IJNR Expeditions and Activities for 2010

IJNR learning expeditions help reporters and editors at all career stages to gain perspective and understanding and to become better storytellers. Mid-career, early-career and veteran reporters and editors from a diverse range of newspapers, magazines, broadcast operations and on-line news organizations are chosen to participate. Journalists working for smaller organizations, including tribal and ethnic news media, are encouraged to apply. IJNR fellowship awards cover the costs of meals, lodging, chartered bus and all other field activities during the expeditions. In addition, some travel stipends are available.

These expenses-paid fellowships are designed for reporters and editors who aspire to produce deeper, more explanatory news coverage of issues that affect growth, economic development, rural communities, natural resources and the environment.

Funding for IJNR programs comes from a broad spectrum of charitable foundations, conservation and environment groups, state and federal government agencies, news-media groups, natural-resource companies and trade associations, as well as individual donors. (See IJNR's Sponsors page.)

Please review How To Apply for details on selection criteria, application materials and costs.

Great Waters Institute

April 23 - May 1, 2010

Application deadline: Tuesday, March 10; Email applications encouraged

Review Great Waters 2009 Report »

This journey across the Lake Ontario watershed will explore ecologically significant areas in Ontario and New York. This program will start and end in Toronto. Fourteen journalists selected to be Great Waters Fellows will examine newsworthy issues of water, energy, climate, fisheries, shipping, shoreline development, runoff, endangered species recovery, and invasive-species control—issues that have relevance throughout the Great Lakes basin:

Themes and Issues to Examine:

• A Major Water Challenge of Our Time: Managing Storm Runoff and Non-point Pollution in Metropolitan Areas
• Energy for the Great Lakes Economy: Pros and Cons of Coal, Hydro, Hydrokinetic, Geothermal and Wind (including off-shore facilities)
• Toxic Hot Spots: A Report Card on the Pace of Remediation in Great Lakes “Areas of Concern”
• Case Study of a Threatened Species: The American Eel
• Controlling Aquatic Invasive Species: Ballast Water Technology and Salt Water Shipping in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway
• Effects of Water-Level Regulation on Wetland Habitat
• Water Diversions and the Future of the Great Lakes Compact
• The Comeback of a Charismatic Native: Restoring the Atlantic Salmon to Lake Ontario
• Adapting to Climate Change: The Predicted Effects of Global Warming on Shallow-Water Ecosystems in the Great Lakes Basin

Journalists accepted to participate in this program will start with an in-depth examination of the successes and failures of storm-water management and non-point runoff in the Greater Toronto Area, including a firsthand look at the latest technologies being implemented to control runoff, water quality and beach health in one of the largest cities in the Great Lakes region. The group will examine lessons learned in Toronto and the possibility of replicating these storm water technologies in metropolitan areas throughout the Great Lakes region.

Journalists will also examine contaminated sites at two key “Areas of Concern” in Lake Ontario, and they will revisit the pace and progress of remediation at these two toxic hotspots as well as dozens of similar sites on both sides of the international border. Journalists will hear leading scientists describe the latest recovery efforts for the American Eel, which, by some estimates, once constituted 40 percent of the fish biomass in Lake Ontario. Today, the eel is listed as “threatened” in the Province of Ontario. Fellows will meet shipping officials, scientists and environmentalists at one of the region's leading ports, as well as a key section of the Welland Canal, to discuss issues of ballast-water management and the latest technologies to prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Also during the trip, Fellows will make a series of field visits to explore several renewable-energy platforms, either proposed or already implemented in the Lake Ontario watershed, that include geothermal, hydrokinetic, onshore and offshore wind facilities. They will head out onto the water with scientists who monitor the spread and effects of one of the latest exotic species to enter the Lake Ontario ecosystem. And they will strap on hip waders to accompany fish biologists as they walk into Lake Ontario tributaries to release juvenile Atlantic salmon as part of a multi-year restoration effort.

This program, led by Peter Annin, Frank Allen and Adam Hinterthuer, will be an intense, professional-development experience. IJNR will cover all field costs (such as meals, lodging, chartered bus and hired vessels) as part of each fellowship award. Journalists chosen to be Fellows will be expected to participate fully from start to finish.

Application materials (such as statement of interest, résumé, work samples and letters of recommendation) should be sent by email to contact(at)IJNR(dot)org or by regular mail to IJNR, P.O. Box 1996, Missoula, MT 59806. Please refrain from sending emails containing large attachments (such as big photo portfolios and similar mega-data documents) to avoid clogging and paralyzing IJNR’s mail box.

Beaver Islands Institute

August 27-30, 2010

Application Deadline: Tuesday, June 29, 2010; Email applications encouraged

This short-course fellowship will be a refresher program open only to applicants who are alumni of one of IJNR’s nine prior Great Waters Institutes. IJNR intends to select dozens of alumni to participate in this fellowship, which will be focused on island ecosystems of the Great Lakes.

Because of their remoteness and inaccessibility, island ecosystems in the Great Lakes region are often overlooked. Yet these fragile ecosystems have vital environmental roles. IJNR’s journey to the Beaver Islands Archipelago in northern Lake Michigan will attempt to put the ecological importance of island ecosystems into a broader, Basin-wide perspective. Programming will emphasize conditions, practices and problems that are common among islands throughout the Great Lakes region. The fellowship will be headquartered at the Central Michigan University Biological Station on Beaver Island.

Themes and Issues to Examine:

• Offshore Island Ecosystems as Spawning Grounds and Nurseries for Great Lakes Fisheries
• The Unusual Vulnerabilities of Island Ecosystems to Exotic Species
• Local Successes in the Control of Land-based Exotic Invasive Species
• Gigantism and Other Quirks of Island Evolution
• Challenges of Achieving Balance: Development and Preservation in Tourism-Based Island Economies
• Lessons Learned from Cormorant Management in the Beaver Island Archipelago
• The Role of Great Lakes Islands in Bird Migration and Reproduction

Traverse City, Michigan, will serve as the start and end point for this program, but Fellows will spend most of their time on the Beaver Islands. This ecologically rich and remote area faces significant environmental issues that resonate throughout the Great Lakes region. The Beaver Islands are positioned at the front line of many Great Lakes ecological battles—ranging from fishery-management challenges and exotic-species invasions to a controversial cormorant colony and ongoing development pressures. At the same time, the archipelago’s shallow waters and smattering of tiny islands serve as incubators for everything from small mouth bass to the endangered piping plover. In meetings with scientists from the Michigan DNR’s Charlevoix Research Station, journalists will examine the latest trends affecting the aquatic food web and the distinctive contributions that shallow reefs and sunken islands make to local and regional fish production.

During the program, IJNR will conduct tours (by boat and on foot) of a wide variety of field sites, where the group will explore several ecological issues, aided by panel discussions and relaxed conversations with regional scientists and local residents. This program will feature presentations by local, regional and international experts on island ecosystems.

IJNR Fellow Reunion Dinner at SEJ Annual Conference in Missoula, MT

At the home of Frank and Maggie Allen. Please write to Contact@IJNR.org to confirm your attendance or call Maggie at 406-273-3523. This event is open to all IJNR Fellows.

Mentoring

IJNR’s Mentoring program is open to all IJNR Fellows. If you would like to participate as a Mentor or Mentee, please contact Frank Allen at: or call (406) 273-4626.