Publications

This second report from the Chesapeake Bay Program Monitoring Subcommittee summarizes data collected at over 165 stations Bay-wide for the new coordinated monitoring program from June 1984 through September 1985. This initial effort represents the groundwork of a large, complex, and rapidly growing store of information. The challenge of the monitoring process should not be over simplified. Because the Bay is so large and complex, it will take an estimated three to five years to sift out the natural variability within a given year and between years in order to achieve a baseline characterization of the Bay, and to understand the slow and subtle changes resulting from management actions.

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On October 5-6, 1994, the Nutrient Subcommittee and Forestry Workgroup of the Chesapeake Bay Program Hosted a conference on the subject of Riparian Forest Buffers. Participants came together to discuss, debate and learn about the value of riparian forest resources and their potential use as protective buffers for water quality, fish and wildlife and other diverse objectives. The "Scientific Consensus" process provided a clear conclusion: Riparian forest buffers were a management practice of importance to the Chesapeake Bay Program; not only for helping to control non-point sources of pollution but also to improve the health of our aquatic resources and provide a host of other benefits. The consensus also provided our first view of a set of important consideration for forest buffer planning and use in terms of nutrient removal, a subject so important to accomplishing Bay restoration goals.

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On October 5-6, 1994, the Nutrient Subcommittee and Forestry Workgroup of the Chesapeake Bay Program hosted a conference on the subject of Riparian Forest Buffers. Participants came together to discuss, debate and learn the value of riparian forest resources and their potential use as protective buffers for water quality, fish and wildlife and other diverse objectives. The "Scientific Consensus" process provided a clear conclusion: riparian forest buffers were a management practice of importance to the Chesapeake Bay Program, not only for helping to control non-point sources of pollution but also to improve the health of our aquatic resources and provide a host of other benefits. The consensus also provided our first view of a set of important consideration for forest buffer planning and use in terms of nutrient removal, a subject so imporant to accomplishing Bay restoration goals.

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On October 5-6, 1994, the Nutrient Subcommittee and Forestry Work Group of the Chesapeake Bay Progam haosted a conference on the subject of Riparian Forest Buffers. Participants came together to discuss, debate, and learn about the value of riparian forest resources and their potential use a protective buffers for water quality, fish and wildlike and other diverse objectives. The "Scientifc Consensus" process provided a clear conclusion: Riparian forest buffers were a management practice of importantce to the Chesapeake Bay Program; not only for heling to control non-point sources of pollution but also to improve the health of our aquatic resources and provide a host of other benegits. The consensus also provided our first view of a set of important consideration for forest buffer planning and use in terms of nutrient removal, a subject so imporant to accomplishing Bay restoration goals.

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Forests are vital to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Policy makers and the public are now recogniing the role the Bay's forests play in helping to maintain water quality, air quality, watershed health and resilience, living resources, economic productivity, and region's quality of life. The Chesapeake Bay Agreement signed in June 2000 commits Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and federal agencies to take actions that will "promote the expansion and connection of contiguous forests" in the Bay watershed. This study recommends the adoption of forest landscape policy goals to implement this commitment. It also recommends a variety of specific improvements and additions to existing tax, acquisition, forest management, land use, and urban forest programs that would improve the forests for the benefit of the public, landowners, and the environment.

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Forests are vital to the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Policy markers and the public are now recognizing the role the Bay's forests play in helping to maintain water quality, air quality, watershed health and resilience, living resources, economic productivity, and the region's quality of life. The Chesapeake Bay Agreement signed in June 2000 commits Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and federal agencie to take actions that will "promote the expansion and connection of contiguous forests" in the Bay watershed. This study recommends the adoption of forest landscape policy goals to implement this commitment. It also recommends a variety of specific improvements and additions to existing tax, acquisition, forest management, land use, and urban forest programs that would improve the forests for the benefit of the public, landowners, and the environment.

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The Bay's "living resources" - some 2,700 species of fish, wildlife and plants-provide important recreational, aesthetic, and economic benefits to over 13.6 million people living in its drainage basin. Chesapeake Bay is likewise recognized worldwide for its valuable living resources. Unfortunately, over the last three decades, pollution and development have damaged the productivity of the estuary. Most alarming has been the destruction or degradation of imporant fish and wildlife habitat. For over a decade federa, state, and local agencies have worked with the public under the auspices of the CBP to monitor Bay health and resources, identify threats, devise basinwide strategies for recovery and direct on-the-ground restoration projects.

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The Chesapeake Bay Program, in its effort to measure progress in protecting and restoring wetlands throughout the watershed, committed to performing a status and trends survey of Chesapeake wetlands every five years. The information from these surveys will guide the management actions needed to achieve the Chesapeake Bay Program's commitment to a "no-net loss" of wetlands in the short term, in wetlands across the watershed. This booklet summarizes the findings of the first survey.

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This document represents a synthesis of the overall findings of water quaity and living resources data gen erated over the first 12 years(1985-1996) of the Virginia Chesapeake Monitoring Program. In this report, patterns of water quality and living resources for Virginia's tributaries and the virginia Chesapeake Bay are examined. Patterns of nutrient loadings are examined for the entire watershed of each river, however, status and trends in water quality and living resources are presented only for the tidal portion of each river. The tidal portion of each river (also referred to as an estuary) represents that portion which is influenced by tides and by the mixing of saltwater from the ocean and freshwater from land runoff and groundwater. A series of more technical documents is also available which contain detailed statistical results that are the basis of this report.

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We have scored significant gains in our common effort to sustain the productivity and safeguard the future of the Chesapeake Bay. Under the 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement, literally hundreds of tasks have been initiated to fulfill its bold promise to restore and protect this treasured eatuary. These essential steps have carried us to a new threshold in our mutual endeavor to save a major ecosystem through cooperative action. Our challoenge now is to maintain, and even increase, the momentum achieved over the months and years since the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Program. We must look anew at the still formidable challenges ahead and bring into sharp focus the spcifiec objectives that merit priority now and in the months ahead.

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