Readers respond to last week’s Feedback Friday topic, which was:
Slow Progress Saving the Chesapeake Bay
Posted May 12, 2023
This week, a cohort of scientists affiliated with the Chesapeake Bay Program released a report outlining the challenges of the past 50 years facing public and private entities trying to reverse environmental and climate catastrophe within the Chesapeake Bay. And how collective efforts have been slow to affect positive change, falling well short of the upcoming 2025 goals outlined in the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint for pollution reduction and water clarity.
The full report, Achieving Water Quality Goals in the Chesapeake Bay: A Comprehensive Evaluation of System Response, can be found at https://www.chesapeake.org/stac/cesr/.
The report is science-based, but the headline isn’t rocket-science. It’s no mystery that the Chesapeake Bay—despite incremental improvements—continues to receive failing grades year-after-year in multiple reports for measurable environmental variables.
However, this report does offer solutions to accelerate watershed improvement. Among them: reducing “nonpoint” pollution sources (e.g., runoff from agricultural fields, urban centers, and impervious surfaces); developing government reward systems for implementation of best practices (e.g., riparian buffers, farm management); and embracing different reduction goals for different habitats or incorporate the benefits of restored wetlands or living shorelines into load reduction calculations.
“This report shows that new, targeted approaches are needed to accelerate our progress toward clean water and abundant natural resources,” reads a statement from the Chesapeake Bay Commission in response to the report. The CBC is a tri-state legislative body that advises the legislative branch of state government. “Our goals are still achievable even if the path for their achievement looks different in the face of climate change and continued growth in the region… These critical insights will inform the Commission’s policy decisions moving forward, the critical choices that lie ahead for the Bay Partnership as a whole and our shared goal of an environmentally and economically sustainable Chesapeake Bay watershed.”
Do you believe this report, like many others that have preceded it, will affect change in the effort to save the Bay? How would you save the bay?
Here’s what you said:
I don't believe this report will encourage real change previous reports don't seem to have helped
Diane Lopez, Shady Side
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