Save the Bay News: For Your Health, Restore the Bay

bee on plant Jared Planz 1171x593

Blooming flowers and industrious insects return to backyards each spring.

Jared Planz/CBF Staff

Our monthly roundup of engaging and educational content for you to enjoy at home.

A doctor writing in a 1895 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association extolled Baltimore's "inexhaustible supply of excellent water" from the Gunpowder River as a chief source of the city's health. As the latest issue of Save the Bay magazine shows, a growing body of public health research backs up what many of us sense intuitively: The health of our communities is inseparable from the health of our environment. Discover the potential health benefits of Bay restoration and why we should build a healthy Bay and healthy communities at the same time. Learn how air pollution threatens our waterways and our health and how one community is helping anglers who rely on fish for food safely prepare their catch from the Anacostia River, despite pollution. Finally, catch up on the latest watershed news—including the return of blue crabs.

A heron taking flight from the banks of the Potomac River in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

Richard Brown

Bay Health Is Public Health

Complex modern health challenges necessitate a focus not only on curing disease but also on creating environments that promote health in the first place. It should come as no surprise that restoring our environment can and should help restore the health of our communities. Solutions that offer significant co-benefits cannot be ignored.

VIDEO: Blue Crabs Return

The early life of a Chesapeake Bay blue crab can be perilous—a fact underscored by this week's release of the Winter Dredge Survey results, which showed a decline in juveniles. Beginning as an egg adrift in the ocean, crabs face predatory fish, blue herons, and even other crabs on their journey back to the Bay.

Urban tree canopy shades a stretch of Q Street in Northwest Washington, D.C..

Carlin Stiehl/Chesapeake Bay Program

5 Ways Bay Restoration Saves Us, Too

When we plant trees, conserve forests, reduce air pollution, and grow food using regenerative agricultural practices, we improve water quality in the Bay watershed. Research suggests these practices may also improve our health—helping lower blood pressure, boost mental health and learning, cultivate beneficial digestive microbes, and even strengthen community bonds.

VIDEO: Air Pollution's Dirty Water Secret

More than 135 million people—disproportionately people of color—live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to the American Lung Association. It harms our water, too. One-third of the Bay's nitrogen pollution comes from the air, and it can travel from an area nearly nine times larger than the watershed.

Young boy reaches for prepared fish on a demonstration table.

At the Chesapeake Bay Program fish consumption advisory talk and demonstration, Kleiver Velasquez reaches out for a taste of fresh, skinless catfish fillet.

Michelle Williams/Chesapeake Bay Program

Safe Fish, Safe Food

For the last five years, the Festival del Rio Anacostia has welcomed Latino families to the Bladensburg, Maryland, waterfront to celebrate their culture and the river. A popular exhibit demonstrates how anglers can safely prepare and eat the fish they catch, limiting exposure to toxic pollutants that can accumulate in certain species, and cultivates water stewardship.

VIDEO: Around the Bay in 60 Seconds

This month's news wrap-up covers vehicle emission standards, farm funding, an oyster shell archaeological dig, and more. Extra: CBF President Will Baker and former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler share what they've learned in their combined 100 years of Bay-saving and make the urgent case for federal leadership in this Washington Post op-ed.

Small fossil shell held between two fingers.

Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae Wilson, the official fossil shell of Maryland is an extinct snail, or gastropod.

Morgan Jones/CBF Staff

What You Can Do

Issues in this Post

Air Pollution   Blue Crabs   Community   Conservation   Environmental Justice   Fishing   Restoration  




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The views and opinions expressed in the media or articles on this site are those of the speakers or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions held by CBF and the inclusion of such information does not imply endorsement by CBF. CBF is not responsible for the contents of any linked Website, or any link contained in a linked Website, or any changes or updates to such Websites. The inclusion of any link is provided only for information purposes.


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