State and federal leaders from around the Chesapeake Bay watershed met this week to discuss how to move forward with restoring the nation’s largest estuary.
A decade ago, Virginia and other states in the region signed onto an ambitious agreement to protect the bay. It set 31 benchmarks to voluntarily achieve by 2025 on things like reducing pollution and boosting oyster and crab populations.
The restoration is not on track to meet about a third of those goals. But Tuesday’s meeting was meant to chart a path forward, reaffirming a commitment to restore the bay while finding more innovative and faster ways to do so.
The Chesapeake Executive Council, which includes Gov. Glenn Youngkin, directs policy for the goals of the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. The council is launching an effort to formally revise the document by the end of next year.
Youngkin said at the meeting that officials shouldn’t fully hit the “reset button” on the restoration, but need to make sure goals are targeted and achievable.
“I have repeatedly urged us to address the needs of the Chesapeake Bay with great practicality and urgency,” Youngkin said. “I've asked us to pursue measures over models.”
Ahead of the meeting, Youngkin last week issued an executive directive with a similar message.
The governor called the bay “a crown jewel” of Virginia, and recognized that while there has been significant progress with the restoration, “it is evident that a clearer path forward is needed.”
Youngkin ordered state agencies to re-evaluate all investments in the bay; launch more holistic initiatives including on wetlands and blue crabs; be a leader in updating the 2014 bay watershed agreement; and develop better guidance for landowners trying to reduce their impacts on water quality.
To that end, Virginia recently launched a $20 million pilot program that will pay farmers and property owners who can prove they’re cutting pollution – an initiative that places more emphasis on outcomes than similar ones in the past. Agriculture is the largest remaining source of nutrient pollution in the bay.
The program fits into leaders’ overall shift in thinking about the long-term cleanup strategy, said Joe Wood, Virginia senior scientist with the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
“The way our programs have been built, there's limits to their effects,” Wood said. “Doing something new responding to some of those gaps is really critical.”
Significant progress has been made cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. But changing climate conditions threaten to stall or reverse some of that progress, and make it more difficult to establish long-term goals.
The Executive Council said it wants to prioritize looking to science as it evolves, to keep up with the latest risks and solutions.
The council has now charged staff with formally revising the 2014 agreement over the next year, including greater emphasis on community engagement.
“The health of the bay matters to all of us,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at the meeting. “We haven't done a good enough job being able to advocate for that and engaging all people as our partners in this effort. But that will and must change.”
