"Data collected through 2024 show that more than 9.2 million acres of land across the Chesapeake Bay watershed have now been permanently protected from development—approximately 23% of the total land in the region.

While the Protected Lands Outcome will fall short of its target under the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement, Chesapeake Bay Program partners attained 90% of the goal to protect an additional two million acres across the watershed, conserving approximately 1.8 million acres of land between 2010-2024, an increase of 21%.

Data is reported by the seven watershed jurisdictions–Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia—and reflects conservation efforts undertaken by private businesses, non-governmental organizations (land trusts and others), local governments and other entities.

State agencies currently own 45% of all protected lands in the watershed, followed by the federal government, which holds approximately 23%. Forests make up about 76% of these lands, while wetlands account for 6%. These figures are determined through the 2024 Protected Lands Dataset and the Chesapeake Bay Program’s High-Resolution Land Use/Land Cover Data.

Pennsylvania currently holds the largest number of protected lands in the watershed with 3.7 million acres, followed by Virginia (3.1 million), Maryland (1.7 million), West Virginia (320,000), New York (308,000), Delaware (131,000) and Washington, D.C. (8,400). . ."

Read the full press release at the Chesapeake Bay Program