The Impact of Human Activities
on Land Use |
The USGS will continue to work
directly with the CBP on this science theme by having a USGS
employee serve as the Land Data Manager. The Land Data Manager
has membership on the CBP Land Growth and Stewardship and
Modeling Subcommittees and has been active in preparing the
CBP RLA to better target critical lands for preservation.
The USGS will increase interaction with USFWS and the NPS
to apply the findings to help conserve habitats and lands
supporting DOI resources. USGS will help support the development
and improvement of land-use projection models by the Maryland
Office of Planning and the Woods Hole Research Center. Additionally,
there is potential for increased interaction with USEPA Region
III and the USEPA Office of Research and Development (ORD)
staff conducting the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA)
to use results to develop improved tools to document the impact
of human activities on land use and implication for improving
water quality. Finally, enhanced partnerships will be explored
with the Global Integrated Trends Network and the Multi-Resolution
Land Consortium (MRLC) to provide land-cover information.
State partners throughout the watershed have an interest in
improving monitoring data of land-use change and academic
partners, such as the University of Maryland, are potential
collaborators for future research on the factors affecting
land-use change.
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Factors Affecting
Water Quality and Quantity |
The USGS will continue to coordinate with the CBP on this
science theme by having a USGS employee serve as the CBP Monitoring
Coordinator, having membership on the Nutrient, Modeling,
and Monitoring and Analysis Subcommittees, and the appropriate
workgroups. The USGS will continue to have active membership
on the CBP Monitoring and Assessment Subcommittee (MASC) and
associated workgroups that are integrating the factors affecting
both nontidal and estuary water quality. The USGS will work
with the CBP to consider improvements to water-quality models
of the RLA to improve targeting of conservation and restoration
activities to improve water quality. Additional interaction
is planned with the USEPA MAIA and ORD efforts to explain
the factors affecting water quality for assessing the effectiveness
of restoration activities.
Interaction with DOI Bureaus and other Federal partners will
be carried out to help the USFWS conserve and restore the
health of stream corridors and wetlands, and with the NPS
to improve watershed planning. Enhanced interaction will be
explored with the U.S. Department of Agriculture including
U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Agricultural Research Service
(ARS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and
Cooperative State Research, Education, Extension Service (CSREES)
to improve nutrient and sediment source information and use
USGS water-quality findings to help guide water-quality management
activities. The USGS will examine opportunities to work with
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
to better integrate monitoring and assessment in the watershed
and estuary, and to address recommendations of the U.S. Commission
on Ocean Policy, such as including the Chesapeake Bay as part
of the IOOS. The USGS will further explore interaction with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USCOE) and NOAA to address
sediment impacting the Bay and its watershed through development
of a regional sediment management plan.
Partnerships with State agencies include continuing monitoring
efforts for nutrients and sediment in nontidal rivers with
the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR) and
the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ)
at River-Input Monitoring sites, and enhanced interaction
with other State agencies to implement the nontidal monitoring
water-quality network. Continued improvement of the CBP watershed
model will be done in cooperation with the CBP modeling team,
the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), the Interstate
Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB), and the Virginia
Department of Conservation and Recreation. The USGS will continue
its relationship with MD DNR, VA DEQ, and the University of
Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), which collects
water-quality data at SAV sites in the Potomac, and the Virginia
Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) to address the relation
of watershed impacts on near-shore water quality and SAV.
Additional efforts to improve partnerships with academic
institutions will include exploring development of additional
models with the Community Modeling Project, which is being
overseen by the Chesapeake Research Consortium. The Smithsonian
Environmental Research Center (SERC), Penn State University,
and VIMS are potential academic partners to address development
of water-quality indicators through the Atlantic Slope Consortium.
Interaction with academic partners could also occur with other
universities in the watershed if the Potomac or Susquehanna
areas are selected for study by the Consortium of Universities
for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Incorporated (CUAHSI).
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|
Ability of
Habitat to Support Fish and Bird Populations |
The habitat associated with stream corridors and their link to
the estuary is being studied by many Federal, State, and academic
institutions. The USGS will build upon existing relationships,
and form new, collaborative partnerships to address these
issues. The USGS will increase membership on the Living Resources
Subcommittee of the CBP and associated workgroups that are
addressing both nontidal and near-shore habitats. The USGS
will work closely with the USFWS to better integrate science
findings with their efforts to achieve a comprehensive approach
to watershed restoration and investigations on fish health.
The USFWS CBFO has established the Comprehensive Habitat Assessment
and Restoration Team (CHART) to help achieve this approach.
The USGS will also address the water-quality and habitat function
in the drainage area of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
The Refuge is threatened by changing land use near its property
and loss of wetlands due to sea-level rise and changes in
hydrologic patterns, and is planning a large multi-agency
restoration effort. The USGS will continue partnerships with
the USCOE to address the use of dredge spoil to restore wetlands
including Poplar Island and determine whether similar potential
exists at Blackwater Refuge. The USGS will also improve collaboration
with NOAA to use information on habitat assessment and function
to improve restoration activities and include findings on
fish health for ecosystem management of fisheries. The USGS
will work with States in the Potomac River Basin and ICPRB
to better define the factors affecting the health of fisheries
in streams. The USGS will work with academic partners, including
SERC, to better assess the role of habitat to support fish
and bird populations and provide water-quality benefit.
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Synthesis and Forecasting
to Improve Ecosystem Assessment, Conservation, and Restoration |
The USGS will work with the CBP partners, under the MASC, to
improve environmental indicators to assess the current conditions
and progress in restoring the Bay and its watershed. The USGS
will enhance interaction with the CBP Communications Office
to deliver information through their revised communication
strategy and methods. The USGS will also enhance partnership
with the IAN at the UMCES to improve conceptual models and
indictors for the Bay and its watershed.
The USGS will continue to increase interaction with the
policy makers and resource managers of the CBP and DOI (USFWS
and NPS) to provide science to meet CBP “keystone commitments”
and to conserve and restore DOI lands and trust resources.
The USGS will increase interaction with the CBP to enhance
the models in the RLA so they can be used for targeting both
conservation and restoration activities in the watershed.
The USGS will enhance interaction with the NPS to communicate
findings through the “Chesapeake Gateways Network.”
Enhanced interaction will be explored with the USDA including
USFS, ARS, NRCS, and CSREES to improve communication of sediment
and nutrient results to help guide water-quality management
activities and with NOAA to communicate the results.
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