New Federal Strategy for Chesapeake Launches Major Initiatives and Holds Government Accountable for Progress

05/12/2010
Last edited 09/29/2021

WASHINGTON, DC -- The new federal strategy for the Chesapeake region released today focuses on protecting and restoring the environment in communities throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed and in its thousands of streams, creeks and rivers. The strategy includes using rigorous regulations to restore clean water, implementing new conservation practices on four million acres of farms, conserving two million acres of undeveloped land, and rebuilding oysters in 20 tributaries of the Bay.

The Strategy for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Restoration and Protection was developed under the Executive Order issued by President Obama in May 2009, which declared the Chesapeake Bay a national treasure and ushered in a new era of shared federal leadership, action and accountability. The strategy is available at http://executiveorder.chesapeakebay.net.

The strategy deepens the federal commitment to the Chesapeake region, with agencies dedicating unprecedented resources, targeting actions where they can have the most impact, ensuring that federal lands and facilities lead by example in environmental stewardship, and taking a comprehensive, ecosystem-wide approach to restoration. Many of the federal actions will directly support restoration efforts of local governments, nonprofit groups and citizens, and provide economic benefits across the Chesapeake region. To increase accountability, federal agencies will establish milestones every two years for actions to make progress toward measurable environmental goals. These will support and complement the states' two-year milestones.

“Under President Obama's leadership, this strategy marks the beginning of a new era for the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who chairs the Federal Leadership Committee for the Chesapeake. “I am confident that by working together with our federal, state and local partners, as well as the citizens of the region, we will ultimately be successful in restoring and protecting this national treasure.”

To restore clean water, EPA will implement the Chesapeake Total Maximum Daily Load (a pollution diet for the Bay and local waterways), expand regulation of urban and suburban stormwater and concentrated animal feeding operations, and increase enforcement activities and funding for state regulatory programs.

USDA will provide farmers and forest owners throughout the Bay watershed with the resources to prevent soil erosion and keep nitrogen and phosphorous out of local waterways. USDA will target federal funding to the places where it will have the greatest water quality impact, and ensure that agricultural producers' conservation efforts are accurately reported. USDA will also lead a federal initiative to develop a watershed-wide environmental services market that would allow producers to generate tradable water quality credits in return for installing effective conservation practices.

“A thriving, sustainable agricultural sector is critical to restoration of the Chesapeake Bay,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “We will help the Bay watershed's farmers and forest owners put new conservation practices on four million acres of agricultural lands so that agriculture can build on the improvements in nutrient and sediment reductions that we have seen over the last 25 years.”

Conserving two million acres of natural areas, forests and farmland is preserves the environmental, recreational, cultural and economic benefits these lands provide. To protect priority lands, the Department of the Interior will launch a collaborative Chesapeake Treasured Landscape Initiative and expand land conservation by coordinating federal funding and providing community assistance. Interior will also develop a plan for increasing public access to the Bay and its rivers.

“Under the leadership of President Obama, our strategy provides the blueprint for finally restoring the Chesapeake Bay to health – its bountiful wildlife, abundant fish and shellfish, beautiful waterways and rich wetlands,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “My department, which has 13 refuges and 51 units of the National Park System throughout the watershed, will play a key role in the plan, working hand-in-hand with other federal agencies, states, local communities and other stakeholders to restore this national treasure cherished by so many.”

NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will launch a Bay-wide oyster restoration strategy in close collaboration with Maryland and Virginia that focuses on priority tributaries, expands commercial aquaculture and bolsters research on oyster stock, habitat and restoration progress. Oysters are among the Bay's most struggling species and restoration in 20 tributaries will yield great environmental and economic benefits.

"Oysters are a key species for Chesapeake Bay restoration. Not only are they important to seafood lovers, but they cleanse water and form reef habitat," said Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. "It is critical that we apply our best science toward native oyster restoration and habitat protection, as well as toward development of sustainable aquaculture. Ecosystem-based approaches to management will enable progress toward a healthy, sustainable Chesapeake ecosystem that will include oysters for generations to come.”

Several overarching approaches in the strategy are also important:

  • Short-term action: To accelerate the pace of restoration and protection, many actions occur in the next few years, and many of the actions are “on-the-ground” and “in-the-water” all around the Chesapeake watershed.
  • Supporting local efforts: The strategy is designed to directly support the restoration activities of local governments, watershed groups, county conservation districts, landowners and citizens.
  • Benefiting economies and jobs: Many actions will provide economic benefits, including conservation of working farms, expanded oyster aquaculture, support for conservation corps programs and green jobs, and development of an environmental marketplace for selling, buying and trading credits for pollution reductions.
  • Targeting of resources: Agencies will be aggressively targeting resources where they can have the most impact – areas with the most pollution and potential for runoff, with the highest potential for restoring fish and wildlife, and with habitats and lands most in need of protection.

Executive Order Background

On May 12, 2009 President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13508 on Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration. The purpose of the Executive Order is “to protect and restore the health, heritage, natural resources, and social and economic value of the nation's largest estuarine ecosystem and the natural sustainability of its watershed.” To bring the full weight of the federal government to address the Chesapeake's challenges, the Executive Order established the Federal Leadership Committee (FLC) for the Chesapeake Bay, which is chaired by the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and includes senior representatives from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior and Transportation. The FLC was charged with developing a new strategy for protection and restoration.

Draft reports containing the initial recommendations were completed in September 2009 and refined in updates published in November 2009. The initiatives in the seven reports were blended into a draft strategy that was released in November 2009, and now form the core of the Strategy for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Protection and Restoration. The strategy also outlines federal coordination with state activities, identifies goals for the environment, creates a process for reporting on progress, and explains how efforts will be adapted based on science and resources.

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