Press Release Archive

Wetlands Play Critical Role in Bay's Health During Hurricane Season

Last year, Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partners restored 3,775 acres of wetlands in the Bay watershed according to the program’s habitat team tracking these efforts. This is the rough equivalent of 2,855 football-fields-worth of newly created or re-established wetland habitats. These 2011 efforts of federal, state and non-governmental partnerships build on the 14,795 wetland acres established from 1998 to 2010 and represent a solid start for the Bay jurisdictions toward meeting the goal of restoring 30,000 acres and rejuvenating 150,000 acres of these vital landscapes across the Bay’s region by 2025.

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More than $9 Million in Grants Awarded

The Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced the recipients of $9.2 million in grants for restoration and outreach initiatives in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed's six states and the District of Columbia. Among a myriad of other benefits of the 41 projects, these efforts will engage 9,000 volunteers in restoration work, restore 176 miles of streamside forests, restore 158 acres of wetlands, and establish 170,000 square feet of green roofs and rain gardens.

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New Report Highlights Ways to Keep Blue Crab Population Healthy

The Chesapeake Bay blue crab fishery is currently operating sustainably, according to the recently released 2012 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Advisory Report. While the report highlights the health of the blue crab population, it also recommends continued work to sustain robust crab populations over the long term.

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Chesapeake Executive Council Elects New Chair, Announces Local Government Award Recipients and Discu

The Chesapeake Executive Council (EC) elected the District of Columbia’s Mayor, Vincent C. Gray, as their new Chair today, giving him the top leadership position within the Chesapeake Bay Program, during their annual meeting held at Gunston Hall, near Lorton, VA. Additionally, under their meeting’s theme, “Step by Step, Stream by Stream: Restoring Our Waters”, EC members discussed restoration progress since last year and considered how jurisdictions’ short-term milestones, established in 2009, will be used to track their goals for reducing pollution and creating healthy waters, as outlined in their recently-finalized Watershed Implementation Plans.

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2011 Levels of Dissolved Oxygen Lowest in Last Four Years

In 2011, monitoring data collected by the Bay jurisdictions and other partners showed that dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in the Chesapeake fell to their lowest level in the last four years with 34 percent of the waters meeting the established standards for the summer months. This represents a decrease of 4 percent from the 2010 figures according to the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) partnership and is almost half of the higher DO values recorded a decade ago.

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Underwater Grasses Survey Shows Both Decline and Resilience in 2011

In 2011, the abundance of underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers declined by 16,590 acres from 2010 figures according to Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) scientists in Maryland and Virginia. Grass beds declined from 79,664 acres in 2010 to an estimated 63,074 acres in 2011. This is the lowest Bay-wide acreage since 2006 and is much more typical of what was observed prior to 1991 when grass acreages were at the lowest levels recorded by the aerial survey. Only 57,956 acres were mapped Bay-wide in 2011 and an estimated 5,119 additional acres may have been present (for an estimated Bay-wide total of 63,074).

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Invasive Blue and Flathead Catfish Threat to Bay Ecosystems

The Sustainable Fisheries Goal Implementation Team of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP Fisheries Team) recently agreed on the need to manage blue and flathead catfish. These invasive species have been shown in other regions to pose a significant threat to important native species. In the Chesapeake Bay region, blue and flathead catfish may harm species such as American shad and blueback herring in rivers from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The CBP Fisheries Team will work to develop bay-wide management actions for blue and flathead catfish based on existing and new science.

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