Draft two-year work plans available for public feedback

The Chesapeake Bay Program is seeking public input on a collection of short-term plans aimed toward achieving the goals and outcomes of the landmark Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. These twenty-eight draft work plans outline specific actions our partners intend to take over the next two years toward protecting and restoring the Bay, its rivers and streams and the surrounding lands.

Each two-year work plan addresses one or more of the Watershed Agreement’s thirty-one interconnected outcomes and outlines short-term actions critical to our work maintaining the health of local waters, sustaining abundant fish and wildlife populations, restoring vital habitats, fostering engaged and diverse communities through increased public access and education, conserving farmland and forests, and improving the climate resiliency of the region.

In June 2014, representatives from the six watershed states, the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the federal government signed the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. In July 2015, the Chesapeake Executive Council announced the release of a set of twenty-five management strategies outlining our plans for implementation, monitoring and assessing progress toward the goals of that accord. The draft two-year work plans released today represent the next step in our continued work toward a healthy and vibrant Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Drafts of the work plans are available online. The Bay Program welcomes input on these drafts between January 22 and March 7, 2016. Interested parties can offer input by completing an online form or sending an email to the Bay Program.