ABOUT OUR BLOG:

In case you missed it, our luscious website (estuarymagazine.com) also features a blog—that strange information beast, a contraction between web and log, intended to add value to readers’ lives and to inspire action. In addition to offering back stories behind the magazine’s articles and features, the blog provides links to sources of activities and information, including past, present, and planned articles in the magazine related to the blog’s subject matter.

We identified in the inaugural blog four calls to action:

• Subscribe to the magazine to learn more about the River—its wildlife, recreational opportunities, science and conservation issues, important people, lifestyle and culture, and fascinating history. Tell your friends and relatives about Estuary.
• Go outside and enjoy the environment and recreational opportunities of the River and surrounding watershed; if this is not possible, experience the River vicariously through the features and high-resolution pictures in the magazine.
• Become involved in meaningful conservation activities for the River and watershed. These may range from advocating for sound environmental policies in your state and town to engaging in environmental monitoring studies, in creating synergies among like-minded organizations to leverage scarce resources, in the removal of invasive species, in community development projects involving the River, in habitat management, and in the reduction of your carbon footprint, to name some. The blog will promote important conservation projects that will benefit from community participation.
• Send us your ideas about the Connecticut River and its watershed in care of info@estuarymagazine.com. The same goes for your feedback about how to improve the magazine, including the topics that you would like to see in future issues and in its blog.

Several installments later our blog continues to be a learning experience for us, defined as the process by which we increase our capacity for effective action, that is, coaxing our readership’s involvement in the preceding activities. We are still learning in the blog how to facilitate navigation among topics with keywords, to narrate personal stories succinctly, to encourage participation, to provide evergreen (lasting) content, to use images, and to establish thought leadership by communicating influence and authority.
Looking ahead, we anticipate increasing the blog’s effectiveness by making it a greater team effort than it is today. Just as with the magazine itself, we will empanel a select team of competent contributors, with occasional guests, to brainstorm topics and to write, illustrate, and edit our blog’s content. What won’t change is our deep appreciation for your comments and feedback.

Gratefully,