Protected Lands Workgroup
The Protected Lands Workgroup conserves the natural, historic, cultural and working lands of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The workgroup coordinates with the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership to protect an additional two million acres by 2025, ensuring cross-generational conservation efforts.
Meetings
Protected Lands Workgroup Meeting - August 2025
Protected Lands Workgroup Meeting - September 2025
Protected Lands Workgroup Quarterly Meeting - October 2025
Protected Lands Workgroup Quarterly Meeting - July 2025
Protected Lands Workgroup Quarterly Meeting - April 2025
Protected Lands Workgroup Meeting - April 2025
About
The working farms, forests and natural, historic, and cultural areas around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed are central to creating the Chesapeake’s sense of place. These landscapes connect us to deep traditions and vital economic and ecological values. Conserving them is vital to our quality of life.
The governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the mayor of the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the federal government collectively set the first collaborative, far-reaching goal for protecting land as part of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement: “Permanently preserve from development 20 percent of the land area in the watershed by 2010.” By 2008, two years ahead of schedule, through leadership from governors and investments by state legislatures, localities, the federal government, landowners and non-governmental organizations, this goal was achieved.
In 2009, President Obama issued a Chesapeake Bay Executive Order tasking federal agencies with efforts to help stimulate further progress, including to “expand public access to waters and open spaces of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from Federal lands and conserve landscapes and ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”
The National Park Service convened more than fifty representatives of conservation, historic preservation, and public access agencies and non-governmental organizations to develop recommendations for advancing land conservation and public access. This formed the basis for the goals of protecting an additional two million acres and adding 300 public access sites by 2025--and their complementary implementation actions--set in the Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed required by the Executive Order and issued in 2010.
The National Park Service and the Chesapeake Conservancy continued to convene the fifty-plus conservation partners regularly to coordinate collaboration on achieving the conservation goals. By 2013, this led to a decision to formalize the group as what is now known as the “Chesapeake Conservation Partnership”. Further, the partners strongly advocated for inclusion of the land conservation (and public access) goals established in 2010 in the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement being negotiated and ultimately adopted in 2014. The Agreement reaffirmed and included the identical goals and outcome commitments to conserve an additional two million acres (and add 300 public access sites) by 2015.
Early on, CCP functioned as the means to address the Protected Lands Outcome for the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership. In 2023, a dedicated Protected Lands Workgroup was formed to set, implement, and track the commitments toward achieving the Outcome, while CCP has remained a fundamental coordinating partner and source of guidance for the workgroup. The Protected Lands Workgroup also shepherds and tracks the management strategies and biennial logic and action plans required by the Chesapeake Bay Program for goals and outcomes.
To review the primary documents of the Protected Lands Workgroup, visit https://www.chesapeakebay.net/managementstrategies/strategy/protected_lands.
For more information on the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership's broader land conservation goals, projects, and initiatives, visit ChesapeakeConservation.org.
Projects
Protected Lands Dashboard Viewer
CompleteThis dashboard provides updated protected lands progress by the year of protection, land use type and landowner within each jurisdiction.
Publications
2021 Protected Lands Presentation
Publication date: Not listedThe Protected Lands Workgroup SRS presentation summarizes the information in the Outcome Review Summary and highlights changes the workgroup anticipates making to its Management Strategy. It supports our request for the Management Board to take action or provide assistance if needed.
View document [PDF, 750.8 KB] 2021 Protected Lands Presentation
2021 Protected Lands Narrative Analysis
Publication date: Not listedThe Narrative Analysis is the previous version of the new Outcome Review Summary which reflects on the past two years while providing analysis on how new information will impact our efforts and recommendations for changes. This document celebrates accomplishments, evaluates long- and short-term progress, illustrates the link between the factors and gaps that could affect our ability to achieve the outcome, and indicates whether our actions are having their intended effect.
View document [PDF, 264.6 KB] 2021 Protected Lands Narrative Analysis
2024-2025 Protected Lands Work Plan
Publication date:The Protected Lands Work Plan builds on lessons learned in the Outcome Review Summary to identify actions that the workgroup will take to respond to gaps as well as the anticipated impact of completing those actions. This document establishes an expected timeline, responsible parties, performance targets, plans for data collection, and plans for the communication of results.
View document [PDF, 110.2 KB] 2024-2025 Protected Lands Work Plan
Our Watershed Agreement Goals & Outcomes
Land Conservation Goal
Our Members
- Daniel Koval (Staffer)
Chesapeake Research Consortium kovald@chesapeake.org - Sara Coleman
Maryland Department of Natural Resources sara.coleman@maryland.gov - Cheryl Wise
Maryland Department of Natural Resources cheryl.wise@maryland.gov - Ashley Rebert
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources arebert@pa.gov - Kerri Batrowny
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control kerri.batrowny@delaware.gov - Michelle Campbell
District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment michelle.campbell@dc.gov - Becky Gwynn
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources becky.gwynn@dwr.virginia.gov - Cassandra Davis
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cassandra.davis@dec.ny.gov - John Rowe
West Virginia Division of Forestry John.P.Rowe@wv.gov - Alexander Silvis
West Virginia Division of Natural Resources alexander.silvis@wv.gov - Ashton Berdine
West Virginia Land Trust ashton@wvlandtrust.org - Ben Alexandro
Chesapeake Conservation Partnership balexandro@chesapeakeconservation.org - Wendy O'Sullivan
National Park Service (NPS) wendy_o'sullivan@nps.gov - Anthony Bobo, Jr.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) a1bobo@blm.gov - John Wolf
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jwolf@chesapeakebay.net - Peter Claggett
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) pclagget@chesapeakebay.net - Sophie Waterman
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) swaterman@chesapeakebay.net - Coral Howe
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) chowe@usgs.gov - Katie Brownson
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Katherine.Brownson@usda.gov - Kevin DuBois
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) kevin.r.dubois.civ@us.navy.mil - Faren Wolter
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) faren_wolter@fws.gov - Maggie Woodward
Chesapeake Bay Commission mwoodward@chesbay.us - Adrienne Kotula
Chesapeake Bay Commission Akotula@chesbay.us