perhaps Mr. Kantorovich, that's more in your purview? Louis Sola: Senator, both of those ports were redone for 25 years, until 2047, I believe. And they have to pay $7 million is what the ongoing rate is for the Port of Houston- and the Port of Miami-sized concessions. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): And it can't be rebid until after that date? Louis Sola: Well, I believe that that's what the comptroller's office is auditing both of those ports and that contract. That was done under the previous Panamanian administration. A new administration came in, and they called for an audit of that contract immediately. 1:20:10 Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Are the companies now controlling both sides of the Panama Canal, the Chinese companies, subject to the PRC national security laws that mandate cooperation with the military, with state intelligence agencies. Does anyone know that? Eugene Kontorovich: They're subject all the time. They're subject to those laws all the time by virtue of being Hong Kong companies. And you know, they face, of course, consequences for not complying with the wishes of the Chinese government. One of the arguments -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Wouldn't that be a violation of the treaty? And isn't that a huge risk to us right now that the Chinese -- Eugene Kontorovich: That is a threat to the neutrality -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): If they invaded Taiwan, invaded the Philippines, they could go to these two companies saying, Hey, shut it down, make it hard, sink a ship in the canal. And wouldn't they be obligated to do that under Chinese law if they were ordered to by the PLA or the CCP? Eugene Kontorovich: I don't know if they'd be obligated, but certainly the People's Republic of China would have many tools of leverage and pressure on these companies. That's why the treaty specifically says that we can act not just to end actual obstructions to the canal. We don't have to wait until the canal is closed by hostile military action. Thatwould be a suicide pact, that would be catastrophic for us, but rather that we can respond at the inchoate, incipient level to threats, and then this is up to the president to determine whether this is significantly robust to constitute -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): So aren't we kind of walking up to the idea of a suicide pact, because we've got two big Chinese companies on both ends of the Panama Canal, who, if there's a war in INDOPACOM, Taiwan that involves us and China, these companies would be obligated to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party and PLA? I mean, are we kind of walking up to a very significant national security threat already? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, certainly, there's a threat. And I think what makes the action of the Chinese government so difficult to respond to, but important to respond to, is that they conceal this in sort of levels of gray without direct control. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Let me ask you on that topic, as my last question, Professor, let's assume that we find out. And again, it wouldn't be surprising. I think you can almost assume it that these two companies have Chinese spies or military officials within the ranks of the employees of the companies. Let's assume we found that out, somehow that becomes public. But I don't think it's a big assumption. It's probably true right now. So you have spies and military personnel within the ranks of these two companies that are controlling both ends of the Panama Canal for you, Professor, and Chairman Sola, wouldn't that be a blatant violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty, if that were true, which probably is true? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, I do think it would be a clear violation. As former Secretary of State, Dean Ross said at the ratification hearings, informal forces can violate Article Five as well as formal forces. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Is there any evidence of Chinese spies or other nefarious Chinese actors embedded in these companies? Louis Sola: Senator, we have no information of that. That's not under the purview of -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): But you agree that would be a violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty? Louis Sola: I do. 1:26:25 Daniel Maffei: Senator Sullivan was talking about Hutchison Ports. That's actually the same company that runs terminals on both ends of the canal. I am concerned about that. However, if we want to be concerned about that, all of us should lose a lot more sleep than we're losing because if there are spies there, then there might be spies at other Hutchinson ports, and there are other Hutchinson ports in almost every part of the world. They own the largest container port in the United Kingdom, Felix Dow, which is responsible for nearly half of Britain's container trade. They control major maritime terminals in Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, the Netherlands, South Korea and Tanzania. If owning and managing adjacent ports means that China somehow has operational control or strategic control over the Panama Canal, they also have it over the Suez, the Singapore Straits, the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. 1:35:45 Louis Sola: The fees that I think we are looking at, or have been looked at, the reason that we went there was because of the auctioning of the slots. And so what Panama did is they had a smaller percentage, maybe 20% allocation, and then they moved it up to 30% and 40% because it became a money maker for them. So as they were doing -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, let me interject here. The auctioning of the slots gives these the right to skip the queue? Louis Sola: Yes, ma'am. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, so just for the record there. Continue. Louis Sola: So the auctioning of the slots. Under maritime law, it's first come first serve, but Panama has always put a certain percentage aside, and they started to put more and more. So we got a lot of complaints. We got a lot of complaints from LNG carriers that paid $4 million to go through, and we got a lot of complaints from agriculture that didn't have the money to pay to go through, because their goods were gonna go down. So if you look at the financial statements -- I'm a nerd, I look at financial statements of everybody -- the canal increased the amount of revenue that they had from about $500 million to $1.8 billion in the last three years just because of those fees. So this is what is very concerning to us. 1:39:20 Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): Do you know of any instances where the United States has been singled out or treated unfairly under the neutrality treaty in the operation of the canal? Daniel Maffei: I do not. I would add that one of the reasons why saying the US is disproportionately affected by raises in Canal fees and other kinds of fees at the canal is because the United States disproportionately utilizes the canal. 1:44:55 Louis Sola: We have a US port there, SSA, out of Washington State that I actually worked on the development of that many years ago, and helped develop that. That used to be a United States Navy submarine base, and we converted that. As far as the two ports that we have, they're completely different. One is a major infrastructure footprint, and also a container port that's moving 4 million containers a year. That's really phenomenal amount. That's more than Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and you've probably got to get Tampa and a little bit of Jacksonville in there to get that type of volume. And on the other side, we have a very small port, but it's a very strategic port on the Atlantic. So how are the operations done?I don't know how they don't make money. I mean, if you want to come right down to it, if they've been operating the port for 20 years, and they say that they haven't made any money, so they haven't been able to pay the government. That's what concerns me is I don't believe that we're on a level playing field with the American ports. 1:58:50 Eugene Kontorovich: I think the charges and fees are less of an issue because they don't discriminate across countries. We pay more because we use more, but it's not nationally discriminatory. 1:59:00 Eugene Kontorovich: The presence of Chinese companies, especially Chinese state companies, but not limited to them, do raise serious issues and concerns for the neutrality of the treaty. And I should point out, in relation to some of the earlier questioning, the canal, for purposes of the neutrality treaty, is not limited just to the actual locks of the canal and the transit of ships through the canal. According to Annex One, paragraph one of the treaty, it includes also the entrances of the canal and the territorial sea of Panama adjacent to it. So all of the activities we're talking about are within the neutrality regime, the geographic scope of the neutrality regime in the treaty. 2:00:30 Daniel Maffei: I actually have to admit, I'm a little confused as to why some of the senators asking these questions, Senator Blackburn, aren't more concerned about the biggest port in the United Kingdom being run by the Chinese. Petraeus in the port nearest Athens, one of the biggest ports in the Mediterranean, is not just run by a Chinese-linked company, it's run directly by a Chinese-owned company, and I was there. So you're on to something, but if you're just focusing on Panama, that's only part. 2:01:45 Louis Sola: About a year ago, when we were having this drought issue, there was also a lot of focus on Iran and how they were funding Hamas and the Houthis because they were attacking the Red Sea. What the United States has found is that Iranian vessels are sometimes flagged by Panama in order to avoid sanctions, so that they could sell the fuel that they have, and then they can take that money and then they can use it as they wish. Panama, at the time, had a very complicated process to de-flag the vessels. There was an investigation, there was an appeals process. By the time that OFAC or Treasury would go ahead and identify one of those vessels, by the time that they were doing the appeals and stuff like this, they've already changed flags to somewhere else. So when we went to Panama, we met with the Panamanian president, and I must say that we were very impressed, because he was 30 minutes late, but he was breaking relations with Venezuela at the time because the election was the day before. We explained to him the situation. The very next day, we met with the maritime minister, with US embassy personnel and Panama actually adjusted their appeals process so to make it more expedient, so if the United States or OFAC would come and say that this Iranian vessel is avoiding sanctions, now we have a process in place to go ahead and do that, and 53 vessels were de-flagged because of that. 2:06:05 Sen. John Curtis (R-UT): Is there any reason that China can't watch or do whatever they want from this bridge to get the intel from these containers? And does that concern anybody? Louis Sola: Well, it definitely concerns Southern Command, because they've brought it up on numerous occasions that there could be some sort of surveillance or something like that on the bridges. 2:20:30 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): We segregate ourselves artificially in a way that they do not. We segregate ourselves. Let's talk about military. Let's talk about intelligence. Let's talk about economics. They don't. China doesn't work that way. It's a whole of government approach. They don't draw a delineation between an economics discussion and a military one. And their attack may not look like Pearl Harbor. It may look like an everyday ship that decides, you know, it pulls into the locks and blows itself up. And now the locks are non-functional for our usage, and we can't support an inter ocean fleet transfer, and our ability to defend it, as you referred to Chairman, is now inhibited by the fact that we no longer have the military infrastructure around the canal that we did just as recently as 1999. 2:21:10 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): So from a commercial perspective, do the shipping companies have concerns over the security of the narrow waterways? We've the Strait to Malacca, we've got the Suez Canal, we've got Gibraltar, we've got Panama. Is that a concern that's thrown around in the boardrooms of the largest shipping corporations in the world? Joseph Kramek: Senator, I think it's something they think about every day. I mean, really, it's drawn into sharp relief with the Red Sea. It was what I call a pink flamingo. There's black swans that just come up and there's pink flamingos that you can see, but you don't act. But no one really thought a whole lot that one of the most important waterways in the world could be denied, and moreover, that it could be denied for such a sustained period. The good news is that -- Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): And denied, I might add, by a disaffected non-state actor of Bedouins running around with rocket launchers, who also managed to beat us in a 20 year war in Afghanistan. My point to saying all this is we're just debating operational control of the canal, yet it seems very clear to all of us that a very simple act can debilitate the canal and eliminate our ability to use it in a matter of minutes with no warning, and we have no ability to intervene or stop that. To me, that means we do not have operational control of the canal. 2:30:40 Daniel Maffei: I will say that certainly we need to look at other kinds of ways to get US companies in positions where they can truly compete with the Chinese on some of these things. Blaming it all on Panama really misses the point. I've seen the same thing in Greece, where Greece didn't want to give the concession of its largest port to a Chinese company, but because of its financial difficulties, it was getting pressure from international organizations such the IMF, Europe and even maybe some of the United States to do so. So I just ask you to look at that. 2:31:20 Daniel Maffei: Panamanians are making far more on their canal than they ever have before. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's going to the right place. But where they're really making the money is on these auctions, and that is why it remains a concern of mine and I'm sure the chairman's. That is where we are looking at, potentially, using our authority under Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act where we could, if we can show that it is a problem with the foreign trade of the US, it's interfering with foreign trade of the US, there are certain things that we can do. Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 15, 2024 Clips 4:01:40 Marco Rubio: The thing with Panama on the canal is not new. I visited there. It was 2016. I think I've consistently seen people express concern about it, and it's encapsulized here in quote after quote. Let me tell you the former US ambassador who served under President Obama said: "the Chinese see in Panama what we saw in Panama throughout the 20th century, a maritime and aviation logistics hub." The immediate past head of Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, said, "I was just in Panama about a month ago and flying along the Panama Canal and looking at the state owned enterprises from the People's Republic of China on each side of the Panama Canal. They look like civilian companies or state owned enterprises that could be used for dual use and could be quickly changed over to a military capability." We see questions that were asked by the ranking member in the house China Select Committee, where he asked a witness and they agreed that in a time of conflict, China could use its presence on both ends of the canal as a choke point against the United States in a conflict situation. So the concerns about Panama have been expressed by people on both sides of the aisle for at least the entire time that I've been in the United States Senate, and they've only accelerated further. And this is a very legitimate issue that we face there. I'm not prepared to answer this question because I haven't looked at the legal research behind it yet, but I'm compelled to suspect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that canal were turned over have been violated. Because while technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, through their companies, which we know are not independent, the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict. And that is a direct threat to the national interest and security the United States, and is particularly galling given the fact that we paid for it and that 5,000 Americans died making it. That said, Panama is a great partner on a lot of other issues, and I hope we can resolve this issue of the canal and of its security, and also continue to work with them cooperatively on a host of issues we share in common, including what to do with migration. 4:38:35 Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): Now, President Trump has recently talked a little bit about the fact that there are some questions arising about the status of the Panama Canal. When we look to the treaty at issue, the treaty concerning the permanent neutrality and operation of the Panama Canal, we're reminded that some things maybe aren't quite as they should be there right now. Given that the Chinese now control major ports at the entry and the exit to the canal, it seems appropriate to say that there's at least an open question. There's some doubt as to whether the canal remains neutral. Would you agree with that assessment? Marco Rubio: Yes. Here's the challenge. Number one, I want to be clear about something. The Panamanian government, particularly its current office holders, are very friendly to the United States and very cooperative, and we want that to continue, and I want to bifurcate that from the broader issue of the canal. Now I am not, President Trump is not inventing this. This is something that's existed now for at least a decade. In my service here, I took a trip to Panama in 2017. When on that trip to Panama in 2017 it was the central issue we discussed about the canal, and that is that Chinese companies control port facilities at both ends of the canal, the east and the west, and the concerns among military officials and security officials, including in Panama, at that point, that that could one day be used as a choke point to impede commerce in a moment of conflict. Going back to that I -- earlier before you got here, and I don't want to have to dig through this folder to find it again, but -- basically cited how the immediate past head of Southern Command, just retired general Richardson, said she flew over the canal, looked down and saw those Chinese port facilities, and said Those look like dual use facilities that in a moment of conflict, could be weaponized against us. The bipartisan China commission over in the House last year, had testimony and hearings on this issue, and members of both parties expressed concern. The former ambassador to Panama under President Obama has expressed those concerns. This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted. The second point is the one you touched upon, and that is, look, could an argument be made, and I'm not prepared to answer it yet, because it's something we're going to have to study very carefully. But I think I have an inkling of I know where this is going to head. Can an argument be made that the Chinese basically have effective control of the canal anytime they want? Because if they order a Chinese company that controls the ports to shut it down or impede our transit, they will have to do so. There are no independent Chinese companies. They all exist because they've been identified as national champions. They're supported by the Chinese government. And if you don't do what they want, they find a new CEO, and you end up being replaced and removed. So they're under the complete control of their government. This is a legitimate question, and one that Senators Risch had some insight as well. He mentioned that in passing that needs to be looked at. This is not a joke. The Panama Canal issue is a very serious one. 4:44:30 Marco Rubio: In 2016 and 2017 that was well understood that part of the investments they made in Panama were conditioned upon Panama's ability to convince the Dominican Republic and other countries to flip their recognition away from Taiwan. That happened. Jen Briney's Recent Guest Appearances Travis Makes Money: Give and Take: Music by Editing Production Assistance

We last checked in with JT Taylor three years ago, so much has changed. If you saw the announcement of a new race at Area BFE on Big Saturday, you want to listen in for the deets. JT spills it all!. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.6:45 – 284 acres outside of Tulsa that goes up against the river and US Army Corp of Engineers land with 26 miles of trails 12:12– they got hit by a trophy truck in a silt bed north of Loreto; broke the right rear of the car, but we changed it all out and still beat the competition by two hours             18:29 – We built the Nissan as a practice car for the Coronet, I have to learn to drive fast in two-wheel drive on asphalt again.28:32 – We go out to Rednecks to help Derek and the guys run the races, we got Rugged Radio to donate a bunch of headsets, it was a game changer30:56– ***ALL THE DEETS HERE*** Rock race at Area BFE on Big Saturday during EJS 55:19 –Entries open on March 1Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app. Support the show

In this episode of The Building Texas Business Podcast, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the region's economic development. We explored the five major industry clusters shaping the area: maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals. Brian shared updates on aerospace innovations at Ellington Field, including projects by Intuitive Machines and Axiom, while highlighting new opportunities in defence manufacturing. I learned about Project 11, an initiative to expand the Houston port's capacity for larger vessels. Brian explained how this infrastructure project connects to the broader transportation network, particularly the role of trucking in regional commerce. We discussed how the partnership works with legislators and industry leaders to address challenges like insurance costs and maintain economic momentum. The conversation shifted to leadership approaches and team dynamics in Texas business. Brian described how maintaining diverse projects keeps his team engaged and motivated. We explored how the Houston area supports entrepreneurs through community partnerships and mentorship programs while adapting to technological changes like AI integration. Our discussion wrapped up with a look at workforce development in the region. Brian explained how educational partnerships are building talent pipelines across industries. We covered the importance of aligning training programs with business needs while fostering collaboration between municipalities, educational institutions, and industry partners. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the economic development in the Houston Bay Area, focusing on the recruitment, retention, and expansion of primary employers. We discussed the significant industry clusters in the region, including maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals, and their impact on the area's economic growth. Brian highlighted developments at Ellington Field, including contributions from companies like Intuitive Machines and Axiom, as well as the emerging opportunities in defense manufacturing and procurement. The episode explored the scale and impact of the Houston port, emphasizing Project 11's role in expanding the port's capacity and the importance of logistics and innovation for regional prosperity. We delved into the leadership style necessary for motivating teams and managing diverse projects, underscoring the Texan entrepreneurial spirit characterized by ambition and a collaborative approach. Brian shared insights on the vibrant business ecosystem in Texas, driven by a skilled workforce, affordability, and a supportive community fostering partnerships and mentorship opportunities. Finally, we addressed challenges like insurance costs and the importance of regional solidarity, as well as efforts to mitigate natural disaster risks and promote responsible development in the area. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About BAHEP GUESTS Brian FreedmanAbout Brian TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. Brian shares how his organization works to recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the greater Houston Bay Area region. Brian, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thanks for joining us today. Brian: Hey, thank you, Chris. Honored to be here and great to catch up. Chris: Yes, likewise. So let's start with you. You're the president and the organizational name's kind of long it's Bay Area, houston Economic Partnership. Tell the listeners a little bit about what that organization is and what it does, to kind of put the rest of our conversation into context. Brian: Sure, so BayHEP is the short version of it. So we're the Regional Economic Development Group and kind of the, as I like to say, in the Houston-Galveston region. We're three o'clock to six o'clock on the watch, face right. So we kind of go out 225, all the municipalities and cities going out east and then going down south 45. We go a little west of 45, but really that 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock and we're really focused on how do you recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the region with the idea that if you can get great companies located here and have a group of industry clusters that are cranking away every day, that we can have a great place to live. We have great involved residents that are in this area and opportunities for the folks who live here and kind of build what the future will look like for this region. So a lot of good stuff going on and, happy to get into that a little further, we do economic development, recruitment, retention projects. So how do we get companies here? We do some grants and then we're a membership organization is how we're funded. So we have about 300 members, 19 municipal members, Harrison-Galveston County, the port, the airport system. It's really how do you get the leaders of a region to work together to advance what we're doing here. Chris: Wow, I mean that's it sounds like it's easier to say and harder to do coordinating that many organizations and trying to get everybody pulling the same direction. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot of fun and we get to work with a lot of great folks. That's how we met Chris, is that, you know, through some of our mutual connections. But yeah, you know, it's really when you can get generally like-minded folks thinking about what the future of a region will look like and pretty aligned and working towards that effort, it's more of a well, it's just fun and you can create a lot of impact and we're seeing that and I'll be happy to dive into some of the specific projects we're working down here. But I mean, you guys do it too at Boyer Miller. Y'all are working with clients all over the spectrum of types of industry and you have to adapt to what's coming up, what's at you, and be ready for that kind of stuff. Chris: Yeah, no doubt. So yeah let's jump into some stuff. Let's talk first, because when I think of your area, obviously the first thing that comes to mind is NASA and all that's going on around that, and that leads me to technology and innovation. So what are some of the emerging technologies or trends that you're seeing that are kind of helping shape the future of Texas and kind of the business opportunities, at least in your region and for Texas? Brian: Yeah, so I call it kind of the big five on the industry cluster. So everybody thinks about this area for NASA, which we love right, because it really is a crown jewel out here, but I call it the big five right Maritime and all the associated logistics with the port aerospace and aviation, so nasa, but also the great work that the airport system is doing with ellington and hobby, tourism and recreation, health care and all the hospitals that have campuses down here, and then specialty and petrochemical and the energy industry partners and every one of those ecosystem has a ton of stuff going on. So I'm happy to talk about some of those more granular. But a couple of observations. One is that often overlooked in this community and really an asset to the greater Houston region is Ellington Field, ellington Airport, the Spaceport and, if you haven't seen or heard about it, the work that's going on at the Spaceport. They have three new beautiful buildings. One is occupied by Intuitive Machines who just put the first commercial lander payload on the surface of the moon. One is occupied by a company called Axiom that's building the next generation of commercial spacesuits and the next generation space station, and Collins who do spacesuit design in our building and maintaining the current spacesuits. They've set up huge facilities down there and so new stuff coming on. But I'm equally excited about just across the runway is the 147th Reserve Group. So there's a reserve unit out there, a reserve base, and the defense opportunities are pretty exciting. So that's highlighted by the 147th. But almost every branch has a reserve unit out there, save the Space Force, and we're working on that. And so the opportunities with defense manufacturing to come out to do more work in Houston and some of their innovation units and, as mundane as it sounds, some of the procurement opportunities, because when it comes to contracting, having a group of folks here would be a great opportunity for Houston businesses to then pipeline the work that they're doing into the broader defense industry, which can be really exciting. One other thing I'll mention, chris, is if you just look at the path of predictable growth for Houston, right, it keeps going out and we see that on our freeways every day. So there are growing pains that come with that, but for our region it's that steady march down Interstate 45. And so while Clear Lake Lake City are starting to get to fully built out and we're looking at what is the next generation of building look like, what's redevelopment look like For communities Dickinson, hitchcock, santa Fe, to some extent Texas City. Although they've got quite an industrial complex too, there's still space, and so it really brings up the opportunity of we can handle big projects, and whether they're industrial or tourism, there's a lot of opportunity that comes with that. And so, as folks you know, as we get built out further and further, those cities that were, they've always been important cities for the regional ecosystem, but they become major players, and so it's exciting to be able to work with them on that stuff. Chris: Sounds like a lot of opportunity for real estate development. Both residential, retail, commercial, industrial kind of all sectors are going to be playing a big part in that ongoing development in your region. Brian: Exactly right, and part of the the fun part is, you know, every municipality has different targets of what they view their economic development to look like, and so we get to work with all those cities where some may be really focused on industrial, some may want to be bedroom communities and be focused on residential. Our task is to support those municipalities in this region and identifying good players to bring to the table. So who are people that we do want to partner with that can follow through on the projects that can complete them and make them successful? Chris: That's great. I think I saw recently in the news the state of Texas, I think it's had something along these lines, but it's like a fund for the space-related projects and I know I don't know the name and you'll help me with that, but I seem to recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that. Brian: Recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that, exactly, right? So last legislative session, primarily spearheaded by State Representative Greg Bonin, who's also a Princewood resident he's a neurosurgeon by day and State Representative Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee during the legislative session he had this kind of vision of how does the state become a major player in the aerospace community. That's been primarily a federal and private industry ecosystem and so under his vision and with support of the state legislature and certainly the governor, they put a bill that kind of outlined a direction for the state to engage and the resources behind it. It does a couple of things. One was it allocated about $200 million that would go to Texas A&M to build this A&M Space Institute, and they've actually located that property. It will be built on the edge of the campus of Johnson Space Center, so for those familiar with this area, right on Saturn Lane. $200 million building and, as A&M's laid it out, it will have a giant lunar rock yard and a giant Mars rock yard, with the idea that everybody who's going to be doing hardware testing to send vehicles to the moon or Mars is trying to figure out where they're going to do that testing. And it's very expensive to build, obviously. And so companies are making the decision whether they're going to build that themselves and own it or go lease it somewhere. And if they're going to lease it, where do you go to find a giant brockyard to simulate the surface of the moon? And well, the state of Texas answered that question. So what was so unique about that vision was that everybody who's in that ecosystem now wants to come through Houston Texas to do that work. And so with that comes the. You know they'll be have their lab space there, but they may need offices, they're going to be hiring people, and so you know it really is an exciting project. They had their groundbreaking right at the end of last year. I've seen surveyors out there and they think they're going to have it open in 2026. So an aggressive timeline to get that bill. The other part to that bill was they appropriated $150 million for a grant program to incentivize sort of space leadership projects in the state of Texas, and so they have to set up a whole, basically administration portion of this. So they selected nine individuals to serve on the Texas Space Commission who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards. Who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards, and then they'll also help advise the state on how they can keep their leadership position in the space industry. The first of those awards about 20 million were released a little over a week ago. A couple of them were studies for best use for really cool stuff hypersonic corridors where to be landing sites. And then another one that is to build assets and capabilities for the Space Force in El Paso to have more of a Space Force presence in the state of Texas, which is pretty exciting. So I'm optimistic about what's to come for them. Chris: Yeah, that sounds very exciting, especially the concept of the $200 million grant to A&M and what that will do to attract other businesses that might relocate somewhere else and bring them here, and then all the ancillary things around hiring and jobs et cetera. So that's very exciting news and I think it'll be just around the corner. Let's maybe talk a little bit about. You mentioned Maritime and the port, and most Houstonians People know the Houston port is a significant asset for our area. Anything going on there that's new and exciting, any kind of innovation that you see when you're working with those entities and, I guess, the port authority itself. Brian: Yeah, well, maybe the first thing when you talk about the port is you're absolutely right just how important they are to this well, to all of Houston, but to the country I mean. The scale of the port is hard to appreciate when you just look at the numbers. But the numbers are just staggering. The amount of capability that comes through there and the innovation really is on the logistics and management for how they move, whether it's container, you know, container containers, the container terminal organization and how that whole orchestra is operated, and the capabilities from there is that the crane's getting stuff unloaded, then onto the trucks or rail or whatever. The mechanism to get it out and then get it distributed to wherever it's going is pretty incredible, and so we're fortunate to have them. We just hosted the new port CEO, charlie Jenkins, who's a phenomenal leader, has a career in service of the port, is the right guy to lead that organization into their next chapter. But he made this comment kind of in passing that the port's operations are about a $3 billion a day operation, you know, and you just go like a day of economic impact that go into that. The scale is really something impressive and that's all the trickle out and secondary effects. But it's amazing, the big thing that's going on with them right now is Project 11. That's the deepening and widening of the channel that'll allow additional capacity to go in there, and it's really writing the story for what the next chapter of the port's future is and Houston as a trading hub is, and so it'll allow for larger ships to come through. The additional investments they're making will allow faster turn and movement of all the goods that are on there. So a lot of good stuff going on. I guess the last thing I'll say is anybody who's driven 225 sees all those trucks and I drive it pretty regularly and see that too and as much as nobody likes driving next to a giant 18 wheeler, every one of those trucks is jobs and prosperity for our region, and so the next time you're driving there and you see a hundred trucks going down 225, that's our economic prosperity moving around our region and, candidly, around the country. It's good stuff. Chris: It's a good point. Yeah, I mean it's. You wouldn't want the roads to be empty and no trucks moving. I mean that's not a good sign. So feel blessed that we have all that you know in our area and driving all kinds of different prospects and opportunities for people. So when you are working with, let's talk a little bit about these member organizations and all the different moving parts you know what are you doing? How do you, I guess, keep things organized and people kind of moving in the same direction? Just, I would think that in itself is a full-time job. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot, but you know it's good stuff. I guess I'll start with a phrase that I kind of live by, which is we have a lot of stuff going on and so we'll find something to get on about. Right, we can always find something to work together on, and so, if you kind of start with that attitude, there's a lot of common issues that really require a lot of work but you can get maybe not perfect alignment, but general directional alignment. And so you know, one of the big issues we're working with right now is insurance. Right, we're all dealing with it. I'm sure you've gotten your insurance bill, but whether it's home or your business insurance, all those things, and so you can find a lot of commonality and ideas about hey, how can we work with our state leaders, potentially our federal leaders, with the insurance companies themselves, to try to manage the cost of doing that and find ways could it be grouping, doing kind of what they do in medical where you can have these larger groups or other mechanisms to try and help mitigate some of the costs? For that I'm getting a little granular, but you can find these little pockets where you can go move the ball down the field and get general alignment and so we spend a lot of time doing that. But we are very fortunate that our membership and generally this is kind of a Texan spirit type thing is hey, how do we go get some stuff done? Right, we want to go work on some stuff we want to go work on together. Generally it's a rising tide mentality and I spent a good portion of my career in industry and there are times where we compete like crazy and that's fun and, you know, makes great products and great opportunities for our customers. There are a lot of times where we need the tide to rise and finding alignment about that we try to be an outlet for that and keep things running. Right Is that we have not a big staff but a staff that can help make sure that. You know, our members are doing a lot of this stuff as volunteers, right, but they're bringing ideas to the table. So how can we make sure that they're staying engaged, that we're checking in on them, that we're helping carry these things and that we're creating a forum to have the right discussions and bring leaders together so we can invite in elected officials over relevant stuff, the right industry players, and bring them to the table and figure out what we can do, and then I guess the last thing I'll say is that manifests itself. We have a very active state legislative agenda. That we're going to be spending a fair amount of time in Austin, federal priorities. That we work with our congressional delegation and then very on the ground working with our municipalities and all the companies that are out down here to make movement. Probably talk all day about little one-offs. Advert Hello friends, this is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders? Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show. Chris: Well it is. You know legislature is in session, so I know that creates a busy time for you. You talked a lot about some of the opportunities and I hope we can talk some more about that, but I do want to ask you at this point what are some of the headwinds that you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there. That you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there that you've got to try to deal with, to get ahead of or navigate through. Brian: I'll start with. It's a great time down here. Just the way that each one of those big five industry clusters is going about is that it's a. You know they're all doing well and have a lot of opportunity that's on the horizon or that they're in the midst of right now, but certainly you know, a few headwinds. One of the things that we're always worried about and we work actively is just natural disaster flood mitigation and storm surge and making sure that we're resilient and prepared for the future, and so the risk from some incident happening. I'm more excited to talk about, when it comes to that, all the things that we're doing to mitigate that. In terms of flood mitigation, the coastal barrier protection work that we've been spending a lot of time on. That's the Ike Dike. It has a lot of names, but most commonly known is that but a system to protect us from storm surge. So one is the risk of natural disaster I don't like it, but it's a real thing, right? The second is that we're in the you know how do we have responsible development? And so when you have a project that comes online, there are, you know, reasonable concerns from citizens saying, hey, is this the best thing to be doing with this piece of land, and so anytime you're talking about a development that's going to take a field and turn it into a thing, people get concerned about that and that's perfectly reasonable for them to be concerned and want to do that. And so part of what I spend time doing is addressing like, hey, here's why this is worthwhile, here's why this funds your local municipality and build more parks so we can have the resources and the tax base that justify expenditures that come elsewhere and make through that. But just the ability for the public's ability to impact development, as it happens, is important. But for them to do that knowing all the ground truth, knowing what the trades are and understanding that, so that if they are concerned about something that they come with that from an educated knowledge base and so that's out there. And then I certainly don't want to get political, but anytime there's an administration change, there's just priorities that get changed. And so we're still waiting to understand all of those. We're kind of watching how things are shaken out in Washington DC and we'll adapt and make sure that we're doing everything we can to put our region in a great posture with whatever those priorities are at the end of the day. Chris: So yeah, to that last point where you're kind of right in throws that change. Right now that's happening pretty fast, so you got to stay on your toes. Let me take you back to the Ike Dike, because that you know something to get after Harvey. Hurricane Harvey got talked about a lot. You don't hear much about it anymore. Any kind of updates for the listeners. That might be curious. Is it really going to happen and, if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Brian: And if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Yeah, so it's still moving along, you know, and with some enthusiasm. So a couple of big milestones. One is that in December of 22, it became a formal project of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It was authorized by Congress as a project, so that says, you know, they can now go focus on that. And so the next big question becomes how do we pay for it? To answer that, the state stepped up in a big way in the last legislative session and they had previously formed what's called the Gulf Coast Protection District. That is the local entity for that project. That will work with the US Army Corps of Engineers. So that group exists and has monthly meetings. They actually have an office in our suite. We lease an office to them them and they have their meeting in our conference room two out of every three months and then they do a rotation on that. Third, and they've been funded to the tune of about a half a billion dollars from the state of Texas. So they're ready to take significant action. We've been working with our federal partners about identifying where the big dollars come from for that project. It's going to be expensive and it's going to take a long time, but it will be likely done in phases and so that allows it. Where you don't need this one giant tranche of money all at once, you can do it sort of in a series and address the most important aspects of that, like the gates, some of the initial most highly populated areas, in phases. But we got to get federal appropriations for it. So in addition to the state entity being in our office, actually the US Army Corps of Engineers is on the fourth floor of this building and so all of the players for that project are in one building in our area right here, so that when what I'm hopeful for is if Corps moved in about six months ago, anytime an elected leader wants to come down and meet, they'll get every leader for that project in the same building and often meeting in our conference room or one of the core conference rooms. But a lot more can get done. There's sort of the opportunity for water cooler conversations between the state and the fed folks, and so I'm optimistic that the cadence just from that proximity will be helpful to that effort. Chris: Very good, that's good to hear. Let's change conversation a little bit. So, as I said, you're the president of BHEP. You mentioned your staff. Let's talk a little about leadership. How would you describe your leadership style and how do you think that's evolved kind of as you've been in this role? Brian: Yeah, well, I don't know that I can quantify terribly well, but I'm a kind of hey, all hands on deck and let's all just lean into wherever we're going. Right, and I kind of have that expectation of our team that we're have a clear set of priorities generally around the growth of this region and the projects that we're undertaking and that we're just leaning into them all the time and focusing. That I've been. You know I love getting down and into projects and so that's as I've been on this journey. That's been one of the big focus points to me is that you know you need a team to get this amount of stuff done and the size of these projects and the scope and so the ability to trust in the team and lean on them and let them go run with the ball is really important. I've been extremely fortunate that we have a great staff and we have a great membership base that we can lean on to help go bring those things to fruition. But it's a lot of fun coming to work. I think the team has a great time and enjoy the work that we do and you can see the difference that we make because there are buildings. We can point to that, wouldn't, you know, if not for the work of us and the leaders in this community wouldn't be there, and I'm looking forward to seeing that one on Saturn Lane with giant Texas A&M buildings sticking out of it coming through. Chris: It sounds like it's going to be impressive with the rockyards and all. But, you know, it made me think, though your team has a lot on its plate, I would think at times it may feel overwhelming. So, you know, what do you do to kind of help keep the motivation and keep the energy level up for a team that probably, at some points is, you know, starting to get to the end of the rope or run out of gas? Brian: Yeah, diversity of projects and lots of different stuff to work on. I'm guessing and actually I'd kind of turn that question on you, chris, because I can only imagine the type of stress that you guys live under, especially working big cases and big projects. There's one part that is, hey, we're just all in this together, right, and the esprit de corps that comes with. We're tackling big projects and that's just part of what comes with it. But there's another part where you just need to shift gears for a little bit and work on something different and give yourself a little recharge time. But how do you guys deal with it? I'm curious how? Chris: Boyer Miller, yeah that's a fair question to turn around on me. I would say it's similar. I think it's. You know to me that you can't underestimate the power of a team and if you have the right people on the team, there's some self-motivation just within that group, Right. And then I think it is the. We are fortunate to have very diverse type projects. We practice in all industries. So we may be doing a, a deal or a project, but it's in a different industry and there's different nuances that make it exciting. And at the end of the day I think it's the one point you highlighted on you can point to something and we're helping clients achieve their goals. So we can, you know, point to a deal that's been done or, you know, maybe it's a merger of two companies, or one that's grown and now has a new building and doing whatever. But you can point to those successes that you, where you've helped the client achieve, you know something really big for them and their business and their life. And so I think all of that continues the motivation. Yes, sometimes at the end of a big deal, you need just a little bit of a breather, but you just jump right back in and get going. So it makes it fun. Brian: Well, if you'll let me share. So you and I first met in person, had an opportunity to meet at one of your big forums, and that was a bunch of your customers and clients were there, and I love meeting new folks, as you probably saw, and I you know, walking around just saying, hey, I'm Brian, what do you do? And almost every one of them I would ask like, hey. So how do you know Chris, how do you know this group? You know, have you worked with them? And they all had a story. That was exactly that. You know, whatever thing it was that you helped them. We did XYZ project and it was awesome. We use them all the time for all these things. It was just very striking how passionate your customers, your clients, are with the help they've gotten from you guys, and so, anyway, that is extremely commendable and what I've seen from your team has just been amazing. Chris: Well, I appreciate the feedback. It's always good to get that, especially from different sources. So you know, like I think, we're always trying to create raving fans so that they'll keep coming back and tell their friends. So you get a unique seat and I think it's similar. You kind of analogize back to us. I think we get a unique seat to work with Texas entrepreneurs, and that's a pretty cool thing to do, in my view. What's, what would you or how would you describe the Texas entrepreneurial spirit if you could, based on your experience? Brian: Yeah well, I'm a native Texan. I have this hypothesis that part of the reason we're such a proud bunch is that when you go through I don't know if you grew up in Texas, chris but then also this sense of like we can do big things and big audacious things and we can make big asks and ask big questions and go get it done. And so we see a lot of that down here. And so you know, if you were sitting in I'll make this up Iowa and you said you know I want to have a space business and we want to go put hardware on the moon, and you know your neighbors would look at you and kind of scratch their head and in Texas they'd go oh yeah, that's intuitive machines and they're down the street, you should go. You know, go talk to them. They'd love to work with you. So that kind of spirit is really something special. When I was in industry I traveled all over the country working projects. There's something very special about this region, this community, this state, and that translates into why people want to come here. You know we keep Texas and Houston keep winning all these awards for business, new businesses coming here, people moving here, and that's not by accident, it's not by coincidence. It's because we have a great, great story to tell, whether that's workforce and the capabilities, the affordability of being here, the caliber of people you can work with and who your competitors are, and the level of intensity in the game that we play here is high and that creates the right ingredients for a really thriving community, for entrepreneurs, but also for industry any size. Chris: Right, very good. So what advice would you give to entrepreneurs out there that might be looking to start a business, let's say specifically, kind of within your region? If not, maybe beyond that in Houston? What's? Some of the advice you might give them if they wanted to get involved in some of the all the things you've been talking about. Brian: Yeah, dive in. It's a great community and a great ecosystem and there's a reason people are investing here and making a great run at it. We try to make that as easy as it can be. Now it is not easy. There's no illusions that starting a company you know scaling and growing a company all those things are very challenging. So the question I find myself asking I don't know that I'm in a position to give you know this immense amount of wisdom about these things, but what can we as a community and we as an organization be doing to help that entrepreneur? How do we help them build a relationship so that if they're having trouble with a permit, they know who to go ask, who to go talk to If they have a big idea, who might be good partners If they want to bounce something off, a retired executive who they might go talk to about that has the right skillset, so that we can create the conditions for them to be successful? And so that's really how we find ourselves interfacing that ecosystem is how do we put the right players together to go make things happen? Chris: Very good. So the other thing I'm curious to know is what do you see? You mentioned your five big industries. What have you observed of those industries working together to create innovative ideas to help each other? You got to move forward. Brian: Yeah, there's been a lot of. So workforce has been one of the biggest, especially over the last few years, where there's been this really high intensity competition amongst folks. And I wouldn't be surprised if you have been in some of that with, you know, recruiting and retaining high talent attorneys, right Is that? That's been, and so we've spent a lot of time and I've observed a lot of our members in this community go with that as a spirit of, hey, we're not really doing anybody any good If we're just poaching each other's people and you know, and creating pain points and friction between senior executives and those kinds of things. Let's go look at other communities and go figure out hey, what are the best universities and how do we get the professors that are training the students in it to send resumes to our area, right, and that we have a coalition of companies, not just one company has a relationship with one professor and that company benefits from that it's. How do we build that relationship as a community and say to them hey, we have a very strong demand signal, let's work together on things like that and so feeding that workforce pipeline so we're not divvying up the pie, we're growing it. And so, on the workforce side. I hate to be cliche because everybody's talking about AI, but we've had a couple of membership meetings about it. We've been working with partners about integration of it. We've adopted different technologies that have come out of it. But that stuff really, I mean it's the wave that we're living in right now, and so the integration of that into systems, both the how to do it and the mitigation of risk. I think I saw over the weekend that the new DeepSeek had a big not terribly surprised, but had a giant data leak and compromise, and so when you know when you're using that, I can only imagine, chris, I'd be curious how y'all are integrating it. But you know everything you put in there. You got to assume that at some point, somebody you don't want to have access will at least have the opportunity to have access to it, and so you have to be quite careful about how you integrate it. I, just as an aside, how are you guys using it much? Have you all banished it? What's the? Chris: Well, I'd say it's a little bit of both. I mean, we are definitely looking at and finding ways to integrate it. We've adopted a policy, but it starts with, as you mentioned, with us. It starts and stops with maintaining client confidentiality. So there's some systems out there through recognized kind of legal researchers. So Westlaw comes to mind, where they developed AI tool that is solely within their database. So it's secure, it's, it's all legal. You don't have to worry about we were still spot. You still have to check things right the human element of that. But if you're searching, for example, using the AI tool within Westlaw, you don't have to worry about the fake cases you've seen in the news. But our attorneys, you know, if you're going to use it, it has to be approved through the firm which are only a handful. You can't use anything outside and everything has to be double checked by a person to make sure for accuracy, etc. But so it is. I mean, the confidentiality side is a real concern, not just for law firms, for everybody, any company using it, and unfortunately that's just gonna be more and more what we see right. The more that we're moving everything to cloud, you're going to have people coming after it to try to. You know, on the bad side of that and certain countries it's not illegal to be a hacker. So it's just, you know, that's the world we live in now. Yeah Well, you know, brian, this has been a very interesting conversation and the you know, the last time we spoke I came away with the same feeling, and that is, we talked a lot about a lot of opportunity going on in the three to six o'clock region of greater Houston and we didn't even scratch the surface, I'm sure. But my takeaways have been it doesn't matter what industry again, I said earlier, you always kind of automatically think of space and NASA, but it's every type of business you could think of. An industry you could think of Sounds like you've got ample opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to start, grow, expand and be there and thrive. Brian: Well, perfectly said, and I think we get a recording. I may use that in some of our promotional material. Chris, that's exactly right. Great time, great place to be and welcome folks to reach out to us to help however we can if they're interested in looking at opportunities down here for that Before I lose you. Chris, one of the favorite questions that you had sent over that I wanted to ask you that you didn't get a chance to ask is what your favorite recreation vacation spot in the state of Texas is. Chris: Well, I'll answer that. I was about to ask you that. I would say if it's kind of a vacation spot in Texas, it would probably be anywhere along the Texas coast to relax a little bit and get some fishing in. Brian: Perfect. Chris: How about you? Brian: We are huge campers, like we love going camping. My kids are eight and 11 and we have state parks pass, and so any day I'm in a state park is a good day for me. But Inks Lake is one of my favorites and McKinney Falls between the two of those. Those are my top two right now, but we've probably been to Keene and we're just checking off the box to hit them all, and maybe we'll upgrade to National Parks as we get a little bit older. But I love our visiting our state park system. They're just absolutely wonderful. Chris: That's great. Okay, last question You're native Texan, so do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Brian: Oh, I feel like that question is going to get me in trouble, but if you made me choose, I'd pick barbecue. I'll eat it all day, every day, as it shows how about you, how about you? Chris: I think it's a tough one, so I've had some guests. You know, it depends on the day. I probably lean Tex-Mex more than barbecue. But I love the restaurants now that are combining the two, so brisket tacos or brisket nachos or something like that. It's a great combination. Brian: Yeah, there should be an answer all of the above there. Chris: So we're getting close to the rodeo time in Houston, so I have to go with barbecue for now and then back to Tex-Mex, I guess. Brian: Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Deal, that sounds good. Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Chris: Deal. That sounds good. Brian, thanks again for taking the time. Really appreciate your friendship and definitely appreciate what you and your team are doing for all the things business down in the Bay Area. Brian: Well, right back at you, Chris. Thanks for your leadership and all the great work you're doing with your team. Appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today. Thank you. Special Guest: Brian Freedman.

Season 8 Episode 7 was originally released as Season 6 Episode 10 in December 2023. Can nature make us happier, healthier and more creative? The simple answer is yes, ... and it's been scientifically proven. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),thought this was a perfect time to replay one of our favorite episodes – our conversation with author Florence Williams from S6E10, which originally aired in December 2023. We had a great conversation with Florence about her book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. Florence, who is a science journalist, author, speaker and podcaster spent over 3 years traveling around the world talking with leading scientists—and taking part in science experiments—focused on quantifying the benefits of nature to people's health and well-being.What did she learn? Well, the benefits of Nature are clear—spending more time outdoors is good for our physical health and our mental health. As Florence says, everything from short daily experiences in nature like taking a walk when you take a break at lunch to longer, immersive wilderness experiences like hiking, camping, and nature retreats are all beneficial—she says “we need all of it.” The bottom line is that regular “nature fixes” are literally good for mind, body and soul—and now we have the science to prove it.Sarah had the opportunity to talk with Florence recently and I asked her how writing The Nature Fix had changed her life.  She said it was “transformative”—it changed her relationship with Nature—which she says continues to be a source of strength, interest, and passion. And it has opened many doors for her leading to host of new opportunities.We hope you enjoy this encore edition of the EWN Podcast and that it inspires you to take time to get outdoors and take in the health benefits of Nature, even if it is only for a few minutes every day. Who knows, it just could be transformative! Enjoy the show! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Jeff King at LinkedInFlorence Williams – Naturefix at LinkedIn

The flames have died down at the Moss Landing battery storage plant in Monterey County, after a massive fire last month. But the environmental impacts may be just beginning. In neighboring Elkhorn Slough, a sanctuary for endangered wildlife, researchers have already found heavy metal concentrations up to a thousand times higher than before the fire. Reporter: Katherine Monahan, KQED Starting Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and US Army Corps of Engineers will begin removing fire debris from private properties that were damaged or destroyed in the January wildfires in Los Angeles. The federal agencies will enter the properties of residents who submitted a Rights of Entry form. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order that he says is intended to “maximize” the capture of water during winter storms. The US Army Corps of Engineers opened two dams on Friday in Central California and let roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs, after President Donald Trump ordered the release with the misguided intent to send water to fire-ravaged Southern California. Guest Co-Host: Jeff Aiello Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! On today's episode, we talk with Brian Brandt, Director, Operations Management at Dawson Global, about Confidence, CrossFit, and the Maui Fires.  Read his full bio below.Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Showtimes: 1:03 - Sponsor Shoutout2:08 - Art of Decision-Making 10:43 - Interview starts26:42 - Maui Wild Fires46:13 - Job Seekers48:40 - CrossfitPlease be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Connect with Brian Brandt at www.linkedin.com/in/brian-brandt-p-e-786b4a267Guest Bio:Brian Brandt is originally from Pittsburgh, PA and currently lives in Fort Worth, TX working for DAWSON Global as Director, Operations Management. He has a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, an MS in Building Construction from Auburn University and a Professional Engineering License from Ohio.He recently left the US Army Corps of Engineers – Fort Worth District where he was a Supervisory Civil Engineer with over 15 years of experience in managing large-scale complex construction projects. His direct project experience has been focused on O&M and MILCON projects related to secured facilities, civil works, border infrastructure, large (+$300M) construction projects, and emergency response actions.Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the showThanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

Nature is a powerful thing. While hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 2006, our guest let go of her dream to compete at the 2008 Olympics to pursue a career protecting the environment. In Season 8, Episode 6, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by special guest Robyn DeYoung, who now leads the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Green Infrastructure Program. Through the Green Infrastructure Federal Collaborative, Robyn is bringing federal agencies together to advance nature-based solutions (NBS), including finding ways to streamline permitting and helping communities navigate funding. The Collaborative has just released a best practice guide on Federal Permitting and Environmental Reviews for Nature-Based Solutions and short videos for funding and technical assistance.Robyn joined the USEPA in 2010 working with states and local governments on clean energy, applying all that she had learned—including the value of teamwork that she learned from field hockey. In her current role as Green Infrastructure program manager, she continues to help people work together: “How can we collaborate and use people's unique talents—even people that might not agree with you, but have great ideas?”Green infrastructure can mean different things to different people. As Robyn describes it, “If I'm in a room full of engineers, then green infrastructure means you're using natural systems—native plants, soils, permeable surfaces—to help with bringing us back to predevelopment hydrology. But for the rest of us, the way that I define green infrastructure is that we're creating functional green space and other designs so that we can prevent flooding, keep our cities cool, and keep our waters clean using natural processes, using things like rain gardens or street trees.”Robyn notes that one of the primary functions of EPA's Green Infrastructure Program is outreach, providing resources to help people understand the economic, environmental and social benefits of green infrastructure, including handbooks for Green Infrastructure Design, peer exchange webinars, and models and tools. “One of the focuses of our program is to make sure that we have free information so people can design, build, maintain, and monitor the green infrastructure in their cities and communities.” Looking forward, Robyn notes some of the focus and priorities she sees in the next year, starting with EPA's 2035 Green Infrastructure Strategic Agenda that her program has been working on. She describes three priority areas: (1) Demonstrating the benefits of green infrastructure in ways that align with the economic, environmental, and social benefits that people value; (2) Connecting more communities to federal funding and technical assistance. And (3) continuing to engage with communities. “We want to do everything we can to bring nature-based solutions into those neighborhoods in a way that they want to use them, that's culturally relevant, so that they can really take it and run with it.”Robyn's call to action is for listeners to learn more about what the Green Infrastructure Program is doing and find out about the resources that are available to support individuals and communities interested in green infrastructure. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Jeff King at LinkedInRobyn DeYoung at LinkedIn

Welcome to the Build Strong With Us podcast series where we give our listeners an opportunity to learn more about the diverse people, mission impact, and career opportunities our personnel experience within the US Army Corps of Engineers. In this edition we talk with US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Nikki Edelenbos with the Jacksonville District. Nikki has been with USACE just about one year. In this episode we will discuss her path into USACE, her passion for the work she does, and what she has learned about USACE over the past year. To suggest a topic for a future episode, email BuildStrongWithUs@usace.army.mil.

Since 1970, the bird population in North America has declined by about 3 billion birds. In Season 8, Episode 5, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by special guest, Dr. Elizabeth Gray, CEO of the National Audubon Society. Elizabeth is an ornithologist and a world-renowned champion of science-based conservation and leads an organization dedicated to protecting birds by altering the course of biodiversity loss. Elizabeth is the first woman CEO of Audubon since its founding in 1905. In her lifetime, Elizabeth has seen significant changes in bird populations. “This is just really tragic, and we know two-thirds of those birds are threatened by climate change. When I go out in the field, I see increasing habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Climate change is a magnifier of all these effects, and birds are indicators of planetary health—really the sentinels and the symbols of how the planet's doing.”Audubon's 5-year strategic plan, called “Flight Plan,” is designed to “bend the bird curve”—to halt, and ultimately reverse, this decline of birds across the Americas by using science; building strong partnerships; and finding solutions that are positive for birds, for people, and for the planet. “We believe that what birds need—clean water, clean air, a healthy food system, a healthy climate—is also what people need.” Elizabeth notes how these efforts continue a tradition going back to the early 1900s when Audubon began protecting one of the last Reddish Egret rookeries. These efforts grew into Audubon's Coastal Bird Stewardship program, which now has over 500 sites in coastal areas, 1500 volunteers, and 250 partner organizations.Collaboration and partnerships are key to addressing these complex and interconnected issues and Audubon is well known for bringing together unlikely partners, industry, local communities, policy makers, decision-makers, government officials, Indigenous communities, and other conservation organizations. “We often have different priorities, but we've found that you can get people who have different priorities, even different values, certainly different approaches, to sit at a table if you can align around the outcome that you want to achieve together.” She adds that birds are Audubon's “superpower.” “Birds don't pay attention to geographic boundaries. They don't pay attention to what divides people or countries and things like that. They're really the ultimate unifier here. And I think to me, birds remind us of our shared humanity and the fact that we really share this planet.”Nature-based solutions (NBS) play a key role in Audubon's efforts. As Elizabeth notes, NBS can contribute significant greenhouse gas reductions through protecting, restoring, and appropriately managing natural areas, coastal systems, mangroves, grasslands, and forests while also delivering cobenefits to nature and society. Jeff notes the strong synergy and alignment between the mission of Audubon and the objectives of EWN. “With nature-based solutions, we can create resilience while also enhancing habitat and biodiversity and accomplish many more cobenefits. I see so many things that are complementary here, and I'm just excited about what you're doing and seeing on the horizon within Audubon.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Jeff King at LinkedInElizabeth Gray at LinkedIn 

Louisiana's coast sits at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The largest discharge basin in the United States, the Mississippi collects runoff from 41% of the nation's rivers and delivers it into the Gulf of Mexico. Where this freshwater meets the ocean, randomly deposited mounds of river sediment form a large, well-inhabited delta that is constantly reordering itself.   To assert permanence upon this fluid landform and to stop severe flooding of riverine communities, the US Army Corps of Engineers introduced the Mississippi River Tributaries Program in 1927. Over the course of four decades, a labyrinth of concrete levees, floodways, reservoirs and pumping stations were constructed in an attempt to control the river.    Today, these interventions along the Mississippi are inadvertently leading to greater flooding by preventing the natural process of sediment flow and the formation of new wetlands. Faced with this challenge, as well as the fastest rate of climate-induced sea level rise in the world—the Louisiana delta is quickly receding. In fact as Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute shared, the state “loses roughly the equivalent of a football field every 100 minutes.”  This land loss is so great, that the nation's first official climate refugees hail from a now-deserted island in southern Louisiana: Isle de Jean Charles. Louisiana resident and writer Nathaniel Rich recently commented in The New York Times that evidence suggests New Orleans may not be far behind.  The urgent challenge of protecting the habitation of Louisiana's coast reminds us that climate change impacts are not a far-off abstraction or that resilience is a distant need; it is a daily reality for those in Gulf Coast.  Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Beaux Jones, president and CEO of The Water Institute, explore how this Baton Rouge-based research center is gathering the best coastal hydrologic data and experts, and sharing their methodologies with the US Army Corps of Engineers and many impacted communities in the I-10 corridor to assist them in critical decision making and resilience planning.  Relevant links and resources:  Learn more about how The Water Institute is helping the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers update their benefit-cost analysis for climate adaptive infrastructure.  Resilient Jacksonville: the award-winning resilience plan from the City of Jacksonville, with research support provided by the Institute  Learn more about The Water Institute's work at the forefront of quantifying the impacts of compound flooding.

In this episode, Vicky Mangano shares her background in international procurement markets and her experience as a business development manager for construction materials and technologies. She also talked about her work with US government agencies and her training as a qualified construction quality control manager through the US Army Corps of Engineers. In our conversation, we highlight the importance of understanding procurement procedures, technical specifications, and maintaining contact between contractors and engineers in the construction industry. Listen to this episode now!

When we think about the use of nature-based features to increase coastal resilience, the focus is mostly on coasts along the ocean. But what about the Great Lakes? Over the past 10 years, the Great Lakes have experienced both historic high and low lake levels. These extreme fluctuations cause flooding, erosion, and property damage, often putting people living in communities at risk. In Season 8, Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Burton Suedel, Research Biologist in the Environmental Laboratory at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and David Bucaro, Chief of the Planning Branch, Chicago District, USACE. They are discussing the important work underway to make the Great Lakes more resilient to the effects of climate change.The Great Lakes play a critical role in the heart of North America and are being affected by climate change, including rapidly changing water levels and less ice coverage. There is a complex interaction between the lakes, land, and atmosphere that make it difficult to model the system. As David notes, this creates high levels of uncertainty in long-term projections of lake levels and challenges for making informed, resilient, and adaptable decisions about needed long-term investments.To help better prepare for these future conditions, David and his colleagues are working with other federal agencies, Tribal nations, state and local governments and academic partners, to identify the full range of Great Lakes water levels, wave heights, and ice conditions under a range of plausible climate change scenarios. This is the focus of the 6-year, $14M Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Study (GLCRS), a regional partnership to create a strategy that identifies vulnerable coastal areas and offers an array of potential actions that can be taken to bolster the built natural coastal environments.The first step was the development of a shared vision and a basin-wide assessment of vulnerabilities looking at existing populations, infrastructure, habitat, land use, and socially vulnerable populations across all of the Great Lakes coasts. This effort will help communities better understand the frequency and impacts of various climate scenarios and will provide detailed information for planners and engineers, including an assessment of “hotspot areas” more vulnerable to future conditions. The next step will be to identify specific actions for the hotspot areas, which may include a combination of monitoring and further study. The final step will be to produce the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Plan, which will include strategic recommendations and prioritize actions for USACE, other federal agencies, states, locals, and other nonfederal interests.This effort is complemented by the work that Burton and his team are doing on The Great Lakes Natural and Nature-Based Features Playbook, which is intended to develop new conceptual nature-based designs specific to the Great Lakes that will achieve greater resiliency and adaptability to climate change. The Playbook is intended to be used by planners and NBS practitioners within and outside of USACE to support the planning-level cost-benefit analyses. David and Burton hope the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Plan and the EWN Playbook will benefit other regions and advance the practice of NBS.For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Burton Suedel at LinkedInDavid Bucaro at LinkedIn 

In this week's episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Matt Chambers, a researcher at the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems at the University of Georgia, about managing floods with nature-based solutions. Chambers discusses the history of levee systems in the United States, the challenges that the widespread use of levees have presented, and approaches to floodplain management that help restore ecosystems while improving community resilience to flooding. He also discusses the economic analysis that informs floodplain management and the evolution of the US Army Corps of Engineers as a key decisionmaker in the management of US rivers. References and recommendations: “Nature-based solutions for leveed river corridors” by Matthew L. Chambers, Charles B. van Rees, Brian P. Bledsoe, David Crane, Susana Ferreira, Damon M. Hall, Rod W. Lammers, Craig E. Landry, Donald R. Nelson, Matt Shudtz, and Burton C. Suedel; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213305423000504 “Engineering with Nature” podcast; https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/podcasts/ “The Control of Nature” by John McPhee; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374522599/thecontrolofnature “An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; https://www.beacon.org/An-Indigenous-Peoples-History-of-the-United-States-P1164.aspx “The Gift of Good Land” by Wendell Berry; https://www.counterpointpress.com/books/the-gift-of-good-land/ “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise” by Michael Grunwald; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Swamp/Michael-Grunwald/9780743251075

On Veteran's Day, here in the United States, we commemorate military veterans of the US Armed Forces, and this Veteran's Day we at the American Birding Podcast commemorate the work done by the Department of Defense to protect and conserve out national natural heritage. People might not realize that the US Department of Defense is one of the largest land-owners in the country, and on that land live a number of birds of conservation concern that are monitored and protected by US military personnel. Dr Rich Fischer is the national coordinator of the Department of Defense Partners in Flight and the lead for the US Army Corp of Engineers Threatened and Endangered Species Team, and he joins us to talk about endangered birds on military installations.  Also, it could be a really exciting winter for White-winged Crossbills.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

Send us a textHistorian John Anfinson has spent much of his adult life working in jobs that keep him close to the Mississippi River, first with the US Army Corps of Engineers, then later with the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a part of the National Park Service. In this episode, we have a wide-ranging discussion about his career as a river historian. During his tenure with the Corps of Engineers, for example, he learned of the work of Henry Bosse, whose photographs and maps documented the Mississippi before the lock and dam system was constructed. We discuss the early history of the lock and dam system, including a brief overview of the forces that propelled that project forward. Anfinson also describes the origins of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, how they've driven greater engagement with the river, and the challenges they face just letting people know they exist. We conclude with a few thoughts about the future of the river, from short-term challenges to the hope that more people will get involved to shape the river's future.

In Season 8, Episode 3, host Sarah Thorne and Amanda Tritinger, Deputy National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Brian Davis, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia (UVA), and Cathy Johnson, Coastal Ecologist, Northeast Region, National Park Service (NPS). Along with their colleagues and collaborators, Brian and Cathy are working with nature and incorporating innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) to combat the significant effects of climate change on three coastal national parks at high risk for extreme storms and rising sea levels.Brian is passionate about the opportunity that NBS provides to protect natural resources, while also designing for people—protecting the things we value and the way we use public spaces. “Traditionally a lot of design practices saw those two things as separate. One of the amazing things that's happening through landscape architecture and EWN and NBS is to unify those things.Cathy is passionate about the NPS's dual mandate of conserving natural resources and preserving cultural resources. “I feel so lucky to work here to preserve values of the NPS for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Cathy notes that NPS's challenging mandate is made all the more difficult by climate change and its broad scale impacts, especially along the coast. About three years ago, Brian and Cathy formed the Preserving Coastal Parklands Team. The idea was to bring together designers and scientists, as well as engineers and other subject matter experts that could work with NPS in these different contexts and develop new nature-based solutions. Brian and Cathy describe projects that they worked on located at the Colonial National Historical Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park.Asked what they have learned from their experience, both Brian and Cathy note the value of collaboration. “One of the key lessons that we took away” Brian says, “was the value of being able to work with and listen to the people that are managing the landscape—especially the Park staff, but it also other special interest groups, people that go out there for particular reasons, or have some stake in the future of the place and some ideas about it.”Amanda reflects on how these examples of NBS can be used by others: “What you and your team are building is a framework for how to approach these issues to achieve the compromise of these multiple needs and multiple benefits. You are creating a framework that ideally could be picked up by others in similar situations.”When asked for their calls to action to listeners, Cathy encouraged people to “Visit your parks and the other natural places around you to better understand what's at risk from climate change and talk to other folks about it.” Brian's call to action is one of optimism: “Sometimes, especially studying climate change, the scale of the problem can seem daunting. But just being out in these landscapes—meeting the people that work in them and visit them—leads to ideas about preserving those values and understanding better what's possible in the future. That fills me with optimism.”For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Amanda Tritinger at LinkedInBrian Davis at UVACathy Johnson at ResearchGate 

The Los Angeles river has been a concrete channel since the 1930s, when the US Army Corps of Engineers decided to concrete over the original river for flood mitigation. Ever since then, the river has been regularly used as a symbol of dystopia and was the backdrop in a famous scene in The Terminator. However, landscape architect Mia Lehrer wants to transform its reputation and to revitalise the river, because it is still a waterway shared by millions. This will be not be an easy task, however, as the river itself is still the property of the US Army Corps, and the river course crosses numerous bureaucratic boundaries at both the local and state level. Presenter Alan Weedon meets Mia as she describes her vision to breathe new life into an American icon.

Blaring headlines: “Battle lines hardening in dispute over Mobile ship channel deepening project” “No more federal mud dumping' — Standing room only at Baykeeper town hall” A newly deepened and widened shipping channel created by the US Army Corps of Engineers makes Mobile, Alabama, the second fastest growing port in the US – the amount of cargo handled this year more than doubled from previous years. Some of the world's healthiest commercial and recreational fisheries, vibrant towns, waterfront properties that date back centuries, all because of the health of one of the most beautiful and historically and ecologically-important bays in the world.    90 million cubic yards of mud, dredged and disposed of over the next 20 years. Already the impacts on seagrass and reefs and fisheries are severe. Join us to find out what's going on, from the locals with everything at stake: William Strickland, Mobile Baykeeper, and fishing guides Capt. Patric Garmeson, and Capt. Richard Rutland.   ___ BHA. THE VOICE FOR OUR WILD PUBLIC LANDS, WATERS AND WILDLIFE. Follow us: Web: https://www.backcountryhunters.org Instagram: @backcountryhunters Facebook: @backcountryhunters

After another summer of sweltering heat, extreme flooding, and in several places, unprecedented forest fires, we're thinking even more about climate change and about the nexus of climate change and health. In S8 E1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Asst. Professor, Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Co-Director of Clinical Programs with the JH Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. Experts project that over 3 billion people are already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Chris is using what he calls his “superpowers” to assess how climate change is affecting people's health around the world and take action. He's passionate about making a difference in his community and across the planet.Chris and Jeff met at a conference at the US Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center where Chris gave a presentation on Climate Change and Global Health. For Chris, the conference was an opportunity to get in front of an audience with different backgrounds but a common interest. “We started to pick up on the mental or physical health implications of some of the EWN projects at military installations. Pretty quickly it became this great synergy of how I bring certain things to the table as part of these complex solutions.” Jeff agrees and notes the magnitude of the opportunity. “These military installations are a wonderful opportunity – across 25 million acres of land – to do something positive for the employees at the installations, the military personnel, and the communities adjacent to military installations. They all can benefit from this interaction with nature.”Chris compares his experiences in healthcare, particularly with COVID, to the coming challenges he sees with climate change and discusses the alignment of healthcare with EWN. In both, the “traditional” approach has often been to try to control nature to an ever-increasing degree. “Right now, US healthcare contributes roughly 8.5 percent of US emissions. So, we are ‘doing no harm' with the goal of making people healthy; and yet, ironically, because we're not working within the constructs of nature anymore, we're actually making people unhealthy.” It is this more macro view of climate change and public health that Chris is trying to address at the Institute for Planetary Health. “It focuses on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth's natural systems. But importantly, those disruptions have impacts on human health and all life on Earth. We are bringing that into the center of the conversation.Chris's story resonates with Jeff and what he is seeing and striving for in the EWN community: “Chris, I admire the energy and enthusiasm with which you approach the challenge of planetary health. It's quite evident that you have so much knowledge to share, as well as the energy to make change a reality.” Jeff and Sarah invited Chris back to talk more about the important work being done by the Planetary Health Alliance, a growing consortium of over 450 universities, NGOs, research institutes, and government entities who are committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. Our conversation with Chris continues in Episode 2 on October 9. We hope you enjoy these special episodes!For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  Jeff King at LinkedInChristopher Lemon at LinkedIn

For more than two hundred years Americans have tried to tame the Mississippi River. And, for that entire time, the river has fought back. Journalist and author Boyce Upholt has spent dozens of nights camping along the Lower Mississippi and knows the river for what it is: both a water-moving machine and a supremely wild place. His recent book, “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River” tells the story of how engineers have made the Mississippi into one of the most engineered waterways in the world, and in turn have transformed it into a bit of a cyborg — half mechanical, half natural. In this episode, host Nate Hegyi and Upholt take us from the flood ravaged town of Greenville, Mississippi, to the small office of a group of army engineers, in a tale of faulty science, big egos and a river that will ultimately do what it wants. Featuring Boyce Upholt SUPPORTOutside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook. LINKSYou can find Boyce's new book The Great River, at your local bookstore or online. The 2018 study which attributed increased engineering of the Mississippi as a greater influence to worsening floods on the river than climate change. In 1944 geologist Harold Fisk completed a years-long report on the natural course of the Lower Mississippi. Rather than presenting the river as a static (and straight) waterway, his now famous maps showed a meandering and ever-changing watershed.The Mississippi Department of Archives & History has a remarkable collection of digitized photos from the 1927 flood, including depictions of the refugee encampments where Southern officials forced many Black locals to remain as guarantee of a future Southern workforce.  To get a sense of the type of work being done on the Mississippi in modern day, a US Army Corps of Engineers video detailing concrete revetment on the Lower Mississippi. The Army Corps of Engineers produced the first Project Design Flood in 1928. This was a calculation of the worst possible floods that could happen on the Mississippi, and provided a starting point from which to build new systems of protection. Check out the 1956 Project Design Flood here, still used by engineers today. Curious about recent controversy on the Mississippi? In 2023, Louisiana broke ground on the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion – a $3 billion coastal restoration project that will divert portions of the Mississippi's flow in hopes of rebuilding lost land via sediment deposition. The project has been hugely controversial and state officials issued a stop-work order in February. As reported by the New Orleans Advocate, work just resumed this summer, although tensions remain high. CREDITSOur host is Nate Hegyi.Written and mixed by Marina Henke.Editing by Taylor Quimby and Nate Hegyi. Our staff also includes Felix Poon and Justine Paradis.Our executive producer is Taylor Quimby. Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR's Director of On-Demand Audio.Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions, Martin Landstrom, and Chris Zabriskie. Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public RadioSubmit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

The Sand Plan: guidelines that address a fact of life on the Columbia, and that's dredging Each year, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredges tons and tons (and tons) of sand out of the river to keep the ship channel open and navigable. We all rely on it to receive the goods we need to live our lives. It's also a huge economic driver for the region. But the dilemma remains: where to put all that sand? The agency, along with river ports, has drafted a docuoment called the Sand Plan, which will spell out where dredge spoils will go for the next 20 years. The public comment period is open now through early October. Regonal meetings and a virtual meeting are happening starting next week. Make your voice heard. Dredging can affect ecosystems, fish spawning grounds, and even enhance riparian conditions if properly handled. Get involved in an important process - creating a plan that attempts to balance the needs of all stakeholders in the river, including those (like wild creatures) who cannot speak for themselves. See a copy of the draft plan here: Draft DMMP-EIS on the USACE Digital Library Email comments here: LCR-CMP-DMMP@usace.army.mil (Please add “Draft DMMP-EIS” in the subject line of your email.) In-person meetings:September 16 • 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.Cowlitz County Event Center1900 7th Avenue, Longview, Wash. September 17 • 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.Norse Hall444 WA-409 Cathlamet, Wash. September 18 • 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.St. John's Community Center8427 N Central Street, Portland, Ore. September 20 • 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.Astoria Senior Center1111 Exchange Street, Astoria, Ore. USACE and the sponsor ports will host a virtual meeting:September 24 • 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.Meeting login information will be posted on this webpage: www.nwp.usace.army.mil/lcrchannelmaintenance/

When a wasteful government program like the Yazoo Area Pump Project is killed, it oughta stay dead. But the US Army Corps of Engineers has this pet zombie hidden in the Mississippi backwater. Listen to find out how taxpayers could be on the hook for billions in an attempt to unnecessarily re-plumb the Mississippi River and its tributaries. An environmental and fiscal disaster that benefits only a handful of farmers who are growing subsidized commodities in the floodplain.

Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.   Today is Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024.  Grab your paddle and get ready to tackle America's best whitewater when Gauley Season returns September 6th…the 2025 WV Wildlife Calendar is now available for purchase--grab one and help support important SNR wildlife resources programs…and a massive music festival featuring 50+ bands is coming to the Capital City in October…on today's daily304. #1 – From WV NEWS – It's almost time! Spanning six weeks from early September to mid-October, the event known as Gauley Season draws thousands eager to take on the challenging rapids of the Gauley River in West Virginia.  The Gauley River, set within a stunning and rugged canyon, offers some of the most intense rapids available anywhere. Over 100 rapids are crammed into just 25 miles, making the Gauley a must-visit for serious rafters.  The excitement of Gauley Season is made possible by controlled water releases from the Summersville Lake Dam, managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  For those looking to experience this thrill in 2024, Gauley Season runs from September 6th to October 20th, with water releases scheduled across several weekends.  A whitewater trip on the Gauley pairs well with a visit to West Virginia's newest state park, Summersville Lake State Park, or to the many attractions in and around the nearby New River Gorge National Park. Visit wvtourism.com to learn more and help plan your itinerary in Almost Heaven. Read more: https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/experience-the-thrill-of-gauley-season-west-virginias-premier-whitewater-rafting-adventure/article_cc26e276-5b2b-11ef-8495-ff6d51288c7f.html   #2 – From MY BUCKHANNON – The 2025 West Virginia Wildlife Calendar is now available to purchase online and in stores around the state. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources publishing the popular calendar, which helps fund important Wildlife Resources Section programs.  The calendar features beautiful paintings of state animals, important hunting and fishing dates, peak wildlife activity times and articles that will help people get the most out of their outdoor adventures in 2025.  Calendars can be purchased online at WVstateparks.com. Read more: https://www.mybuckhannon.com/2025-west-virginia-wildlife-calendar-now-available-to-purchase/   #3 – From WV GAZETTE-MAIL – Collaborating with FestivALL's FestiFALL and the Risers Agency, radio station WTSQ 88.1 FM, “The Status Quo,” will moderate, participate and celebrate the first-time Risers Fest Charleston music and arts festival. The event takes place throughout various city venues from Oct. 11 through Oct. 13. Boasting 50-plus-and-counting local, regional and national acts (plus one from Mexico City), Risers Fest musicians and bands will run the gamut from “A” to, well, “Y” (unless a “Z”-named group signs on before the event).  For updates and more info about the bands or venues, visit www.risersfest.com. For the latest news about FestivFALL events and activities, visit festivallcharleston.com/festivall-fall. Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/townnews/radio/risers-fest-to-rock-and-rollick-in-october-in-charleston/article_5e936400-5a4f-11ef-9c0b-fff4fe4ba477.html   Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304. The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.  That's all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.  

On this episode, Kyle Jordan and Rob Germann join me to discuss the ACMA's work with the US Army Corps of Engineers on a personalized training program located at Creative Composites Group's facility up in Dayton, OH. The training is based off the CCT VIP program, and they'll discuss how it is being used and... The post 234: ACMA's CCT Training with the US Army Corps of Engineers first appeared on Cast Polymer Radio.

On this episode, Kyle Jordan and Rob Germann join me to discuss the ACMA's recent work with the US Army Corps of Engineers on a personalized training program located at Creative Composites Group's facility in Dayton, OH. The training is based on the CCT VIP program, and they'll discuss how the U.S. Army Corps of […] The post Discussing the ACMA's Specialized CCT Training with the US Army Corps of Engineers first appeared on Composites Weekly. The post Discussing the ACMA’s Specialized CCT Training with the US Army Corps of Engineers appeared first on Composites Weekly.

Two in a row for the USACE! "Surveyor Says! The NSPS Podcast" finds us have a great conversation with Mack McCarty, Community of Practice Lead for CAD-BIM, Topo Survey, and Hydro Survey at the US Army Corps of Engineers. Mack sat down with Tim Burch to discuss his exposure into surveying at an early age, and how it lead to a carer at the Corps. They discussed the importance of good people within the Corps to make successful projects that protect the public. Mack shared a bit of history of the Corps, so this is a chat you don't want to miss. Lots of survey nuggets in this one!

The Corps is in the house! We are back in the studio for this episode of "Surveyor Says! The NSPS Podcast" with a special guest, Natalie Martinez-Vega, Surveyor/Training Specialist from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Army Geospatial Center. Natalie recently stopped at the NSPS headquarters to sit down with Tim Burch to share her "life in surveying" story. She also shared her introduction to surveying at the University of Puerto Rico, opportunities within the USACE, and how training and mentoring is key to helping practitioners become successful surveyors. A truly inspiring conversation, and and features our first ever "words of wisdom" message in Spanish! For more information about a career in surveying with the USACE, visit USAjobs.gov.

The Arctic is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on earth due to climate change, and this is profoundly impacting the people that live in and depend on the ecosystems in these cold regions. In Season 7, Episode 13, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), welcome back Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. We continue our conversation on how innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) are being used in cold regions. After recording Episode 12, Laura was headed to the Gaia Arctic Summit held in Vesterålen in Northern Norway. The summit focused on how to accelerate the transition to climate resilience in the Arctic. She returned inspired: “It was fabulous from start to finish. The landscape there is absolutely stunning, and I think seeing it really brought home how important it is that we protect this beautiful area and the people who live there.” The summit brought together people from policy, finance, business, research and innovation, and public administration. “The main message for me is the need to collaborate across disciplines in how we work every day—not just having a meeting once a year but how we work in our daily life and how we plan things.”Laura goes on to discuss the policies, challenges, and opportunities for advancing NBS in cold regions and some of the efforts going on in Europe. She notes that there is strong explicit support for NBS within the European Green Deal and associated strategies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030—policies designed to set goals to deliver on international commitments. One of the challenges that Laura notes is aligning policy at various levels, from the high-level European national policies to those on the ground at the local level. Jeff notes a similar challenge in the US: “Even those individuals or organizations that are receptive to the idea of NBS still have their own set of policies, rules, or regulations that they must adhere to and sometimes those can be contrary to the overall goal of integrating NBS into a landscape. We must find that common ground and be able to highlight the value of NBS and what that means for local economies, sustainability, and resilience.”Laura also notes challenges in valuing NBS and making trade-offs are particularly evident in the Arctic. “Where we see the sea ice dissolving and opening up new transport routes and revealing previously unknown mineral resources, there are all sorts of development possibilities. How do we ensure that the Arctic is developing in a way that's consistent with the needs and desires of the local populations?”Looking forward, Jeff highlights the ongoing work at ERDC's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. “We are continuing to prioritize NBS and look for opportunities to integrate NBS concepts and projects into our Arctic communities. International collaboration is something that I want to see EWN continue to support.” Laura agrees with this effort and has a call to action for listeners: “I would ask everybody listening—our global community—to think about a consolidated action plan to engage the full range of stakeholders and move across borders to address the issues of climate change because climate change doesn't stop at borders. We all have to work together. Only global action is going to have the outcome that we all need.”We hope you enjoy our final Season 7 episodes on NBS in cold regions with Laura Wendling. Season 8 kicks off in September. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Laura Wendling at LinkedIn 

Blake Enloe founded Legacy Corporation, primarily performing marine construction work on America's rivers. Although he hasn't always worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers... His first gig? Landscaping the neighborhood. Questions or feedback? Email us at dirttalk@buildwitt.com! Stay Dirty! **UPDATE** Dirt Talk is STOKED to announce Ariat as our first official sponsor for the year! They make world-class footwear and workwear that we see on every job site we visit, and their folks are just as great as their products. Dirt Talk listeners can receive 10% off their first order with Ariat by clicking here or visiting Ariat.com/dirttalk.

From Iowa to Australia to Finland, and most recently Norway, Laura Wendling has followed her passion to integrate nature with engineering and technology to create solutions that, as she says, “are workable in lots of different situations, including cold regions.” In Season 7, Episode 12, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. Jeff and Laura met at a recent conference sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.Laura's interest in innovating with nature was sparked in her undergraduate years while working as a research assistant on a project comping how constructed and natural wetlands purify water from agricultural runoff. “That really got me interested in understanding how we could design natural, or pseudo-natural systems that worked as well or almost as well as the natural system itself—like a real ecosystem.” As she says, her “ah-ha moment” was when she learned about the use of nature-based solutions (NBS): “To have the added emphasis on stakeholder engagement right from the beginning, and making sure that we plan projects so that we're deriving social and economic benefit in addition to the core target of achieving some kind of ecological outcome—it just made so much sense to me.”Today, Laura is particularly interested in how climate change is affecting cold regions. “The Arctic is warming at a rate that's far greater than the rest of the world, and there's been profound—possibly irreversible—effects on terrestrial, aquatic, freshwater, marine ecosystems, and the cryosphere, as well as the people who live in these areas.” Laura highlights some of her recent projects. In her work at SINTEF, she focuses on water and the environment, everything from water-cycle services and water management to the broader environmental issues associated with climate change.Laura also talks about the importance of spreading the word about NBS, including her work as coeditor of the Nature Based Solutions Journal and Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners. “We can't do science in secret. We should be telling everybody what we're doing and sharing our results widely, including the things that don't work.” Laura also stresses the importance of using these indicators and measures to communicate beyond the scientific community. “To talk with people in different sectors, we need to present information in different ways. Traditionally, we haven't been as good at talking with the public policy sector. We need better evidence that can help to underpin evidence-based policy.” Jeff feels that Laura's travels and experiences have really aligned her focus with the principles and practices of EWN: “Everything you describe speaks volumes in terms of your affinity for EWN. You've been in the United States, Australia, Finland, and now Norway. You've had exposure to so many diverse ecosystems and so many different people. Those opportunities to learn in those diverse environments will serve you well, both now and in the future. I know you're going to continue to be a leader in this space.”Jeff and Sarah invited Laura back for Episode 13 to talk about the policies that are driving strategies for including NBS in Europe. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Laura Wendling at LinkedIn

In Season 7, Episode 11, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), conclude their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 3 of our special three-part series, Katharine talks about her role as an advocate and her mission to inspire others to take action on climate change. Her bottom line is that you don't have to be a top climate scientist to make a difference – we can all get involved. As a scientist, Katharine is an advocate for understanding the social science of how humans interact with information. “So often we physical and natural scientists feel like: ‘Oh, you just tell people the truth. Surely, they'll do the right thing, right?' Well, what social science tells us is no. If we haven't made that head to heart to hands connection, nothing is going to happen in the right direction, especially pushing against the accumulated inertia of our fossil-fuel based economy and society.”  Katharine notes the work of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, which finds that people's assumptions about what others think about climate change are usually wrong. “We assume that we care and very few other people do. We assume that we're doing things and nobody else is. We assume that nobody else is worried except me and my friends. But actually, they're already worried. They just don't know what to do. So, they don't want to talk about it.”Katharine's climate change advocacy is focused on talking about and encouraging other people to talk about climate change. She has initiated and supported multiple channels of communications on climate change, including her TED Talk in 2018, The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk about It; her personal social media accounts and her Newsletter, Talking Climate; and her work with organizations like the Potential Energy Coalition and Science Moms. Jeff reflects on how inspiring and inclusive Katharine's message is, to include scientists, ecologists, engineers, social scientists, and artists.” As Katharine describes it, “We need people painting the pictures with words, with art, with music, with visual art, with spoken art, with every way we can.” Katharine plans to continue her tireless advocacy along many fronts. Her academic work is focused on developing and evaluating high-resolution climate projections and preparing for impacts and increasing resilience planning. As Chief Scientist of TNC, she is dedicated to supporting and advancing the work of TNC scientists. And she is going to continue her work with faith-based communities to advocate for climate action—including being the first plenary speaker at this year's World Evangelical Alliance annual meeting.Jeff closes by comparing her skill to another well-known Canadian, “That reminds me of Wayne Gretzky. He basically said, ‘I just skate to where I think or know that the puck is going to be.' That's exactly what you're saying here. We need to be thinking well out into the future and then leaning into those certain outcomes that we can anticipate and planning accordingly.” He adds, “Katharine, the message I am really drawn to is your ‘head to heart to hands' message. I want to use that and put it into practice in the Engineering With Nature program.  It is truly inspirational.”  This concludes our conversation with Katharine. We hope you enjoyed this special series! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn 

In Season 7, Episode 10, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), continue their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 2 of our special 3-part series, Katharine talks about taking action—living according to your values and making changes that contribute to climate solutions—and about the critical role of nature-based solutions (NBS) in addressing climate change. To live up to her personal climate action values Katharine measured her own carbon footprint 12 years ago and when she found that travel was the largest factor, she successfully transitioned over 80% of her talks to virtual. “Then the pandemic hit and I was ready to go.” She notes that when she does travel for an important event, she “bundles” other meetings and speaking opportunities around that event. “When I went to the climate COP two years ago in Egypt, I packed in 55 panels, meetings, talks, and events.”Katharine believes that communicating the message that climate action is a collective effort that all people can meaningfully contribute to, is essential. “People are worried about climate change, but they don't know what to do about it.” Picking up the analogy she used in S7E9 comparing the work of addressing climate change to moving a giant boulder, Katharine adds: “If we feel like we're the only hands on the boulder that we're trying to roll uphill, we will despair. But if we realize there are millions of hands on the boulder, in every country around the world, then we realize we're not alone. That global connectivity is absolutely essential to fixing this problem.”Katharine goes on to talk about the critical role of NBS as part of the response to climate change, noting that the IPCC estimates that 25% of present-day emissions could be addressed by NBS. “If I see a newspaper headline saying, ‘Is this a silver bullet for climate change?', I can tell you the answer is no. But I like to say there's a lot of silver buckshot, and nature is one of our biggest pieces of silver buckshot. I mean, 25% of the climate change pie? That is huge!” She adds that NBS also produces multiple benefits, and notes: “Nature is all through these climate solutions. In fact, I don't think there's any way for us to meet our commitments made in the Paris Agreement in 2015, in any way, shape, or form, if we leave nature out of the equation.”Jeff is highly complimentary of TNC's work on NBS and highlights the important contribution of TNC in bringing organizations together to collaborate on NBS initiatives such as the Natural Infrastructure Initiative that TNC led along with Caterpillar, USACE, the University of Georgia, and Ducks Unlimited. “When you put TNC in a room with, say, an AECOM or a Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, people start scratching their heads saying, ‘Hmm, what's this all about?' TNC brings so much interest and awareness to this space, showing how very different entities can work collaboratively to accomplish many of the same goals and objectives that we all share.”Our conversation with Katharine concludes in Episode 11, which posts on June 26. In our final episode of this series, Katharine focuses on inspiring action, how to learn more about climate change, and how to talk about it with others. We hope you enjoy this special series!!For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn 

How does the US Army Corps of Engineers utilize civilian employees to accomplish its mission to to secure our Nation, energize our economy, and reduce disaster risk? In this episode, Andrea speaks with the Commander of the USACE - Omaha District, COL Robert J. Newbauer about the vital mission and opportunity of the Army Corps of Engineers, and how civilians serve the country by creating engineering solutions for the Nation's toughest challenges. They discuss COL Newbauer's passion for leadership development and his emphasis on self-awareness.  Read the show notes here:   https://www.voiceofinfluence.net/312 Give and receive feedback that makes a difference! Register for our 20 minute Deep Impact Method video course here:  www.voiceofinfluence.net/deepimpact

Katharine Hayhoe is a world-renowned scientist, climate communicator, and passionate advocate for climate equity. She's a climate ambassador whose message is one of hope. She has dedicated her life to motivating action. Every day. In Season 7, Episode 9, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are joined by Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for a conversation on climate change that was so deep, and wide ranging that we're going to break it into 3 episodes.Katharine was born in Toronto, Canada, growing up in a home where science was always front and center. Late in her undergraduate studies in astrophysics, she took a class on climate change, which completely changed her educational path and led to a PhD in atmospheric science. “I found out that climate change affects us all, but it doesn't affect us all equally. I felt if I had the skill set you need to work on this urgent global issue that affects every aspect of our lives on this planet, if I have those abilities and those privileges, I need to be using them to make a difference.”Today, Katharine is Chief Scientist at TNC, where she can live her passion for applied science. TNC has ambitious goals for protection and conservation of freshwater, of land, and of the oceans. In describing the challenges of addressing climate change today, and in particular the social inequities, Katharine notes that “engaging with nature-based solutions not only addresses immediate issues of climate adaptation to heat, it also helps with air pollution, health, and flooding.”Katharine's message is one of hope. “I think of this as the ‘head to heart to hands' gap. In our heads, we know global temperature is rising and humans are responsible. Around the world, the vast majority of people are worried about climate change. In the US over two thirds of people are worried. So, we're really reaching a tipping point in terms of the head, but they don't understand how it affects the people, places and things we love. They haven't made the head to heart connection. They still think of it as a future issue, a distant issue, and something that is not on their priority list. If we don't understand there's a problem that matters to us, why would we want to fix it?”Katharine sees that as only half of the communications challenge. “We could have the whole world worried, but if they don't know what to do about it, they'll do nothing. And that's exactly what we see in the US. Two thirds of people are worried, but only 8% are activated. That's where the hope comes in. The hope is in connecting our heart to our hands. If I do something, could it make a difference?” Through her Newsletter — Talking Climate — and many other channels, Katharine is trying to close these gaps by sharing good news and the actions being taken by people. “Because the number one thing we can do to kickstart and catalyze action is the thing that two thirds of Americans are not doing, and that is we're not talking about it.”In the next episode, Sarah and Jeff talk with Katharine about how she is personally making changes and taking action—and they have a fascinating discussion about the critical role that nature-based solutions play in addressing climate change. Tune in to Season 7, Episode 10 on June 12th.For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

How do we think about forests and their value? We know that forests store carbon, and with the climate changing, many might think the answer is to just plant more trees. Our guests challenge that conventional wisdom and, as the saying goes, help us see the forest for the trees. In Season 7, Episode 8, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laurie Wayburn, Cofounder and President of Pacific Forest Trust (PFT), and Nathan Beane, Research Forester in the Environmental Laboratory of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). They're talking about how to sustainably manage forests to make them more resilient. Laurie has dedicated her career to forest conservation and sustainability. She is an innovator, a pioneer, and an authoritative voice on forest practices and policy. Much of Laurie's work at Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) is working with private landowners on conserving forests. “We wanted to work with what I would call the enlightened self-interest of private landowners and make it financially competitive, or even more desirable, to keep their forests as forests, not just as plantations, but to manage them as forests with the full suite of functions.”Nathan is the leading research forester within the US Department of Defense (DoD). As lead of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Team at ERDC, his research primarily focuses on forest communities, their function, health, management, and sustainment, and ultimately the creation of “resilient forests.” Nathan's work addresses problems in forested lands on USACE and DoD installations. His on-the-ground research helps to inform a more comprehensive understanding of healthy forest ecosystems and how to improve their management.In their respective roles, both Laurie and Nathan speak for the forests. As Laurie describes it, “When people use the term forestry, what they're typically thinking about is the production of timber or fiber commodities. That phrase, ‘seeing the forest for the trees,' is all too apt because so many people think of forests just as a collection of trees.” She describes forest systems as beginning well below the ground and ending above the canopy with trees being the most visible piece of a storehouse of biodiversity that comprises the forest overall. Nathan agrees, noting, “While forests provide key habitats for a range of wildlife, including threatened endangered species, they also generate oxygen, filter water, provide soil stabilization, carbon sequestration, ecosystem biodiversity, natural disaster mitigation, and flood control.”Laurie has a strong call to action for listeners: “One of the most critical things I hope we can help people think about is forests are essential infrastructure, just as we think about roads or the internet as essential infrastructure. As you go about your daily life, be aware of, and grateful for, the grace and blessing of forests and return the favor. They don't exist without people caring and being involved.”Nathan agrees: “I'm a big advocate for that. I think it's important to highlight that it's critical that we understand the complexity of forests. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I think it's really important that we continue to conduct research in this space. I'm really glad to be a part of the EWN Program that supports this.”For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Jeff King at LinkedIn•      Laurie Wayburn at LinkedIn•      Laurie Wayburn at Pacific Forest Trust•      Nathan Beane at LinkedIn 

Imagine restoring a 51-mile-long concrete river—running through the heart of the Los Angeles Basin in California—into a vibrant corridor reconnecting fractured communities and ecosystems. In Season 7, Episode 7, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Amanda Tritinger from the US Army Corps of Engineers talk with landscape architects Alex Robinson from University of Southern California (USC) and Leslie Dinkin from the Kounkuey Design Initiative in Los Angeles. They discuss the use of storytelling, augmented reality, and physical modeling tools to engage people along the river in cocreating a new future for themselves and for the river.Leslie recently graduated with dual master's degrees in landscape architecture and heritage conservation from USC, studying under Alex and working with him at the Los Angeles River Integrated Design Lab (LA-RIDL).Alex's work is rooted in his personal experiences with the City of Los Angeles (LA) and its infrastructure, including the LA River, and finding out how people spend their days interacting with these interesting landscapes. Fresh out of graduate school in 2005, Alex worked on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, one of the first of many plans for the river that tried to bring different values into the thinking about how to transform the river into something more than just an instrument of flood control. He has continued this focus with the realization that, “We were constrained by so many voices and different constituents, all speaking different languages. I thought, what if we could create a platform where we had a more collective understanding, where people could begin to speak the same language and were able to cocreate something.”This led Alex to reach out to the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), which has hydrology modeling in its toolset. As Amanda notes, “You can see how this just clearly aligns with Engineering with Nature. At ERDC, we have numerical and physical models, but how do we get our models to talk to people? I think Leslie and Alex have done a really great job in not only creating that connection but making it meaningful.”The product of this collaboration with Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, and his colleagues at ERDC's Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), was the development of a physical model of a section of the LA River with adjacent land owned by the city where there is an opportunity for big changes. As Alex explains, “This is the crown-jewel opportunity for changing the LA River.” To take the engagement with the model to the next level and produce something that invites people to participate in the process, Alex and his colleagues developed an augmented reality component to visually overlay information on top of the physical model. “It lets people interact—a community member can come in and make a comment, draw something, and that becomes input an engineer and a landscape architect can consider in their design process.”Thinking about how advanced visualization tools support community engagement, Alex says, “I think the model and all the different tools we've developed have created this incredible common ground for people to have a conversation and have their ideas and values represented in the system.”Amanda truly appreciates the work that Alex and Leslie are doing: “If I could just represent all of engineers for a minute, I'd like to say, thank you. Thank you for helping us communicate.”For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  •      Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn•      Alexander Robinson at LinkedIn•      Leslie Dinkin at LinkedIn 

Welcome back to another captivating episode of the WGI Unleashed Podcast! In episode 81, we had the privilege of sitting down with Todd Polk, Director of Federal/Water Management Business Development, from our West Palm Beach corporate office. From growing up in Cincinnati, OH, to serving in the US Army and ultimately bringing his expertise to WGI, it's safe to say that Todd's journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Finding Purpose Through Service Although eventually answering the call to service, Todd's initial path to the military was far from straightforward. After attending the University of Kentucky on a swimming scholarship and majoring in communications, Todd found himself uncertain of his career path and future. However, after further immersing himself in the ROTC program, Todd found his calling as he swore into the US Army in 1999 and ultimately found his passion as a combat engineer. Rising to Challenges Throughout his military career, Todd faced numerous challenges, from injuries during training to the life-altering events of September 11th, 2001. Yet, as he reflects, it was during the busiest times that he and his colleagues rose to their best, exemplifying resilience and dedication in the face of adversity. A Global Perspective Todd's numerous deployments have taken him across the globe, from Afghanistan to Alaska, with each experience shaping his leadership philosophy and perspective. His tenure in the US Army Corps of Engineers, particularly in South Florida's Everglades restoration efforts, underscored his commitment to service and environmental stewardship. Transition and Growth After 24 years of service, Todd transitioned to civilian life, bringing his expertise to WGI's corporate headquarters in West Palm Beach. As Director of Federal/Water Management Business Development, Todd's addition to the team further solidifies WGI's commitment to excellence in design and professional services. Beyond the Uniform Outside of work, Todd cherishes time with his family, enjoying outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, and boating in the Florida sunshine. His recent engagement and the antics of his pets, Ginger and Cody, also add a touch of humor and warmth to his ever-growing story. Looking Ahead As Todd navigates the next chapter of his career, his journey serves as an inspiration to aspiring leaders and veterans transitioning to civilian life. His blend of leadership, service, and unwavering commitment to excellence embodies the core values of WGI and underscores our firm's "Commitment to Greatness." In our conversation with Todd, we were privileged to glimpse into a life shaped by service, leadership, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. His journey reminds us that greatness is not just a destination but a commitment to continuous growth and a service to others. Join us in thanking Todd for sharing his story and for his invaluable contributions to WGI and our nation. Tune in next time as we unravel more captivating tales and insights on the WGI Unleashed Podcast. Until then, stay inspired and keep unleashing your potential! Visit your favorite podcast app now and subscribe to WGI Unleashed to receive alerts every time a new episode drops. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found Click On Picture To See Larger PictureThe D's lied again, the IRS is coming after middle and low income people, they have created a military collection infantry. They will need this because the people are living on debt. Moody's downgrades Maryland after bridge destroyed. [CB] spill the beans, they are political. Trump counters Biden economic narrative. The [DS] is now pushing the war narrative. They will intensify this narrative as we get closer to the Presidential election. The [DS] will try to convict Trump and throw him prison, but this will not stop Trump, he can still run for office. The people will rally around him. Timing is everything and the [DS] is falling right into his trap.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Economy After Promising Not To, The IRS Army Democrats Expanded Is Targeting The Middle Class The IRS last year claimed the extra $80 billion would help the IRS “restore fairness in tax compliance by shifting more attention onto high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters abusing the nation's tax laws. The effort… will center on adding more attention on wealthy, partnerships and other high earners that have seen sharp drops in audit rates for these taxpayer segments during the past decade. ” According to a new audit of the agency, as of just less than a year ago, 63 percent of new IRS audit inquiries were to middle-income earners who made less than $200,000. “Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board reported last week. “Don't forget to save those charitable-giving receipts.” Source: thefederalist.com https://twitter.com/Fxhedgers/status/1778207339960738015 Bridge Collapse: Moody's Cuts Maryland Transportation Authority's Debt Outlook To Negative The fallout from the Port of Baltimore bridge collapse has sparked supply chain snarls and economic pains in the Maryland area, forcing Moody's Ratings to downgrade the outlook of the Maryland Transportation Authority's debt from "stable" to "negative" because of mounting "uncertainties around the Francis Scott Key Bridge's replacement project's costs, including their funding and timing." "Any negative impact from the replacement project would be on top of financial metrics that were expected to narrow from capital investments prior to the loss of the bridge," Cintia Nazima, a Moody's analyst, noted in a report initially mentioned by Bloomberg. Moody's maintained the Aa2 rating for the MTA's revenue bonds, linked to about $2.2 billion in outstanding debt. Nazima explained that this rating "reflects the essentiality of the authority's road network, the fundamental strength of the service area, and its history of strong financial and operational management and performance." The analyst said the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) Key Bridge comprised about 7% of MTA's total revenue in 2023. They expect traffic to be rerouted on adjacent highways and tunnels, adding the MTA will likely recapture most of the lost toll revenue. The bridge was the primary land feeder into the Port of Baltimore. It connected the port to the I-95 highway network in the Mid-Alantic. Source: Bloomberg  For more than two weeks (since March 26), container ships, vehicle transport ships, bulk carriers, and other large commercial vessels have been diverted to other East Coast ports. Last week, the US Army Corps of Engineers provided a timeline for reopening the port, potentially at the end of May. However,

You’ve probably heard about fish ladders and other mechanisms to help adult salmon get upstream past dams. It turns out that on the Willamette River, more than half of baby salmon die on their way downstream past the dams trying to get to the ocean. The US Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that operates the dams, has proposed building massive and costly fish collectors to try to save a fish population increasingly in danger of extinction. But reporting by OPB and Propublica casts doubt on the plan, as many outside the Corps consider the collectors unnecessary and unlikely to succeed.We hear more from Tony Schick, OPB investigative reporter and editor, who reported on salmon and Willamette River dams in collaboration with Propublica.