Sowing Seeds, Growing Relationships: Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Agriculture Agriculture is vital to the Chesapeake Bay watershed’s economy and communities, feeding millions and giving many small towns their signature charming, rural character. However, farmland is often viewed only as a source of pollution, with farmers asked to voluntarily change practices that affect their livelihoods [...]
A Tale of Two Species: The Connection Between Menhaden and Osprey Osprey and menhaden are two iconic species of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and their populations are intertwined. Osprey rely on menhaden as a primary food source, and some experts contend that lower menhaden populations have had a direct impact on the success of [...]
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 [...]
CRC Member Take-Over Series: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) It’s All About Carbon: Coastal Cycling and Forest Function Carbon is both the cause and the source of potential mitigation of our changing climate. Research on carbon cycling has implications for policy and the resilience of our communities. Blue carbon ecosystems—tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses—and [...]
The Solar Situation: The state of the science and the industry Solar energy is becoming less expensive and more efficient. However, the utility-scale solar panel installations being proposed and installed around the Mid-Atlantic region will transform land characteristics. Currently, guidance and understanding of best practices relating to the land development and management of solar [...]
How to Protect Local Waterways In 2019, the Local Government Advisory Committee and Local Leadership Workgroup began work on a suite of learning materials that frame the Chesapeake Bay Program’s goals through the lens of a very important audience: local government officials. Elected officials make decisions for their communities that impact restoration progress. This [...]
Planning for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed of the Future The Chesapeake Bay watershed is a dynamic system; change is occurring on scales from tidal to geological. Human development has a tremendous impact on the environment around us, and in turn, our communities are impacted by the environment through heat islands, flooding, pollution, and more. [...]
Shifting to the Shallows: Informed Site Selection One of the core conclusions of the Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report is that there is great potential and urgency in the restoration of shallow water areas; they are the places where many of our favorite Bay species live and reproduce as well as where [...]
Shifting to the Shallows: Refocusing Chesapeake Restoration Efforts The implications of the Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report ripple through all aspects of the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort. One of the core conclusions of CESR is that there is great potential and urgency in the restoration of shallow water areas; they are the [...]
