Ken Hyer, Ph.D.
Serves as the USGS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator.
Responsible for ensuring USGS science activities are well aligned with agency and stakeholder priorities. Assists in the translation and communication of science results to ensure that science products are used by managers to inform restoration and conservation activities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. USGS science provides economic and ecological value to the over 18 million people who live in the area.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 24
USGS Chesapeake Accomplishments and Highlights for 2024
As a home to 18 million people and a destination for countless visitors seeking recreational opportunities, the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed is of critical importance. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is a leading provider of data-driven insights about the condition of the watershed’s lands, waters, fish, and wildlife. These insights and our collaborative work with partners throughout...
Blue Catfish | Invasive Species We Study
Blue Catfish ( Ictalurus furcatus) is native to the lower and middle Mississippi River and its tributaries and to the Rio Grande River. Many states outside of the native range stocked Blue Catfish to provide angling opportunities and to meet other fishery management objectives as early as the early 1900s. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed and in some eastern seaboard states, Blue Catfish is an...
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...
USGS Updates Chesapeake Science Strategy
Issue: For decades the USGS has provided critical science used to understand and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. As the ecosystem is faced with new and evolving pressures from climate change, human development and changes in land use, the USGS has updated its science priorities to help address these growing threats. Tourism, fishing, boating, agricultural production, shipping...
USGS Contributes to Revised Plans for Chesapeake Water-Quality and Toxic Contaminant Goal
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), through the Strategic Review System (SRS), reviews progress toward the 10 goals and associated outcomes of the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. Each outcome is managed by a specific CBP Goal Implementation Team and their associated workgroups. During review of each outcome every two years, a workgroup is responsible to prepare materials for (1) summarizing...
Fact Sheet Summarizes Nutrient Trends and Drivers in the Chesapeake Watershed
Issue: Trends in nitrogen and phosphorus, and the complex factors affecting their change, provide important insights into the effectiveness of efforts to reduce nutrients from reaching the tidal waters of the Bay. The nutrient reductions are needed to improve water-quality conditions in the tidal waters for fisheries and submerged aquatic vegetation.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2007
The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nation's largest estuary, is continually challenged by the population increase in its 64,000 square mile watershed. Since the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), a multi-agency partnership has worked to improve water quality, increase habitat, and restore living resources in the Bay. However, the lack of significant improvement in the Bay...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2012
In its expanded role under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals. The USGS Chesapeake Bay studies depend on collaboration among Priority...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2013
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the leadership responsibility, under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), to enhance science efforts to conserve and restore the Nation’s largest estuary. The USGS Chesapeake science activities: (1) address many aspects of the new USGS Mission Area Science Strategies; and (2) help the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), which includes...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2011
In its expanded role under the President's Chesapeake Bay Executive Order, the U.S. Geological Survey has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 24
USGS Chesapeake Accomplishments and Highlights for 2024
As a home to 18 million people and a destination for countless visitors seeking recreational opportunities, the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed is of critical importance. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is a leading provider of data-driven insights about the condition of the watershed’s lands, waters, fish, and wildlife. These insights and our collaborative work with partners throughout...
Blue Catfish | Invasive Species We Study
Blue Catfish ( Ictalurus furcatus) is native to the lower and middle Mississippi River and its tributaries and to the Rio Grande River. Many states outside of the native range stocked Blue Catfish to provide angling opportunities and to meet other fishery management objectives as early as the early 1900s. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed and in some eastern seaboard states, Blue Catfish is an...
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...
USGS Updates Chesapeake Science Strategy
Issue: For decades the USGS has provided critical science used to understand and improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. As the ecosystem is faced with new and evolving pressures from climate change, human development and changes in land use, the USGS has updated its science priorities to help address these growing threats. Tourism, fishing, boating, agricultural production, shipping...
USGS Contributes to Revised Plans for Chesapeake Water-Quality and Toxic Contaminant Goal
Issue: The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), through the Strategic Review System (SRS), reviews progress toward the 10 goals and associated outcomes of the Chesapeake Watershed Agreement. Each outcome is managed by a specific CBP Goal Implementation Team and their associated workgroups. During review of each outcome every two years, a workgroup is responsible to prepare materials for (1) summarizing...
Fact Sheet Summarizes Nutrient Trends and Drivers in the Chesapeake Watershed
Issue: Trends in nitrogen and phosphorus, and the complex factors affecting their change, provide important insights into the effectiveness of efforts to reduce nutrients from reaching the tidal waters of the Bay. The nutrient reductions are needed to improve water-quality conditions in the tidal waters for fisheries and submerged aquatic vegetation.
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2007
The restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Nation's largest estuary, is continually challenged by the population increase in its 64,000 square mile watershed. Since the mid-1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), a multi-agency partnership has worked to improve water quality, increase habitat, and restore living resources in the Bay. However, the lack of significant improvement in the Bay...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2012
In its expanded role under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals. The USGS Chesapeake Bay studies depend on collaboration among Priority...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2013
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has been given the leadership responsibility, under the President’s Chesapeake Bay Executive Order (EO), to enhance science efforts to conserve and restore the Nation’s largest estuary. The USGS Chesapeake science activities: (1) address many aspects of the new USGS Mission Area Science Strategies; and (2) help the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), which includes...
USGS Chesapeake Bay Accomplishments for 2011
In its expanded role under the President's Chesapeake Bay Executive Order, the U.S. Geological Survey has been given the lead responsibility, in collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to strengthen science that supports all of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) goals.