The Chesapeake Executive Council will hold its annual meeting on Tuesday, May 12 at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Executive Council members will chart a new course for the Bay’s recovery that accelerates the pace of cleanup and deepens the Bay Program’s commitment to restoring the Bay. (Learn more)
Related links: Chesapeake Executive Council
Underwater bay grasses increased by 18 percent in 2008 to cover 76,861 acres throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers, according to data collected by scientists with the Bay Program. This is the fourth largest total amount of bay grasses recorded since surveying began in 1984. (Learn more)
Related links: Underwater Bay Grasses | Press Release
From the Bay Blog: As we road the wagon back up the hill -- in the pouring rain -- and looked back at the newly planted floodplain, the enthusiasm was hard to contain. There was a special warm feeling that drifted over me: the feeling of knowing you just did something special that will last far into the future. (Learn more)
Related links: Forests | Restoring Forest Buffers
NOAA and the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources celebrate the restoration of nearly 80 percent of the wetlands at Jug Bay in Prince Georges County, Md. Jug Bay, located in Upper Marlboro, Md., is one of 27 reserves in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System managed by NOAA in partnership with coastal states. (Learn more)
Related links: Wetlands Restoration
A new campaign is urging Anne Arundel County, Md., residents to find “beautiful solutions to water pollution” by installing rain gardens, rain barrels and other methods of absorbing polluted runoff before it makes its way into the Bay. (Learn more)
Related links: RainScaping Campaign
Scientists estimate that a total of 400 million blue crabs overwintered in the Bay in 2008-2009, up from 280 million in 2007-2008, according to data from the latest Bay-wide winter dredge survey conducted by the Maryland DNR and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. (Learn more)
Related links: About Blue Crabs | Managing Blue Crabs
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has given the Bay's health a score of 28 in its annual State of the Bay report. Earlier this month the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gave the Bay a C-minus, and in March the Bay Program scored the Bay's health at a 38 in its annual Bay Barometer. (Learn more)
Related links: Bay Barometer
An office building in Jessup, Md., is working to protect the Bay by capturing and treating polluted runoff on its site, rather than allowing it to run off into a nearby stream.
Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy trains residents to work in their communities to reduce the pollution that flows into storm drains, local rivers and the Bay.
Hike, bike or jog through 15 miles of parkland along Gwynns Falls Trail, which follows the Gwynns Falls stream from Baltimore's Leakin Park to the city’s famous Inner Harbor.
