Publications

This is a brief description of air quality in the Chesapeake Bay region

This document presents a strategy to accelerate the protection and restoration of submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries.

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The Chesapeake Bay Program recognized the importance of wetlands in Chesapeake 2000, which charged signatories to reach specific goals by 2010. This memo provides an update on the 2005 Wetlands Evaluation and outline the the PSCs decisions concerning the next steps, including focusing restoration efforts on an acreage gain of 25,000 for the remainder of the decade.

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The Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions and the Chesapeake Bay commission, respectfully convey this policy agreement to our colleagues in the states and U.S. Congress to stress the critical importance of enhancing support for agricultural conservation.

Policy memo concerning decisions regarding nutrient and sediment load allocations and ne submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) goals.

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The Chesapeake Bay is dependent upon the actions of every citizen in the watershed, both today and in the future. The Bay's future will soon rest in the hands of its youngest citizens. Our students, future Bay leaders, should be armed with the knowledge and skills need to make informed choices, have a sense of history and excitement about the nation's largest estuary and an understanding of how their individual actions affect this national treasure.

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Agriculture is a primary economic sector in the region containing 3.2 percent of the nation's farm acreage, yet producing 5.7 percent of the nation's agricultural receipts and contributing 13 percent of region's Gross Domestic Product. Farmers in the watershed have been leaders in the voluntary restoration effort and a national model for cooperation. The next Farm Bill may provide unprecedented opportunity to provide support for many Chesapeake Bay agricultural program. A clear voice from the agriculture community is needed in order to help direct and propel the Chesapeake Bay partnership in a direction that enhances clean up and provides for increased farm viability.

Wetlands, both tidal and non-tidal, play a critical role in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, a role the Chesapeake Bay Program recognized in the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement, the 1989 Chesapeake Bay Wetlands Policy and Directive 97-2, Wetlands Protection and Restoration Goals. That directive called for the maintenance of existing wetlands and the restoration and preservation of wetland acreage and function in order to sustain habitats for breeding, spawning, nesting and wintering living resources, including those that are vital to the regional economy.

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