Bay Facts

Fourteen percent of watershed residents use rain barrels to collect rainwater from their downspouts and keep runoff out of rivers and streams. While water collected in rain barrels is not safe to drink, it can be used to water plants or wash cars.

The first inhabitants of the Chesapeake Bay region are referred to as Paleo-Indians. They came more than 10,000 years ago from other parts of North America, drawn in by the abundance of wildlife and waterways.

The Chesapeake region is home to at least 29 species of waterfowl.

Seventy percent of watershed residents want to do more to help make their local creeks, rivers and lakes healthier.

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary: a body of water where fresh and salt water mix. It is the largest of more than 100 estuaries in the United States and third largest in the world.

Seventy to ninety percent of all striped bass, known locally as rockfish, were spawned in the Bay.

More than 500,000 Canada geese winter in and near the Bay.

Sixty percent of Chesapeake forests have been divided into disconnected fragments by roads, homes and other gaps that are too wide or dangerous for wildlife to cross.

The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem.

Approximately 9.6 million acres of land in the Bay watershed have been permanently protected from development by Bay Program partners.

In the 1970’s, there were as few as 60 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the entire Bay region. Today, as much as 3,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles can be found.

Approximately 284,000 acres of tidal wetlands grow the Chesapeake Bay region. Wetlands provide critical habitat for fish, birds, crabs and many other species.