Publications

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

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committees (STAC) workshop on Urban Tree Canopy was created in partnership with the Forestry Workgroup to help jurisdictions implement the urban canopy cover goals of the Riparian Forest Buffer Directive No. 03-01, signed by the Chesapeake Executive Council in December 2003. This expanded riparian buffer directive ...recognizes that urban tree canopy cover offers stormwater control and water quality benefits for municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and can extend many riparian forest buffer functions to urban settings. This workshop and the resulting proceedings are technology transfer tools intended to help jurisdictions accomplish their goals by assisting them in understanding the role of urban tree canopy cover in addressing the goals of the Chesapeake 2000 agreement, learning about various data sources for, and methods of, quantifying tree canopy cover, learning how to set appropriate goals, and strategies for implementing those goals.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. Streams are in integral part of the Chesapeake Bays natural infrastructure. Stream networks interconnect the land, water, living resources and human communities of the Bay watershed (Chesapeake 2000). As such, improving, restoring, and protecting stream ecosystems assumes a pivotal point in moving the Bay and its watershed resources towards the ideal condition. The primary goal of this Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) workshop was to promote science-based approaches to assist the Chesapeake Bay Program partner jurisdictions and their local partners in creating new or enhancing existing efforts to develop stream corridor restoration goals based on local watershed management planning. The workshop served as an opportunity to present alternative approaches for setting integrated stream corridor restoration goals and as a forum for discussion on how to identify common elements and determine how jurisdictions will begin or continue working towards setting these goals.

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Heavy fishing pressure, habitat degradation and high disease mortality have driven native oyster (Crassostrea virginica) populations to historic low levels in Chesapeake Bay. In response, the states of Maryland and Virginia are considering introducing the Asian Suminoe oyster (C. ariakensis) with the goal of establishing a naturalized, self-sustaining population.

Neither the potential risks nor the potential benefits of such an introduction are adequately known at this time. The scientific community agrees that an introduction of diploid C. ariakensis is likely to be irreversible (NRC 2004), and that the spread of C. ariakensis beyond the borders of Chesapeake Bay is inevitable if a self-sustaining population is established. Further, the potential for novel interactions between oyster pathogens? those resident in the Bay and others that may emerge?and C. ariakensis is uncertain and impacts may be unpredictable both for this oyster and for other species over time. Given the long-term implications of an introduction, sound scientific information must form the basis of the environmental impact statement (EIS) that will assess the proposed introduction as well as other alternatives.

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Available in digital format and hardcopy. The Chesapeake Bay Programs Chesapeake 2000 agreement commitment number 4.2.2 calls for the partners to identify and remove state and local impediments to low impact development designs to encourage the use of such approaches and minimize water quality impacts. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) organized a series of workshops designed to identify important impediments to the use of low impact development and environmentally sensitive design for improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to recommend ways to overcome or remove these impediments. The workshop report presents a summary list of the most important impediments. These issues are deemed to be the priority and critical issues that must be addressed immediately.

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There has been growing interest by a number of Chesapeake Bay committees on the issues surrounding the use of non-nutritives in animal feeding operations and their potential impacts on the Chesapeake Bay. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) sponsored and convened a workshop that consisted of a series of keynote speakers who discussed various subjects related to the use of chicken feed additives such as the environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals and metals, as well as microbial resistance. This report addresses the first attempt to approach the broad area of non-nutritives in animal rations, in particular, broiler chicken production.

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