The National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST) is completing their revision of their report in response to the technical review. This review generated over 600 pages of comments from about 150 reviewers and agencies. Comments have generally been very helpful in making sure the report presents the findings in a clear and balanced manner.

Before being made available for a 60-day public comment period, which is planned to occur in late April, the NAST report is going through the second phase of the planned four-stage review process. In this stage, a set of experts selected by a sub-panel of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology will review the entire report. In addition, the USGCRP agencies and regional and sectoral chairs are being asked to recheck the revisions to the report that took place in response to the technical review.

Progress continues on the regional and sectoral reports. This issue of the newsletter reports on the various sectoral activities. At the regional level, the release of reports is picking up with the Pacific Northwest and Alaska assessment reports having already published and distributed in their reports, other regions are completing review and revision and will soon be publishing their reports, and still others are completing publication of their workshop reports. Simultaneously, quite a number of regions continue their assessment activities, including meetings with stakeholders.