A River Runs Orange: Acid Mine Drainage in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed If your local waterway looks more “rusty” than usual, acid mine drainage may be to blame. Acid mine drainage (AMD) occurs when groundwater carries toxic metals from abandoned mine sites into streams and rivers, often turning them an alarming shade of orange. [...]
Investing in Clean Water: "Pay-for-Performance" Based Approaches to Watershed Restoration For years, states, localities and stakeholders have focused on implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce nutrient inputs to Chesapeake Bay. While this strategy has yielded some successes, it has prioritized process over outcomes, leading to inconsistent results across the watershed. Now, new programs [...]
The Value of Restoration: Selling the Economic and Ecological Benefits of Oysters What is the not-so-secret superhero of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem? Oysters, of course! When we invest in the restoration of these incredible bivalves, we ensure a future Bay with cleaner water, more resilient shorelines, and thriving local economies driven by fisheries and [...]
The Future of the Bay: Impacts of Changes to Federal Priorities on the Chesapeake Watershed The new White House administration has initiated major changes in leadership, policy priorities, and federal budgets across multiple agencies. What are the implications of this on Chesapeake Bay restoration and other environmental initiatives? Speakers: Kristin Reilly, Director, Choose [...]
Prioritizing People and Participation in Chesapeake Bay Restoration The Chesapeake Bay restoration effort is large according to many measures: the 150+ rivers that drain into it as the largest estuary in the US, the billions of dollars spent, the 64,000 mi2 extent of the watershed, and the 18 million people who live in that [...]
The 50th CRC Roundtable: Thinking Across Boundaries The current and future challenges facing us globally and around the Chesapeake Bay require convening people across numerous boundaries: scientific disciplines, tributary watersheds, state lines, time scales, and more. Finding sustainable, long-term solutions to wicked problems requires a new world view of thinking larger than ourselves and [...]
Connecting Communities Through Water In 2023, a Polynesian voyaging canoe called Hōkūleʻa set out to circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean and uncover, recover, and reclaim culture, traditions, and a deeper relationship with Earth. The purpose of the voyage was to develop young leaders and connect communities with our oceans, science, and indigenous wisdom. As our [...]
Eat Your Invasives: The Bay’s Battle with Blue Catfish Blue catfish have been terrorizing Chesapeake Bay’s native fish for decades; they consume smaller fish and invertebrates in huge quantities and compete with larger fish. Some of their prey species are economically important, like blue crabs and menhaden, while others are already the focus of [...]
The Burden of Data Centers on Our Communities Data has become essential to modern life. Demand for data centers has increased in step with remote work, content streamed to smartphones, AI-assisted internet searches, and more. While necessary for many purposes, the burden of data centers on our communities are numerous, including using land, water, [...]
Flotsam and Jetsam: Fighting Debris in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed The Chesapeake Bay watershed encompasses 64,000 mi2 of land and the homes of over 18 million people; the unfortunate truth is that this population is the cause of a lot of trash in local waters and the Bay. Whether we’re talking about plastic straws, [...]
