Chesapeake Bay Program

Our regional partnership guides the restoration and protection of the nation’s largest estuary.

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Featured Stories

Homegrown heroes

The Elizabeth River Project is bringing 200+ year old wetlands back to the river

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Certify your backyard habitat

Habitat certification programs celebrate the unique ways your property is helping the environment 

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What Guides Us The Chesapeake Watershed Agreement

5 themes guide the agreement:

  • Abundant Life
  • Clean Water
  • Conserved Lands
  • Engaged Communities
  • Climate Change

Our partnership is guided by the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, which includes goals and outcomes for restoring the Bay, its tributaries and the lands that surround them.

Learn more about the latest agreement

Learn More About the Chesapeake Bay

The Issues

An array of complex problems threaten the health of the Bay and its wildlife.

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A farm field with lighting striking in the background, just before a rain storm.

What is a Watershed?

Over 100,000 streams, creeks and rivers drain to the Bay, making up a 64,000 square mile watershed.

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A stream with trees and shrubs on the sides.

Food Web

Understand the delicate predator-prey relationships within the Bay’s food web.

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A snowy egret scoops a fish out of the water.

Bay Facts

The Bay is full of interesting facts and trivia related to its history, wildlife, geography and more.

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A Chesapeake Bay blue crab sits on the wooden base of a boat.

Field Guide to the Chesapeake

Explore the Field Guide to learn about more than 300 species of birds, fish, insects, invertebrates, mammals, plants, reptiles and amphibians that live in the Chesapeake Bay region.

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Critter of the month

Switchgrass

Panicum virgatum

Switchgrass is a tall, native prairie grass that benefits birds and pollinators.

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