Publications

Restoration partners constructed 94 acres of oyster reefs in Virginia in 2019. This document includes details on large-scale oyster restoration in five Virginia tributaries.

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The data in Bay Barometer reflect the Chesapeake Bay’s health over the course of many years and, in some cases, decades. The publication offers a snapshot of the best available information from 2018 and 2019 on ecological health and our efforts to protect and restore the nation’s largest estuary, as well as our progress toward achieving the goals and outcomes of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

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The Wetland Workgroup approved the formation of this expert panel to evaluate the effectiveness of nontidal wetland best management practices (BMPs) to reduce loads of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment to the Chesapeake Bay. This panel was formed to expand on the CBP-approved report by a previous Wetland Expert Panel that clarified the wetland restoration BMP and established two nontidal wetland land uses in the Phase 6 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model (WEP, 2016).
The current panel first convened in November 2017 and deliberated its approach and recommendations over the subsequent months. This report describes the panel’s recommendations for review, feedback and approval under the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Protocol for the Development, Review, and Approval of Loading and Effectiveness Estimates for Nutrient and Sediment Controls in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Model, or “BMP Review Protocol.”
The expert panel worked diligently to articulate BMP efficiencies for wetland creation, rehabilitation and enhancement with respect to the available literature and the CBP-approved wetland restoration BMP. As with wetland restoration, the recommended wetland creation BMP is simulated as a land use change that also reduces upland loads using the above efficiency value. The recommended wetland rehabilitation BMP is not a land use change, but the efficiency is applied to upland land uses. Further details for how the BMPs will be reported for progress runs and simulated in the Watershed Model are provided in Appendix B. As explained in section 5, the panel recommends that wetland enhancement should not be a BMP for purposes of achieving nutrient and sediment reduction targets under the TMDL, as simulated in the Watershed Model.

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The 2010 Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) is in place to ensure the Bay and its tidal rivers maintain a healthy water quality by setting limits on the amount of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus pollution) and sediment that flow into it. Each of the six watershed states – Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia – and the District of Columbia recently developed roadmaps called Phase III Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) to guide them in meeting their pollutant reduction goals by 2025. Sediment allocations under the Bay TMDL were established differently than those for nutrient pollutants due to scientific evidence supporting the greater importance of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loads entering the Bay.

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Members list and contact emails for the Invasive Catfish Workgroup, current as of the 2020 workshop.

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This document details plans for oyster reef restoration--including spatial analysis, map, discussion of substrate/seed needs, and plans for monitoring progress--in Maryland's Harris Creek.

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This document details plans for oyster reef restoration--including spatial analysis, map, discussion of substrate/seed needs, and plans for monitoring progress--in Maryland's Little Choptank River.

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This document details plans for oyster reef restoration--including spatial analysis, map, discussion of substrate/seed needs, and plans for monitoring progress--in Maryland's Tred Avon River.

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This document details plans for oyster reef restoration--including spatial analysis, map, discussion of substrate/seed needs, and plans for monitoring progress--in Virginia's Lafayette River.

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This document details plans for oyster reef restoration--including spatial analysis, map, discussion of substrate/seed needs, and plans for monitoring progress--in Maryland's St. Marys River.

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