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 [...]
Stream Restoration: Are current practices giving us what we want? In March 2023, the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee brought together scientific and management experts to assess stream restoration practices. Over the course of three days, the group explored common practices, assessment approaches, and ecosystem impacts with the goal of improving restoration outcomes. Watch [...]
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 [...]
Evaluating Chesapeake Bay System Response: A CESR Q&A The Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response (CESR) report was released by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), an independent liaison between the Bay’s scientific community and the Chesapeake Bay Program. Over 60 experts were involved in its creation, and its pages reflect on how the restoration effort [...]
Expanding the Chesapeake Bay Watershed report card to include social, economic and environmental justice indices Geographically explicit, data-rich Chesapeake Bay report cards have been developed annually by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science for 16 years. But over the past several years, the report card expanded to include the Chesapeake watershed and [...]
Harvesting Restoration Opportunities from the Farm Bill Agriculture is one of the largest land uses in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The food produced here supports the growing population in the watershed and beyond, but production also leads to nutrients entering the Bay. The Farm Bill provides critical support to producers and environmental protections. While [...]
Improving Understanding and Coordination of Science Activities for PFAS in the Chesapeake Bay Those “forever chemicals” you may be hearing about are Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, more commonly known as PFAS. They persist in our environment and are linked to long-lasting impacts on fish, other wildlife, and human health. In response to growing concerns [...]
