Publications

The Schoolyard Habitat Program Development Toolkit is designed to train environmental education program providers to more effectively assist teachers and schools develop sustainable, integrated schoolyard habitat projects.

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In 2008, the VIMS Annual Submersed Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Monitoring Program initiated a pilot project in the Bay and its tributaries to study two potential enhancements: color film and direct referencing technology. Simultaneous color and black and white imagery was captured for three regions and GPS / inertial mapping unit (IMU) direct referencing data was acquired for two of these regions. The GPS/IMU data reduced processing time with similar positional accuracy at a higher cost than VIMS' traditional methods, but there was little obvious benefit offsetting the additional cost and processing time associated with color film. We conclude that timing the imagery to minimize the effects of cloud cover, turbidity, sun glint, water depth, and waves during peak SAV abundance remains the single most important factor in accurately monitoring SAV with aerial photography in the different regions of the Bay.

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Since the signing of the multijurisdictional Chesapeake 2000 agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in cooperation with its six watershed State partners and the District of Columbia, has developed a series of water quality criteria guidance documents in accordance with Section 117b of the Clean Water Act. Chesapeake Bay regional water quality criteria were developed and adopted into state water quality standards regulations protective of living resources and their habitats.

This document represents the fifth formal addendum to the 2003 Chesapeake Bay water quality criteria document; as such readers should regard the sections in this document as new or replacement chapters and appendices to the original published report. The criteria assessment procedures published in this addendum also replace and otherwise supersede similar criteria assessment procedures originally published in the 2003 Regional Criteria Guidance and the 2004 and 2007 addenda. Publication of future addenda by EPA on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay Program watershed jurisdictional partners is likely as continued scientific research and management applications reveal new insights and knowledge that should be incorporated into revisions of state water quality standards regulations in upcoming triennial reviews.

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This paper focuses on the development and application of a relative status measure in the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP): the basis of its methodology and lessons learned from its use in assessing the condition of water quality and biological parameters tracked in the CBP long term monitoring programs. This status measure has been in use and in the grey literature of the Bay Program analysts for over a decade, but has not been formally published previously.

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A Socioeconomic Atlas for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed presents information about population, economy and commerce, social and cultural characteristics, recreation and tourism, administration and government, and land use for counties within the Bay watershed. Over 30 color maps are included, along with data tables, descriptive information, and a list of data sources.

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This document represents the second formal addendum to the 2003 Chesapeake Bay water quality criteria document.

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The Chesapeake Bay numerical chlorophyll a criteria and reference concentrations were derived to address specific water quality, human and aquatic life impairments when applied in specific seasons and to specific salinity-based tidal habitats. EPA strongly encourages the states to adopt the harmful algal bloom-based numerical chlorophyll a criteria for tidal fresh and oligohaline tidal waters where algal-related impairments are expected to persist even after attainment of the Chesapeake Bay dissolved oxygen and water clarity criteria. This is an addendum to the original report.

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A synthesis of human activity in the core portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed written by the National Park Service, with the assistance of a partnership of federal and state agencies, academic institutions, public and private organizations and individuals. This landscape history provides accurate, up to date information on the natural and cultural resources of the Chesapeake Bay heartland, and reveals how a complex ever-changing web of relationships connects all of the region?s resources. This landscape history serves as a consolidated reference for interpreting the Bay watershed?s cultural and natural resources.

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The purpose of this report is to analyze the feasibility of using poultry litter for energy in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Using excess manure to feed energy generation systems in this region could potentially result in a reduced nutrient load to the Bay, thus improving water quality. In order to better assess the feasibility of this option, this report explores technologies that could potentially be used to convert poultry litter into energy and identifies impediments and incentives that a litter-to-energy project may encounter.

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Conservation Management Institute of Virginia Tech conducted a telephone survey of 1,988 residents of the Chesapeake Bay watershed (including those residing in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) in March and April of 2002. The objectives of this survey were to assess residents level of knowledge about, perceptions of, attitudes towards and behaviors in relation to pollution and environmental quality of the Chesapeake Bay region. A secondary goal of the survey was to track changes in public perception regarding water quality issues since the Chesapeake Bay Programs most recent public perception survey conducted in 1993-1994. Several questions from the current survey produced results analogous to this earlier survey.

To assist in analyzing and implementing these data, the counties of the watershed were divided among 10 geographical regions according to such demographic factors as rates of population change, population density, land use patterns and household income. These regions are referenced as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Baltimore/Washington Metro, Tidewater, Delmarva, North-central Virginia, Shenandoah and Western Potomac, South-central Pennsylvania, North-central Pennsylvania, and New York. A minimum of 150 interviews was conducted in each region, with a goal of 200. For further analysis, these 10 regions were collapsed into four distance bands representing their relative distance from the Bay. The overall (watershed-wide) margin of error for these data is +/-2.2% with a 95% confidence level, the margins of error within each region ranges from +/-6.9% to +/-7.3%, and the margins of error for the distance bands ranges from +/-3.1% to +/-6.9%.

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