Welcome to our weekly column in which a topic of interest, piece of news, relevant opinion, or general request for feedback is presented. We’ll offer the topic du jour and accompanying question, and you have the opportunity to respond with your thoughts.
Simply fill out the form below. A collection of each week’s responses will appear in the following week’s column. To view responses on our previous topics click here.
Publisher reserves the right to edit responses for clarity and publish online and/or in our print publications.
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This week’s Feedback Friday topic is:
Slow Progress Saving the Chesapeake Bay
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?
Please share your thoughts by filling out this form. Today’s responses—and all future Feedback Friday responses—will be published in our Monday newsletters after the weekend. AND, several responses from recent topics will appear in our upcoming print magazines!
