This workshop will provide a gentle introduction to the arcane world of R, covering topics useful for those with no prior exposure to the software as well as those interested in learning more advanced applications. This free, open source system for statistical computation and graphics has become the de facto standard for ecologists with more than half of published scientific papers now using the software. Given its flexibility and widespread adoption by the scientific community, R training has broad applicability for environmental scientists and lake managers working in all contexts requiring data management, statistical analysis, and graphical presentation of data. R allows precise documentation of steps taken in data processing in order to provide reproducible results in alignment with the Open Science movement. Graphical user interfaces and integrated development environments now make R much more user friendly for beginners (i.e., more point-and-click and less command line). Users have contributed over 15,000 packages to R, greatly extending its capabilities. Have your laptop handy, if possible, as the workshop will include a hands-on portion.