Publications

The Healthy Watersheds/Forest project is a Virginia-led, multi-year, landscape-scale effort begun in 2015 that is now in nearing completion in phase III. The goal of this project was to research and pilot alternative methods for forest and agricultural land conservation through three separate phases. Phase 1 modeled and tested alternative land use growth scenarios in a portion of the Rappahannock River Basin as a proxy for the Chesapeake Bay watershed by employing the methodology used by EPA TMDL modelers and using real land use data from the localities in the test area to determine the potential value of a BMP in the TMDL model for retaining forestland. In Phase II, Pennsylvania partnered with Virginia to determine what from the perspective of local leaders were the economic and policy incentives needed to prioritize forestland retention as a land use planning option. Phase III developed and piloted the community policy and financial infrastructure necessary to facilitate high quality forest and agricultural land conservation/retention on a sustainable, landscape scale basis. Phase III was divided into two tasks. Task 1 focused on collaborating with the municipal authorities responsible for the plans, policies and ordinances in the two pilot counties. Task 2 focused on developing a transferable financial model in the pilot counties to incentivize private capital markets to invest in the retention of forest and agricultural lands to offset future forecasted growth and development based on the 6.0 Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) model. The ultimate goal has been to create a favorable regulatory environment and incentives for private landowner participation in land conservation while also contributing to the funding requirements of counties to help them meet basic services for their citizenry through a model that can attract private sector financial interest at a scale required to achieve the Phase III goal. This Phase III report covers the research, findings and activities from the start of phase III in April 2018 through September 30, 2019, the end-date for the Chesapeake Bay Trust-funded grant period. The focus of the project team from this point forward to the end the project next Spring (with additional funding from the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities) will be on (1) designing and testing in collaboration with Orange County Virginia, the Economic Development Authority infrastructure required to aggregate landowner interests effectively, and (2) further engaging with the private financial sector to solicit its interest in participating in the Virginia approach, while refining the financial options to best meet landowner, locality and investor needs.

You can read the final reports for each phase here:

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An Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) is an easy-to-use manual for constructing high-quality educational experiences for all students. Our hope is that this guide is used by teachers and non-formal educators to deepen and strengthen outdoor learning for students throughout the region and that this leads to young citizens who understand and respect our natural world.

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Forage species play an integral role in the Chesapeake Bay food web by supporting higher-trophic level
production. "Forage" was interpreted broadly for this workshop and included invertebrate groups as well
as vertebrates, in recognition of the importance of benthic invertebrates and plankton as forage in the
Chesapeake ecosystem, and in response to needs outlined by the Sustainable Fisheries Goal
Implementation Team (SFGIT) Executive Committee. Most forage species are not directly managed by
the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) or Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions, yet these
species are critical to sustaining production of economically and ecologically valuable fish species in the
Bay. A better understanding of the content of the forage base, habitat areas critical for forage production,
and predator-prey interactions involving these valuable species will be an important step toward
ecosystem-based fisheries management in the Chesapeake Bay.

Much uncertainty surrounds the forage topic. Specifically, it is not clear: 1) what taxa constitute the
forage base (species, groups, etc.); 2) how the scientific community can begin to quantify Chesapeake
forage; 3) what data already exist to quantify the forage base; 4) what essential data and information are
needed; and 5) how such information can be used in management decisions. A two-day workshop was
held on November 12-13, 2014 to convene the necessary scientific and management expertise to address
these uncertainties and to recommend feasible approaches to improve our collective understanding of the
forage base.
The focus of the workshop was on producing a system-wide scientific synthesis of forage and develop
actionable recommendations for its management in support of the managed fished species in the
Chesapeake. Participants were encouraged throughout the workshop to consider how to develop and
recommend workshop products that could best facilitate decision-making by fishery managers. The
workshop was designed to address forage issues in a comprehensive way that is system-wide in scope,
rather than focused on any one species or issue. The emphasis of the workshop, as proposed by the
Steering Committee (SC; Appendix A), was to improve understanding of critical forage needs that
support desirable functioning of the Chesapeake ecosystem. During the workshop, jurisdictional
managers indicated that their primary interest was in describing the forage specifically required to support
managed species. Consequently, much of the workshop discussion and content of this report are focused
specifically on forage groups that support the managed and fished species of the Bay.
This workshop report summarizes outcomes and supports the SFGIT in development of both the "Forage
Fish" and "Fish Habitat" Management Strategies, as specified by the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP)
Watershed Agreement
(https://www.chesapeakebay.net/documents/FINAL_Ches_Bay_Watershed_Agreement.withsignaturesHIres.pdf).

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Annual report published by the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee (CBSAC) on the status of the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay and management advice for Bay jurisdictions.

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The major objective of the Coordinated Split Sample Program is to establish a measure of comparability between sampling and analytical operations for water quality monitoring basinwide. A secondary objective is to evaluate the in-matrix dilution of standard EPA reference materials. These standard reference materials are analyzed inn appropriate matrix, fresh to saline, and concentration level to match the sample. The CSSP provides the forum and information necessary to promote an on-going refinement of the field and laboratory tecniques rather than assuming that the system is static and never changing. The statistical assessment of the data allows the field and laboratory personnel to improve their respecitve techniques. Inn addition, the description of the data quality provides the necessary information for assessment and application of the data by the intended user.

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For watershed modeling purposes, the Chesapeake Bay basin was divided into 63 model segments in 1992 as part of the development of Phase II the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (Figure E.1.1). The original phase II segmentation was based on a combination of USGS hydrologic unti boundaries, NOAA shore line data for the Bay, location of water quality gauging stations, and the aggregation of relatively homogeneous hydrologic/topographic reigons. For more detailed documentation on the approach taken in the development of this model please refer to the "Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed Model Application to Calculate Bay Nutrient Loadings."

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for the last 20 years, the Chesapeake Bay Program partners have used various forms of a basic segmentation scheme to organize the collection, analysis and presentation of environmental data. The Chesapeake Bay Program Segmentation Scheme Revision, Decision and Rationales: 1983-2003 provides documentation on the development of the spatial segmentation scheme of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries and the later revisions and changes over the last 20 years. It contains information on the 1983-1985 original segmentation, the 1997-1998 revisions for the 1997 Re-evaluation, and the 2003 segmentation corrections and expansion. This document provides a concise summary on the segmentation scheme background and a listing of the principal contents of the larger segmentation document related to tidal water designated uses.

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The CSSP has two nmain objectives: identifying parameters with low inter-organization agreement, and estimating measurement system variability. The identification of parameters with low agreement is used as part of the overall Quality Assurance program. Laboratory and program personnel use this information to investigate possible causes of the differences, and take action to increase agreement if possible. Later CSSP results will document any improvements i inter-organization agreement. The variability estimates are most useful to data analysts and modelers who need confidence estimates for monitoring data.

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