Ken Hyer, Ph.D.
Serves as the USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator. Responsible for developing key USGS science-planning documents and helping to coordinate USGS science efforts that are used by managers to inform restoration and conservation activities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator – 2024-present
USGS Chesapeake Bay Associate Coordinator – 2015-2024
Responsibilities Include:
- Work with USGS Chesapeake Science Team, Science Centers, and CB Program Coordinator to set science priorities and plan Chesapeake Bay science activities based on agency and partner guidance
- Work with USGS Scientists to coordinate projects and synthesis activities to address the USGS Chesapeake Bay science goals and advance our understanding of management and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay watershed
- Interacts with USGS Program Coordinators, Regions, and Science Centers to identify and coordinate resources for USGS Chesapeake Bay projects
- Support USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator interaction with Partners, DOI, and Congress
USGS Hydrologist and Water-Quality Specialist – 2001-2015
Responsibilities Included:
- Oversight of Water Science Center (WSC) water-quality program
- Provide technical expertise to center managers, scientists, and technicians
- Extensive program development activities
- Lead Scientist on complex, multi-disciplinary water-resources studies
USGS Hydrologist – 2000-2001
- Lead Scientist on several complex, multi-disciplinary water-resources studies.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 22
A Science-Based Approach for Targeting Resources to Achieve Multiple Chesapeake Outcomes
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) needs to accelerate progress on multiple outcomes to meet deadlines in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. The CBP partnership spends about $1.2B annually on activities toward achieving the Watershed Agreement, with a focus on water-quality improvement. Recent funding increases, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provide additional opportunities to...
USGS Updates Chesapeake Science Strategy
Issue: For decades the USGS has provided critical science used to understand and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. As the ecosystem is faced with new and evolving pressures from climate change, human development and changes in land use, the USGS has updated its science priorities to help address these growing threats. Tourism, fishing, boating, agricultural production, shipping...
USGS Contributes to Revised Plans for Chesapeake Water-Quality and Toxic Contaminant Goal
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), through the Strategic Review System (SRS), reviews progress toward the 10 goals and associated outcomes of the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. Each outcome is managed by a specific CBP Goal Implementation Team and their associated workgroups. During review of each outcome every two years, a workgroup is responsible to prepare materials for (1) summarizing...
Fact Sheet Summarizes Nutrient Trends and Drivers in the Chesapeake Watershed
Issue: Trends in nitrogen and phosphorus, and the complex factors affecting their change, provide important insights into the effectiveness of efforts to reduce nutrients from reaching the tidal waters of the Bay. The nutrient reductions are needed to improve water-quality conditions in the tidal waters for fisheries and submerged aquatic vegetation.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2007
The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nation's largest estuary, is continually challenged by the population increase in its 64,000 square mile watershed. Since the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), a multi-agency partnership has worked to improve water quality, increase habitat, and restore living resources in the Bay. However, the lack of significant improvement in the Bay...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2012
In its expanded role under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals. The USGS Chesapeake Bay studies depend on collaboration among Priority...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2011
In its expanded role under the President's Chesapeake Bay Executive Order, the U.S. Geological Survey has been given the lead responsibility , in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2013
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the leadership responsibility, under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), to enhance science efforts to conserve and restore the Nation’s largest estuary. The USGS Chesapeake science activities: (1) address many aspects of the new USGS Mission Area Science Strategies; and (2) help the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), which includes...
USGS provides plenary and other talks at the Chesapeake Research Symposium
The Chesapeake Community Research Symposium is held every two years with a goal to “By bringing together managers, scientists, and stakeholders for a series of plenary talks, panel discussions, and special sessions, the 2020 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium will highlight recent progress, challenges and prospects for research, monitoring and modeling efforts that are used to guide...
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 22
A Science-Based Approach for Targeting Resources to Achieve Multiple Chesapeake Outcomes
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) needs to accelerate progress on multiple outcomes to meet deadlines in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. The CBP partnership spends about $1.2B annually on activities toward achieving the Watershed Agreement, with a focus on water-quality improvement. Recent funding increases, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provide additional opportunities to...
USGS Updates Chesapeake Science Strategy
Issue: For decades the USGS has provided critical science used to understand and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. As the ecosystem is faced with new and evolving pressures from climate change, human development and changes in land use, the USGS has updated its science priorities to help address these growing threats. Tourism, fishing, boating, agricultural production, shipping...
USGS Contributes to Revised Plans for Chesapeake Water-Quality and Toxic Contaminant Goal
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), through the Strategic Review System (SRS), reviews progress toward the 10 goals and associated outcomes of the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. Each outcome is managed by a specific CBP Goal Implementation Team and their associated workgroups. During review of each outcome every two years, a workgroup is responsible to prepare materials for (1) summarizing...
Fact Sheet Summarizes Nutrient Trends and Drivers in the Chesapeake Watershed
Issue: Trends in nitrogen and phosphorus, and the complex factors affecting their change, provide important insights into the effectiveness of efforts to reduce nutrients from reaching the tidal waters of the Bay. The nutrient reductions are needed to improve water-quality conditions in the tidal waters for fisheries and submerged aquatic vegetation.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2007
The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nation's largest estuary, is continually challenged by the population increase in its 64,000 square mile watershed. Since the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), a multi-agency partnership has worked to improve water quality, increase habitat, and restore living resources in the Bay. However, the lack of significant improvement in the Bay...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2012
In its expanded role under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals. The USGS Chesapeake Bay studies depend on collaboration among Priority...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2011
In its expanded role under the President's Chesapeake Bay Executive Order, the U.S. Geological Survey has been given the lead responsibility , in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2013
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the leadership responsibility, under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), to enhance science efforts to conserve and restore the Nation’s largest estuary. The USGS Chesapeake science activities: (1) address many aspects of the new USGS Mission Area Science Strategies; and (2) help the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), which includes...
USGS provides plenary and other talks at the Chesapeake Research Symposium
The Chesapeake Community Research Symposium is held every two years with a goal to “By bringing together managers, scientists, and stakeholders for a series of plenary talks, panel discussions, and special sessions, the 2020 Chesapeake Community Research Symposium will highlight recent progress, challenges and prospects for research, monitoring and modeling efforts that are used to guide...