Participants jump into the Inner Harbor at Bond Street Wharf in Fells Point during the Harbor Splash in Baltimore on June 23, 2024. The city has drastically reduced sewage reaching the Inner Harbor, enabling its first major swimming event in roughly four decades. “In 2023, we collected over 700 water samples and created the most comprehensive data set on bacteria in the Baltimore Harbor that anyone has ever seen,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of the nonprofit Waterfront Partnership. "Looking at that data made it very clear that if it had not rained, the Baltimore Harbor was meeting the Maryland standard for swimming beaches close to 100% of the time.” (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
This past year we documented rare and endangered species, researchers working to understand them, and people acting to make life better for communities and wildlife. In our picks for favorite photos of 2024, the result is an even mix of science, wonder and stewardship.
You’ll also see two frames from a major story about the community surrounding Oxon Run Park in Southeast Washington, D.C. And as tribes in the region celebrate land acquisition and conservation, we followed an oyster restoration effort with the Nansemond Indian Nation.
As always, we covered plenty of wildlife in 2024. Making the cut is an outtake from a story about the saltmarsh sparrow, a species threatened by nuisance flooding made more erratic by climate change, and the race to bolster its habitat before it’s too late. Another rare species, the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, appears from a story following a survey by one of its eminent researchers.
Along the way, we saw people planting trees, picking up litter and enjoying the cumulative result of thousands of positive efforts—a healthier watershed.
We hope you enjoy the look back at 2024. And be sure to also look at our round-up of success stories from across the watershed this year.
A North American river otter runs on the frozen tidal wetlands of Great Marsh at Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Fairfax County, Va., on Jan. 17, 2024. Once considered for development as a community and airport, the refuge was established in 1969 to protect bald eagles, and today holds forests adjacent to Mason Neck State Park, as well as Great Marsh, a 207-acre tidal freshwater marsh. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The blue crab winter dredge survey is conducted by staff and crew with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in Harris Creek in Talbot County, Md., on Jan. 24, 2024. The annual survey is conducted across both Maryland Virginia by DNR and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in order to estimate the population of adult and juvenile blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Snow geese visit a snow-covered farm field near Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in Stevens, Pa., on Feb. 14, 2024. Dammed to create Middle Creek reservoir, the area is a haven for migrating waterfowl, with tens of thousands of snow geese as well as Canada geese, tundra swans, ducks and other birds drawing spectators every February. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Contract workers operating under the H-2B visa program harvest shortleaf pine seedlings at John S. Ayton State Tree Nursery in Preston, Md., on Feb. 15, 2024. The state nursery is self-supported through sales of roughly two million trees for conservation purposes, up from two million the previous year. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A small carpenter bee of the genus Ceratina visits a cut-leaved toothwort plant blooming at Truxton Park in Annapolis, Md., on March 20, 2024. Only reaching 3/8 inches in length, small carpenter bees don't burrow into wood like their larger relatives. Instead they tunnel into dead plant stems to nest, packing pollen balls and for each laying one egg that will overwinter as a grub before emerging as an adult the following spring to forage on a wide range of flowers. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Volunteers Paul Young-Hyman, Helen Holden and Terrell Moody help staff from Blue Water Baltimore plant trees in the Howard Park neighborhood of Baltimore on April 10, 2024. Funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the addition of urban tree canopy will help counter the urban heat island effect by providing shade, while also helping absorb stormwater runoff. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Doni Villatoro uses a tool called a mattock while planting trees along a stream on a dairy farm in Frederick County, Md., on April 15, 2024. Villatoro has spent nine years working with a crew from Shenandoah Habitats, which was contracted by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay for the riparian forest buffer project. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Austin Lewis of Back River Restoration Committee picks up plastic bottles and other trash washed ashore near the Back River in Rosedale, Md., on April 22, 2024. Since 2011, the Back River Restoration Committee has removed over six million pounds of litter and debris from the river and its banks. The nonprofit expects 2024 to break records for the amount of trash removed. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A grasshopper sparrow calls while perched on a wineberry cane above non-native cool-season grasses adjacent to the restored native grasslands at Conquest Preserve in Queen Anne's County, Md., on April 24, 2024. The loss of large grasslands and hayfields has led to the grasshopper sparrow being listed as a “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” by the Maryland State Wildlife Action Plan. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Kathy Thornton, a field technician with Washington College, spreads $500 of native plant seeds on a restored grassland at Conquest Preserve in Queen Anne's County, Md., on April 24, 2024. The 758-acre former farm is conserved public land that has been turned into a mosaic of habitats through the Natural Lands Project, operated by staff from Washington College’s Center for Environment & Society, to support wetlands, early successional forest and grassland species like the bobwhite quail. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A crew from First Impression Hardscapes installs permeable pavement in a 7,000-square-foot parking lot at St. Catherine Labouré Catholic Church in Wheaton, Md., on May 16, 2024. The project, led by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay with grant funding, will help the church reduce its stormwater runoff pollution, absorbing water before it flows off the property. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
A common snapping turtle is seen at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Va., on May 17, 2024. At a little more than 1,500 acres, the park conserves forest, meadow and vast wetlands in the largest park operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Fourth-grade students from HenRidge Elementary School hold a hogchoker they caught during a pontoon boat ride, part of a Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) event at Presquile National Wildlife Refuge in Henrico County, Va., on May 21, 2024. By the end of the trip, the students had caught a total of three hogchokers. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Bri Panos of Audubon Mid-Atlantic takes body measurements of a saltmarsh sparrow caught during a survey of Irish Grove Sanctuary in Somerset County, Md., on June 12, 2024. The saltmarsh sparrow has experienced declines of 9% annually, leading to its consideration for the federal endangered species list. Audubon and partners have committed to a program called Marshes for Tomorrow, which calls for a restoration plan for 25,000 acres of Maryland salt marsh, to benefit the saltmarsh sparrow and other species. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
American hophornbeam grows at Caroline Furnace Camp and Retreat Center in Shenandoah County, Va., on June 14, 2024. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Kenneth Bridgers, farm manager at The Well at Oxon Run, operated by DC Greens, pauses for a portrait near a special tree at the farm and community wellness property in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C., on July 3, 2024. Bridgers grew up in Ward 8 and now works with the community to share his love for gardening and his knowledge of the holistic benefits of giving back through fresh produce. "Using food as medicine, using the garden space as a therapeutic means to help people process their experiences, whether positive or traumatic is essential," Bridgers said. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Mummichogs swim through sago pondweed, a species of bay grass, also known as submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), growing in the Severn River Sanctuary in Anne Arundel County, Md., on July 9, 2024. Underwater grasses serve as the foundational habitat of the Chesapeake Bay while also improving clarity by calming waters and trapping sediment. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Kids from Exodus Summer Camp enjoy popsicles during their weekly visit to the James E. Bunn Amphitheater at Oxon Run Park for storytime with the Metro Police Department, followed by playtime on the playground in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C., on July 17, 2024. DC Public Libraries also offers the kids free books after the event to promote reading during the summer. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
High school students serving as Youth Conservation Interns with the Elizabeth River Project paddle at Paradise Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth, Va., on July 26, 2024. The eight-week internship program is held in partnership with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, and connects five Portsmouth high school students with mentors in river-friendly horticulture, sustainable landscape design. Interns, who are based at the nature park, also earn a certification as a Chesapeake Bay Landscaping Professional Associate. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Nikki Bass, vice chair of the Nansemond Indian Nation tribal council, poses for a portrait at Mattanock Town in Suffolk, Va., on July 27, 2024. Official ownership of the roughly 75-acre property was recently transferred to the tribe from the city of Suffolk. “I live right across from the Nansemond River, less than 20 feet away from me. My favorite thing to do is see who is on the river each morning. The day after the Mattanock Town settlement, I went out, and there was a dolphin right there,” Bass said. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
An angler fishes on the Susquehanna Flats near Havre de Grace, Md.,, with Cecil County in the background, on Aug. 6, 2024. The flats are a large bed of bay grasses below the mouth of the Susquehanna River. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Victoria Hill of Old Dominion University collects bio-optics data on the Susquehanna Flats in the Chesapeake Bay near Havre de Grace, Md., on Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo by Rhiannon Johnston/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Some of Mike Phillips' cattle begin grazing lush vegetation after being released from pens at his Shenandoah Valley farm in Rockingham County, Va., on Sept. 6, 2024. Phillips practices rotational grazing to improve soil health for his beef cattle operation, and is in the process of placing his land in conservation easements to protect them from development. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Matt Balazik of the Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Rivers Center captures and tags Atlantic sturgeon on the James River in Chesterfield County, Va., on Sept. 24, 2024. Balazik measures each sturgeon and checks for a pit tag, indicating a recaptured fish. Atlantic sturgeon are an endangered species that is slowly recovering after centuries of harvest. “The population is still low compared to what it should be, but it's not nearly as bad as we thought,” Balazik said. “And that's really good, because it takes a long time for you to get these adult fish.” (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
Hen Bellman of Audubon Mid-Atlantic holds a fiddler crab found while planting marsh grasses in a bare patch of restored marsh at Deal Island Wildlife Management Area in Somerset County, Md., on Oct. 26, 2024. The previous winter, seventy-two acres of marsh were elevated using sediment dredged from the Wicomico River and planted with 300,000 plugs of native marsh grasses. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
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