Question: What do Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York have in common? A broad question, perhaps. They all have different governance structures, different politics, and diverse and different populations. Some have coastal shorelines; others are completely inland, but the answer is that all those jurisdictions, or portions of them, constitute the 64,000 square mile Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and plays a major role, particularly, in the economies of Maryland and Virginia. The larger commonality, though, is the shared environmental benefits and challenges presented by the use of the Bay and its tributaries over the past 300 years.

Indigenous peoples in what is now the mid-Atlantic region were hunters and gatherers, moving from place to place according to the seasons, leaving little impact on the Bay and its environs. Vast forest canopies, abundant wildlife and fisheries, and pristine streams combined to make the Bay an environmental treasure. As new settlers arrived from far shores, the Bay began to change, slowly at first. Forests were felled for buildings and cleared for cropland, and mills were established along waterways to take advantage of the only energy available then — hydropower. As the population grew, demands of new residents competed with the natural environment, and nature suffered.

As crabs and oysters began to decline, water quality was impaired, and trend lines pointed to the Bay becoming an environmental embarrassment. The original 1983 Bay Agreement brought the partner jurisdictions together with federal and non-profit agencies in a concerted effort to begin restoring the Bay. The original terminology often was “clean up the Bay,” but by the time of the updated Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, the terminology used “restore” and referenced local governments for the first time. There are more than 1800 local and municipal governments in the Bay Watershed, and much of Bay restoration depends on localities and how they address or regulate land use.

The huge Bay watershed includes rural, suburban, and urban communities. Many of those populations may never actually see the Bay, fish its waters, or recognize it as important to them, so it was crucial to connect Bay restoration to localities. That connection was greatly enhanced when an added focus was on improving local streams. It’s easier to understand the challenge, and the opportunity, when you consider the local waterway that runs at the bottom of your hill, or where you collected pollywogs as a kid, or what you go over on your daily run or drive to work. Northern Virginia abounds with streams, runs, and creeks, and those all drain into rivers, which eventually empty into the Bay. Water experts remind that “we all live downstream,” so it should be clear that the Bay will benefit when we pay attention to the health and well-being of our local streams.

Now it is time to plan for the Bay watershed and its future. The previous partnership agreements must be updated, and new goals established. In October of 2022, the Chesapeake Executive Council (the governors of VA, MD, and PA, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia) asked for recommendations that would address new advances in science and restoration, with a focus on the partnership “Beyond 2025.” A steering committee was established with a deadline of December 2024 for recommendations. Last week, the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science issued its annual “report card” on the health of the Bay, and gave it a C+, the highest grade since 2002. I’ll have more to say about both in next week’s column.