Please join the CRC in its efforts to help maintain strong support for the Bay Journal as part of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnersip’s commitment to transparency, science literacy and provision of information to the public.  The CRC has itself worked  in close cooperation with the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office (NCBO) to provide roughly $20,000 of annual support for the Bay Journal for well over a decade, but the lion’s share of partnership support came directly from the US EPA CBO,  as a 6-year grant commitment   on behalf of the partnership.  We are now highly disappointed, however, to learn that this previously approved grant funding from the US EPA was just withdrawn (including all $325,000 of FY17 Funding), in an unprecedented direct intervention into an approved grant.  The “orders” for this truly unprecedented move came from a politically appointed position in the agency’s Office of Public Affairs.”

In this regard, CRC Director Bill Ball fully endorses the recent essay published by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, noting that “This cut of funding is in direct opposition to the partnership’s objectives of keeping the public informed and involved and could destroy one of our more effective ‘public-private partnerships’ toward good science communication and transparency.”

If you wish to assist, consider two actions: (1) private donation to the journal (always welcome, and something that would help the Bay Journal do with less federal funding, something it hoped one day to do anyway); and (2) a letter to your representatives in Congress pointing out this new slap in the face of democratic principles of governance.   Names and addresses for the 12 U.S.Senators and 42 Representatives representing Bay districts can be found here and here, respectively.  #SavetheBayJournal