Protected Lands Workgroup
Upcoming Meetings
No upcoming meetings.
Scope and Purpose
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.
Leading members of the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership, already working to advance collaborative progress toward the two million acre and public access goals, also serve as members of the Protected Lands Workgroup under the Fostering Chesapeake Setewardship Goal Implementation Team Team. The Protected Lands Workgroup shepherds and tracks the managemetn strategies and biennial logica 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 initatives visit ChesapeakeConservation.org.
Publications
Members
Britt Slattery (Coordinator), Fostering Chesapeake Stewardship Goal Implementation Team Coordinator, National Park Service (NPS)
Joel Dunn, President and CEO, Chesapeake Conservancy
716 Giddings Ave
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
Email: jdunn@chesapeakeconservancy.org
Phone: (443) 321-3610
Wendy O'Sullivan, Superintendent, NPS Chesapeake Bay Office, National Park Service (NPS)
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: wendy_o'sullivan@nps.gov
Phone: (202) 374-9051
John Griffin, Chesapeake Conservation Partnership Program Manager, Chesapeake Conservation Partnership
Jonathan Doherty, Assistant Superintendent, Chesapeake Bay Office, National Park Service (NPS)
410 Severn Avenue
Suite 314
Annaoplis, Maryland 21403
Email: Jonathan_Doherty@nps.gov
Phone: (410) 260-2477
Genevieve LaRouche, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
177 Admiral Cochrane Drive
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: Genevieve_LaRouche@fws.gov
Phone: (410) 573-4573
Chris Miller, President, Piedmont Environmental Council
Sally Claggett, Program Coordinator, U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Suite 209
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: sclaggett@fs.fed.us
Phone: (410) 267-5706
Deborah Nardone, Executive Director, ClearWater Conservancy
2555 N. Atherton Street
State college, Pennsylvania 16803
Email: deb@clearwaterconservancy.org
Nita Settina, Superintendent of Maryland State Parks, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Tawes State Office Building, E3
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: nsettina@dnr.state.md.us
Phone: 410-260-8186
Ann Swanson, Chesapeake Bay Commission
60 West Street
Suite 406
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: aswanson@chesbay.us
Phone: (410) 263-3420
Mark Platts, President, Susquehanna National Heritage Area
Joshua Saks, Deputy Secretary, Virginia Office of Natural Resources
Phil Wenger, President and CEO, Lancaster Conservancy
Sharee Williamson, Associate General Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation
2600 Virginia Avenue NW
Suite 1100
Washington, Districtofcolumbia 20037
Email: SWilliamson@savingplaces.org
Hedrick Belin, President, Potomac Conservancy
Lauren Imgrund, Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (PA DCNR)
400 Market St
7th Floor
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17105
Email: limgrund@pa.gov
Phone: (717) 772-9085
Brett Glymph, Executive Director, Virginia Outdoors Foundation
Kate Hackett, Executive Director, Delaware Wild Lands
Kendra Hyson, Senior Planner, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission
Tim Male, Executive Director, Environmental Policy Innovation Center
777 6th St. NW
11th Floor
Washington, Districtofcolumbia 20001
Email: tmale@policyinnovation.org
Jennifer Miller-Herzog, Mid-Atlantic Senior Program Manager, Land Trust Alliance
Kristin Saunders, Cross Program Coordinator, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
1750 Forest Drive Suite 130
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
Email: ksaunders@umces.edu
Phone: (410) 267-5711