Fine Sediment and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Workshop Proceedings

Description

This report summarizes the proceedings of a "Fine Sediment and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed" workshop held September 16-17, 2008. The workshop provided an opportunity for watershed managers, scientists, regulators, engineers and environmental restoration professionals to present and obtain new information related to watershed sediment science and policies. It hosted presentations on sediment-related processes and observations associated with three scales of resolution, including the landscape (continental and regional), watershed and reach (a specific length of a river system) levels. Other information covered included sediment ecology and chemistry.

The workshop found that the “ultimate” long-term source of sediment in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is hillslope erosion, which remains true in the contemporary landscape. Erosion and the resultant sediment loadings generated within and moving out of the watersheds draining to the Chesapeake Bay remain problematically high. They are not only high during periods of urban construction and on actively tilled cropland, but can also be found to exceed estimated historic “background” erosion rates in all land cover conditions and lithologic settings within the region. This trend is partly due to the effects from historic episodes of anthropogenic disturbance in many locations. The contemporary erosion rates carry economic costs in terms of agricultural land conservation and stream management, and can create problematic conditions for aquatic communities and downstream depositional environments, including the Chesapeake Bay.