Photo by Wendy Crowe, submitted to the 2017 Maryland DNR Photo Contes.
Last month, Maryland representatives joined officials from around the Mid-Atlantic region to put forth a revised Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement that includes firm timelines, required pollution reductions, and ambitious, yet reachable goals for improving the health of the Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay Program’s Principals’ Staff Committee approved the revised Agreement at its Oct. 28 meeting to build on the successes of the 2014 Agreement and recalibrate our plans based on what we have learned in the previous decade. The Bay Program’s Executive Council–led by Governor Wes Moore and composed of governors from Bay watershed states–is expected to meet in Maryland in December to formally sign the Agreement.
This voluntary Agreement is an important commitment to the people of Maryland and the future of the Chesapeake Bay. It represents the region’s shared vision to improve wildlife populations, reduce water pollutants, and restore habitat to improve Chesapeake Bay health, residents’ quality of life, and economic opportunities.
The economic importance of a healthy Chesapeake Bay underscores the need for this work. The Bay contributes about $3.2 billion in economic activity and an estimated 55,000 jobs through tourism to Maryland. The state’s seafood industry generates about $600 million per year and directly supports 3,300 jobs.
The updated Agreement ensures the Bay partnership of states, Washington, D.C., and the federal government will continue to move forward for at least the next 15 years. Maintaining this partnership was among the most important goals for Maryland during the agreement’s negotiations. The Bay’s watershed spans 64,000 square miles and Maryland’s portion only covers about 14 percent of the area. Every drop of rain from just south of New York’s Finger Lakes to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains runs into the Chesapeake Bay. The partnership remains the best way to ensure long-term progress is made in the face of constantly shifting political priorities.
That partnership wasn’t guaranteed. Among some portions of the public, we’re seeing an ongoing backlash against established science and government spending to improve the environment. Pocketbook issues and crime policies have dominated public discourse and voters’ minds. An early 2025 University of Maryland poll found only 3 percent of Maryland voters considered an environmental issue–climate change–among the top problems in the state.
Still, the overall effort has made significant progress. The 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement–the fourth since 1983–had a target completion date of 2025. As of today, Bay watershed states have met that agreement’s goals for oyster restoration, fish passage, new public access sites, and sustainable fisheries. Bay jurisdictions are on pace to reach many other goals, including protecting more than 2 million acres of land, with Maryland announcing last year it had conserved more than 30 percent of its land area–the first state in the region to do so. The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s annual Chesapeake Bay and Watershed report card has found that overall Bay health has been improving since 2017.
While Maryland is on pace to reach its nutrient pollution reduction goals, other partnership goals such as those for watershed-wide pollution reductions and wetland restoration will not be reached by the end of the year deadline.
The updated Agreement represents an opportunity to recalibrate those missed goals and how we work to achieve them based on the latest science. Bay Program partners continue to innovate and improve, embracing new technologies and approaches to maintain a strong scientific basis for conservation and restoration.
The revised Agreement sets a 2040 deadline for most of the outcomes with a midpoint check-in in 2033. It commits states to reducing nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution to levels recommended by the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load–or the legally enforceable pollution diet–by 2040. The updated Agreement also has a streamlined governance structure and includes a new agriculture advisory committee to bring more of the farming community into the effort.
The Chesapeake Bay Program partners also committed to goals for supporting clean water, healthy landscapes, and engaged communities, as well as thriving habitat, fisheries, and wildlife. These will be met through measurable projects to restore and enhance wetlands, improve animal habitats, protect land, involve local decision-makers, improve public access to natural areas, and bolster environmental education and workforce development.
Maryland is prepared to meet the updated goals of the revised Agreement with the state’s new strategy of Bay restoration that focuses on improving shallow waterways, such as streams, coastlines, and rivers. Projects supported by the Whole Watershed Act are envisioning how this localized attention can lead to big improvements in specific waterways that benefit nearby communities and their economic prospects.
We also look forward to building on one of our proudest achievements from the last Agreement–the successful goal to restore oyster habitats and populations in ten tidal rivers in Maryland and Virginia by 2025. That effort took considerable coordination, investment, and hard work by a wide swath of partners. Planning is already underway for Maryland’s next large-scale oyster restoration projects. Oyster restoration in Maryland has coincided with several years of above average oyster harvests and an increasing adult oyster population.
That success with oysters will inform how Maryland implements the Agreement’s new mussel goal to restore filter feeders in our freshwater rivers and streams. The state’s recently-announced Conowingo Dam settlement with Exelon will help fund these efforts. The deal will provide $340 million to the state during the next 50 years for water quality improvements, including $60 million to improve fish passage, control invasive species, and develop a new mussel restoration facility in Maryland.
We will use that same spirit of coordination, investment, and hard work to meet updated habitat protection, tree planting, and public access goals.
While Maryland didn’t get everything we fought for in the revised Agreement, we’re proud of the path that we created with our partners. We have a set of clear objectives that lay out a better future for the Chesapeake Bay and everyone living in the watershed, and we have reaffirmed this important partnership so we can work for that future together.
Josh Kurtz is Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and serves as Chair of the Principals’ Staff Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Bill Dennison is Vice President for Science Application and a Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and serves as Maryland’s representative on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for the Chesapeake Bay Program.
