Partnership in Science, Education, and Sustainable Design
Michael Bayer, AICP, Environmental Resources Management
Stephen Meinhold, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Wilmington
St. Croix, located in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), has a long history of marine research. The world's leading investigators have gathered data at former marine laboratories on St. Croix, which included: Fairleigh Dickinson University's West Indies Laboratory from 1971 to 1990 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Undersea Research Program habitats, Hydrolab (1970s to 1986) and Aquarius (1988 to 1990).
The loss of these laboratories following Hurricane Hugo in 1989 has hampered scientific research on St. Croix, especially within national parks established in the USVI to protect marine resources.
In the wake of the closure of these marine laboratory facilities and the continued degradation of coral reef habitat throughout the Caribbean, university scientists and educators, as well as scientists and resource managers within the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs and the National Park Service (NPS) have recognized the need to restore St. Croix's marine research capacity. In 1997, a university consortium was created to re-establish this capacity and operate the Salt River Bay Marine Research and Education Center (MREC).
The MREC provides an opportunity to leverage the benefits of a partnership between NPS and four major public research universities of the consortium to:
- Conduct collaborative marine research that will directly benefit the national parks.
- Mentor future generations of marine scientists and resource managers.
- Provide a broad educational program that engages students at all levels about marine science and the natural and cultural resources of St. Croix and the USVI.
- Demonstrate science and technology through the design and operation of the MREC and its building and site components.
The partnership with NPS provides the universities with an opportunity to expand their marine research programs in the Caribbean and complement their existing facilities in other locations.
By locating the MREC within a national park, the consortium will be able to market the educational program to students in marine science, Caribbean studies, and related disciplines as an immersion experience on St. Croix and opportunity to work with NPS, local students, and researchers leading ongoing, long-term projects benefiting the parks, the territory, and the region.
By working together, NPS and the consortium will create a unique facility that will provide significant benefits to the St. Croix park units, assist in their resource management, and create a capacity to expand research and education in the USVI in the long-term, generating benefits that can be measured in the future as jobs and educational opportunities that do not exist in the USVI today.
Biographies:
Michael Bayer has 12 years of multidisciplinary planning experience, spanning all scales of planning, from site and facilities planning to local government comprehensive master plans, and transportation and land use planning. Mr. Bayer's approach is to identify the needs of clients, listen carefully and respectfully, and plan for solutions that meet these needs through a collaborative planning and decision-making process. On all projects, Mr. Bayer seeks to integrate planning and design considerations with strategic thinking informed by and educating key stakeholders and the public.
Mr. Bayer is co-author of Becoming an Urban Planner: Careers in Planning and Urban Design, published by John Wiley & Sons and the American Planning Association in 2010.
Stephen Meinhold is the associate dean for research at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Dr. Meinhold serves as the liaison between the Joint Institute for Caribbean Marine Studies and the National Park Service for the
Salt River Bay Marine Research and Education Center, coordinating input of the university partners into the development of the marine laboratory campus.
At UNCW, Dr. Meinhold leads the Office of Research Service and Sponsored Programs and is a professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs.