Bay Restoration
There are many notable individual accomplishments relating to Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration; however, Bay Program partners need to accelerate the pace of water quality improvement efforts.
- Reducing Pollution -
Overall, based on available data, Bay Program scientists project that little more than half of the pollution reduction efforts needed to achieve the nutrient goals have been undertaken since 1985.
- Restoring Habitats -
Overall, habitat restoration efforts are collectively 48 percent to Program goals; up from 45 percent in 2006, however, there is concern about the overall quality of habitats that remain.
- Managing Fisheries -
Progress toward fisheries management goals ranges from 37-63 percent for the five key Bay fisheries, unchanged from 2006.
- Protecting Watersheds -
Overall, watershed protection efforts show good progress and are 71 percent of the way toward meeting current Program goals, up from 69 percent in 2006.
- Fostering Stewardship -
Overall the Program has reached 68 percent of its fostering stewardship goals, a rise of one percent from 2006.
- The Chesapeake Bay Program partners have developed science-based plans to improve the waters, habitats and fisheries of the Chesapeake. On-the-ground efforts are taking place throughout the 64,000-square-mile watershed and new initiatives are being implemented to accelerate progress.
- In Restoration and Protection Efforts, key restoration actions are measured against long-term restoration goals to provide an assessment of the work being done to restore Bay health.
- Progress is tracked with 20 “reporting-level” indicators grouped into the five priority areas described in the landmark Chesapeake 2000 agreement that represent major elements of the Bay restoration effort: Reducing Pollution, Restoring Habitats, Managing Fisheries, Protecting Watersheds and Fostering Stewardship.
- Quantitative goals have been set for most of these indicators. For each, a chart shows the current status and a history of percent of progress toward achieving the goal. All of the charts have the same time scale: 1985-2010. In cases where measurement began or a goal was agreed to after 1985, a symbol on the chart indicates when “accounting began.”
- In the section “Reducing Pollution,” efforts are compared to goals defined by the Bay jurisdictions' river-specific cleanup plans. Monitoring and tracking data and computer simulations are used in this section.
- In the remaining parts, restoration efforts are compared to goals adopted by the Bay Program. Monitoring and tracking data are used in these sections.