Chesapeake Bay Activities Newsletter April-June 2022

A Science-Based Approach for Targeting Resources to Achieve Multiple Chesapeake Outcomes

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) needs to accelerate progress on multiple outcomes to meet deadlines in the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. The CBP partnership spends about $1.2B annually on activities toward achieving the Watershed Agreement, with a focus on water-quality improvement. Recent funding increases, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provide additional opportunities to accelerate progress toward multiple outcomes and improve state and local benefits. However, a science-based approach to target resources, including funding increases, is needed to use tools and identify places to more effectively advance multiple outcomes and benefits.

USGS Chesapeake Publication Receives National Award for Superior Communication Product

The Award

USGS received a 2022 Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Award, in the category of Technical/Statistical Reports, from the National Association of Government Communications (NAGC) for the U.S. Geological Survey Circular titled Nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed—A Century of Change, 1950–2050. Each year the NAGC recognizes products that provide excellence in government communications and the Award for Excellence was presented to USGS on May 11, 2022 in Louisville, KY. 

USGS Part of New Federal Effort to Address Climate Change in the Chesapeake Watershed

Issue: The federal government will work together to implement the Chesapeake Executive Council Directive No. 21-1 Collective Action for Climate Change, recognizing that urgent attention is needed to confront the challenges that a changing climate poses to the Chesapeake Bay region. The Directive emphasizes the importance of the “…resiliency of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, including its living resources, habitats, public infrastructure and communities, to withstand adverse impacts from changing environmental and climate conditions.”

Study of stream fishes provides new framework to monitor climate change in the Chesapeake Bay headwaters

Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) have identified four goals for actions toward change climate: 
• address the threats of climate change in all aspects of the partnership’s work; 
• prioritize communities, working lands, and most vulnerable habitats; 
• apply the best scientific, modeling, monitoring and planning capabilities; and 
• connect restoration outcomes with emerging opportunities.
A new USGS study, done in cooperation with the National Park Service, helps address these CBP climate goals by revealing how strategies for survival and reproduction of fishes can be used to understand climate change in the Chesapeake Bay headwaters and across the globe.

Altered flow affects the biological health of streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Issue: The natural cycle of water flow, known as the flow regime, is one of the primary habitat conditions needed for healthy biological communities in streams. However, human activities have drastically altered the natural flow regime of most of the world’s rivers and streams, including those in the Chesapeake watershed, which has resulted in changes not only to the natural habitat but also associated organisms. The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) has an outcome to restore stream health throughout the watershed. Information is needed on the factors degrading the health of streams, including altered flows, to help identify potential places and management actions to improve their condition.