Habitat Restoration
Habitat restoration is essential to the future health of fish, crabs, birds, mammals and lots of other Bay wildlife. Without proper habitat, these animals can't hide from predators, find food or nest and breed. But habitat restoration also has many benefits to humans, from improving water quality to protecting property from erosion to increasing open space for recreational opportunities.
Bay Program partners are currently working to restore underwater bay grasses to 185,000 acres by 2010. However, poor water quality and irregular weather conditions have hindered progress towards this goal.
Recognizing the critical values wetlands provide to the Chesapeake Bay and its wildlife, Bay Program partners have committed to increase both the quality and number of wetland acres in the Bay watershed.
Physical structures that block or impede fish migrations to historic upstream spawning habitats are potentially the most important factor in the decline of migratory fish populations in the Bay.