Updated management strategies and work plans available for public feedback

In 2014, Chesapeake Bay Program partners recommitted to the Bay watershed restoration effort by signing an updated Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The Watershed Agreement contains 10 goals and 31 outcomes for the entire partnership (Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Bay Commission) to work on collectively to advance restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding watershed.

A year later, 25 management strategies were drafted to outline the Chesapeake Bay Program’s long-term plans for implementation, monitoring and assessment of our work toward meeting the 31 outcomes. Following that, two-year work plans were drafted, setting short-term actions to begin to meet the priorities outlined in the management strategies. The Bay Program implements adaptive management in its work, a formal process that allows for adjustments to be made to future projects based on lessons learned from current work, as well as updated science, policy and data. Here we call it the Strategy Review System (SRS) and it has helped us to streamline and prioritize the work we are doing.

Under the SRS, over the next two years on a quarterly basis, each outcome will review its progress and challenges with the Chesapeake Bay Program Management Board to help make the necessary adjustments needed for our work. These quarterly meetings began in May 2017 and now the first group of management strategies and work plans are updated and ready for public comment.

Updated work plans now available for the following outcomes:

• Blue Crab Abundance
• Blue Crab Management
• Brook Trout
• Citizen Stewardship
• Diversity
• Fish Habitat
• Fish Passage
• Forage Fish
• Healthy Watersheds
• Oysters
• Public Access
• Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (Underwater Grasses)
• Stream Health

Updated management strategies now available for the following outcomes:

• Diversity
• Public Access

Interested parties are invited to review and comment on the updated draft work plans by submitting an online comment. Comments will be accepted from March 5 through March 27.