November 2025 STAC Meeting

November 18, 2025 - November 18, 2025

The November 2025 STAC Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 18th, from 9:00am to 12:00pm. This meeting was a Topical Meeting (see STAC Meeting Restructure) focused on the theme for this meeting is Decision-Making and How It Affects Governance.

This STAC-led topical meeting was designed as an interactive conversation, and we’d welcome any immediate reactions, reflections, or concerns you have as we work on compiling the materials and developing a synthesis product from the discussion.

• Feedback Form on STAC November 2025 Meeting
  

 

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Meeting Agenda: STAC November 2025 Meeting Agenda

Meeting Materials:

Relevant Materials:

• Outside Expert Panel
  • Governance for Adaptive Management: Forum Summary Report
    • Summary report for the 2023 Adaptive Management Forum hosted by the Delta Science Program (Sacramento-San Juaquin Delta).
  • Rich Batiuk et a. 2025. Review of Policy and Practice of Restoration of Chesapeake Bay
    • This policy & practice review synthesizes 40+ years of Chesapeake Bay restoration and distills 10 transferable lessons for other large ecosystem efforts (leadership, transparency, engagement, durable funding, empowered participation, science use, continuous monitoring/modeling, clear communication, adaptability, and accountability). The article shares lessons in CBP’s history (1983–present), reviews progress and persistent gaps (e.g., nonpoint sources), and links them to current directives to revise the Watershed Agreement and streamline governance by 2026.
• Chesapeake Bay Program
  • 2025 Governance Recommendations
  • 2025 Structure Recommendations
    • Includes proposed updated CBP org chart
  • Governance and Management Framework for the Chesapeake Bay Program (December 2022)
  • Chesapeake Bay Decision Framework, general guidance – Carl Hershner (VIMS)
• STAC
  • CBP Logic Framework – Governance Ad Hoc Workgroup product (October 2025)
  • CESR report (May 2023)
    • Figure 6.1. – Levels of policy feedback and learning in expansion of adaptive management (page 79)

STAC Business:

• Attendance Record: December 2024 – September 2025
• Current Membership Contacts
• STAC Membership Term List
• STAC Bylaws
• STAC Operational Guidelines
• STAC 2025 Letter to the Executive Council (updated as of 11/14)

Presentations:

• Expert Panel: Lessons from Inside and Outside the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership
  • Governance Research and Processes from the California Delta — Tanya Heikkila (University Colorado Denver)
  • Long Island Sound Partnership’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee — Penny Vlahos (University of Connecticut)
  • Governance Experience in the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership and Various Other Restoration Partnerships — Rich Batiuk

Panel Recording:

• Expert Panel: Lessons from Inside and Outside the Chesapeake Bay Program Partnership
  Panelists: Tanya Heikkila (University Colorado Denver), Penny Vlahos (University of Connecticut), Rich Batiuk
  

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Updates will be posted to this page. If you have any questions, please reach out to STAC Projects Manager Tou Matthews (matthewst@chesapeake.org)