The North Central Region Water Network’s (NCRWN) Algal Bloom Action Team receives the Outstanding Regional Collaboration Achievement Award from The Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP).
Eugene Braig, aquatic ecosystems program director for The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), is both a member of the recognized action team and played an active role in coordinating and moderating the symposium.
The Algal Bloom Action Team won the award for organizing and hosting a three-day research symposium in January 2021.
The virtual symposium was designed for Extension professionals, researchers, and water professionals to learn about emergent harmful algal bloom research and facilitate outreach on the subject. It attracted more than 1,000 registrants from within the region and nationwide.
“The team was spawned by a 2018 multi-state grant program to facilitate collaboration between water resource research institutes and Extension,” says Braig, who has been on the Algal Bloom Action Team since its creation. Braig and John Lenhart, co-director of the Ohio Water Resources Center, were recipients of Ohio’s NCRWN collaboration funding.