Woman instructs kids on how to kayak before getting out onto the water.
Outdoor recreation programmer Molly Gallant of the Baltimore City Parks Department leads a kayaking lesson before guiding eighth graders from Baltimore's Collington Square Elementary School. (Photo by Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)
The Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team works to increase citizen action, support environmental education for all ages and assist citizens, communities and local governments in conserving treasured landscapes.

Upcoming Meetings

No upcoming meetings.

Scope and Purpose

With 17 million people living in the Chesapeake watershed, public participation is a vital piece of the restoration effort. The Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team’s charge is to increase citizen action, support environmental education for all ages, and assist citizens, communities and local governments in undertaking initiatives to conserve treasured landscapes. The team hopes to reconnect the public with nature and foster a shared ownership of the Chesapeake’s diverse resources. This approach will build public support of restoration and conservation efforts and increase citizen engagement and active stewardship.

The Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team (GIT 5) is pursuing the 2014 Chesapeake Watershed Agreement goals and objectives to:

Stewardship Goal: Increase the number and diversity of local citizen stewards and local governments that actively support and carry out the conservation and restoration activities that achieve healthy local streams, rivers and a vibrant Chesapeake Bay.

  • Citizen Stewardship Outcome: Increase the number and diversity of trained and mobilized citizen volunteers with the knowledge and skills needed to enhance the health of their local watersheds.

Public Access Goal: Expand public access to the Bay and its tributaries through existing and new local, state and federal parks, refuges, reserves, trails and partner sites.

  • Public Access Site Development Outcome: By 2025, add 300 new public access sites, with a strong emphasis on providing opportunities for boating, swimming and fishing, where feasible.

Environmental Literacy Goal: Enable students in the region to graduate with the knowledge and skills to act responsibly to protect and restore their local watershed.

  • Student Outcome: Continually increase students’ age-appropriate understanding of the watershed through participation in teacher-supported, meaningful watershed educational experiences and rigorous, inquiry-based instruction, with a target of at least one meaningful watershed educational experience in elementary, middle and high school depending on available resources.
  • Sustainable Schools Outcome: Continually increase the number of schools in the region that reduce the impact of their buildings and grounds on their local watershed, environment and human health through best practices, including student-led protection and restoration projects.
  • Environmental Literacy Planning Outcome: Each participating Bay jurisdiction should develop a comprehensive and systemic approach to environmental literacy for all students in the region that includes policies, practices and voluntary metrics that support the environmental literacy Goals and Outcomes of this Agreement.

Land Conservation Goal: Conserve landscapes treasured by citizens in order to maintain water quality and habitat; sustain working forests, farms and maritime communities; and conserve lands of cultural, indigenous and community value.

  • Protected Lands Outcome: By 2025, protect an additional two million acres of lands throughout the watershed—currently identified as high-conservation priorities at the federal, state or local level—including 225,000 acres of wetlands and 695,000 acres of forest land of highest value for maintaining water quality.

Publications

Call for Stewardship Co-Chair

This voluntary position leads and coordinates the work of the Stewardship Workgroup, with support from the GIT 5 coordinator and staffer. This is an opportunity to work with a broad team of partners within the Chesapeake Bay watershed representing government and nongovernment entities, to have significant impact on shaping and achieving commitments to public stewardship, and to diversifying the people who participate in and benefit from these efforts.

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Watershed Agreement

Land Conservation Goal

Stewardship Goal

Public Access Goal

Workgroups and Action Teams

Members

Wendy O'Sullivan (Chair), National Park Service (NPS)
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  wendy_o'sullivan@nps.gov
Phone:  (202) 374-9051
Britt Slattery (Coordinator), Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team Coordinator, National Park Service (NPS)
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  Britt_Slattery@nps.gov
Wuillam Urvina (Staffer), Stewardship Goal Implementation Team Staffer, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  urvinaw@chesapeake.org
Shannon Sprague, Education Workgroup Coordinator, NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office
Address:
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  shannon.sprague@NOAA.GOV
Phone:  (410) 267-5664
Tom Ackerman, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Address:
Philip Merrill Environmental Center
6 Herndon Avenue
Annapolis, Maryland 21403

Email:  TAckerman@savethebay.cbf.org
Kacey Wetzel, Chesapeake Bay Trust
Address:
108 Severn Ave.
Annaoplis, Maryland 21403

Email:  kwetzel@cbtrust.org
Suzanne Etgen, Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy
Address:
975 Indian Landing Rd
Millersville, Maryland 21108

Email:  setgen@aacps.org
Phone:  (410) 222-3831
Joel Dunn, Chesapeake Conservancy
Address:
716 Giddings Ave
Annapolis, Maryland 21403

Email:  jdunn@chesapeakeconservancy.org
Phone:  (443) 321-3610
Aurelia Gracia, Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team Coordinator, National Park Service (NPS)
Address:
1750 Forest Drive
Suite 140
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  aurelia_gracia@nps.gov
Ashley Traut, Greater Baltimore Wilderness Coalition
Address:


Email:  atraut@baltimorewilderness.org
Phone:  (443) 827-2548
Michael Weyand, City of Gaithersburg
Ben Alexandro, Chesapeake Conservation Partnership
Address:
30 West St C
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Email:  balexandro@mdlcv.org
Brittany Omoleye-Hall, National Park Service (NPS)
Address:
National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay
410 Severn Avenue, Suite 314
Annapolis, Maryland 21403

Email:  brittany_omoleye-hall@nps.gov
Amanda Knobloch, Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL)
Address:
10545 Mackall Road
St. Leonard, Maryland 20685

Email:  amanda.knobloch@morgan.edu
Anthony Bobo, Jr., Jr., Bureau of Land Management
Address:
1849 C St NW # 5665
Washington, DC, District of Columbia 20240

Email:  a1bobo@blm.gov
Lisa Gutierrez, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Address:
303 Marine Academy Drive
Stevensville, Maryland 21666

Email:  lisa.gutierrez@maryland.gov
Phone:  (410) 260-8778