Press Statement

Tree Canopy Expansion Cited as Critical to Meeting Climate Change Targets

An association representing hundreds of Washington, D.C.-area local and state leaders adopted a new regional tree canopy goal April 11, signaling tree cover as a natural asset to achieve sustainable, equitable, and healthier communities.  

Officials with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) set a minimum target of maintaining 50 percent tree canopy coverage across the metropolitan Washington region. The COG is comprised of 300 elected officials from 24 local governments, the Maryland and Virginia state legislatures, and U.S. Congress. 

COG cited the objective as critical to their work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. While many localities have established tree canopy targets, this goal, COG officials said, can support progress toward regional targets. 

According to COG, in 2023, Chesapeake Bay Program data indicated that an estimated 49.6 percent of the region’s 2.2 million acres of land was covered by tree canopy, down from 51.3 percent coverage in 2014. COG experts noted that an average of 4,383 acres of tree canopy are lost each year in the region due to development and other factors. If this trend continues through 2050, COG noted that the region’s tree canopy coverage would drop to 44.4 percent. 

In Virginia alone, development, hotter wildfires, road widenings, invasive species, and increased energy infrastructure have all contributed to a net loss of 9,548 acres of urban and forest canopy between 2014 and 2018. 

Ann Jurczyk, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia Manager for Urban Restoration, issued the following statement:

“Trees are indispensable, free, natural infrastructure. We applaud this much needed aspirational goal to not only reduce pollution and protect communities against climate change threats, but also support healthier neighborhoods, property values, and equity goals.” 

Julieta Rodrigo, CBF’s Urban & Community Resilience Manager in Maryland, issued the following statement: 

“Tree canopies are particularly important in urban landscapes like the DC area that have more impervious surface—keeping streets cooler and communities more resilient against the effects of climate change.” 

Talbot County Council agreed yesterday to review the Lakeside at Trappe development project at each phase of development.

The proposal for additional oversight (Resolution 338, Amendment No.1) passed at the Council’s April 9 meeting, enabling Talbot County to ensure the project’s progress is consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan and minimizes harm to the surrounding environment and community. 

For years, Eastern Shore residents have sought assurance from local leaders that the project will not negatively impact schools, roads, emergency services, and other investments paid for by taxpayers. The council’s action demonstrates that county leaders share those concerns. It also aligns local oversight with state wastewater permit requirements, which include a major permit modification for any future expansion at Lakeside. 

Last year in Talbot County Circuit Court, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) challenged Lakeside’s wastewater permit issued by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Ruling in favor of MDE, the court cited the agency’s broad discretion to set and administer wastewater permit terms, even though CBF provided evidence that those terms violate state and federal law.

CBF appealed the decision in September and legal briefs were filed with the Appellate Court of Maryland earlier this year. The briefs describe how MDE’s permit for Lakeside does not ensure compliance with state water quality standards and could further degrade Talbot County’s streams, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay.

The current discharge permit enables Lakeside to spray about 100,000 gallons per day of treated wastewater onto farm fields, an amount generated by an estimated 400 homes. MDE originally proposed to permit discharges up to 540,000 gallons per day, but that volume was scaled back after MDE received immense pushback from the community, CBF, and other groups. 

More than 100 homes have already been constructed at Lakeside, which are being served by Trappe’s existing sewage treatment plant until the new spray irrigation system that is being constructed comes online. Concerns remain over that system, which is planned to treat the waste from more than 2,000 additional homes yet to be built. The review provisions adopted by the county council this week provide additional oversight of the impacts Lakeside may cause to the community and the environment. 

CBF’s Maryland Advocacy Director Alan Girard said in a statement: 

“Lakeside is no longer being left up to chance. Talbot County Council’s decision to conduct limited oversight of the project is a positive step to protect residents and the environment. 

“The authority to periodically review Lakeside will give county officials an essential opportunity to evaluate the project’s impacts to the environment and public investments like schools, roads, and emergency services. 

“Questions remain over whether plans to spray treated wastewater from the project on farm fields will result in zero discharge of nitrogen to local waterways, as the Maryland Department of the Environment claims. Citizens, businesses, and CBF members who have long sought greater oversight for Lakeside appreciate the Talbot County Council’s decision to provide it.”

 

EPA released tighter tailpipe limits on greenhouse gases today that require automakers to by 2032 make the largest gross reduction of greenhouse gas emissions ever required in the United States by a single rule. 

The new standards cover passenger cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, and some heavier commercial vehicles manufactured from model year 2027 to model year 2032. They also clamp down on tailpipe emissions of smog-forming ozone, soot, and nitrogen oxides (NOx). 

Roughly one-third of excess nitrogen in the Bay and its tributaries comes from the air, much it of in the form of NOx from vehicle exhaust and fossil fuel-fired power plants. When airborne NOx is deposited into waters, it fuels the growth of agal blooms that block sunlight and absorb oxygen that underwater grasses, crabs, oysters, fish and other marine species need to live.

Auto emissions can be especially damaging to local waterways and people living near busy roads because the pollution does not travel far from its source. Communities of color and low-income communities are more likely than affluent white neighborhoods to be located near busy roadways. Environmental justice communities also suffer disproportionately from heart and lung disease.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement:

“Cutting carbon and nitrogen emissions from vehicles is essential to a cleaner Bay, more resilient local waterways, and healthier communities across our region. We can already see how the damaging effects of climate change and dirty air are taking their toll.

“Sea-level rise and more frequent, intense storms threaten low-lying cities such as Annapolis, Md., and Hampton Roads, Va. Rising temperatures mean unpredictable growing seasons for Pennsylvania farmers. And vehicle exhaust deposits excess nitrogen into the Bay and its tributaries as it chokes under-resourced communities near congested highways in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation welcomes EPA’s stronger tailpipe emission limits on greenhouse gases and other pollutants. They are an important tool in the fight against climate change impacts and unhealthy air that already plague too many of our region’s 19 million people.”

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF)’s donation of Holly Beach Farm to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the agency announced yesterday.

Holly Beach Farm is an extremely unique, ecologically valuable, 293-acre waterfront property in Anne Arundel County. CBF had stewarded the property for over two decades for environmental education and habitat conservation. It will soon be transferred to DNR for future protection, restoration, and access.

In response to the Board of Public Works approval, Hilary Harp Falk, CBF’s President and CEO, stated:

“Over the last twenty years, with generous support from donors and like-minded organizations, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has had the privilege of stewarding its part of Holly Beach Farm through significant investment in maintenance, restoration, and educational programming. We are so pleased that the State of Maryland has stepped forward with its tremendous resources to continue the conservation and management of this special natural area. We thank the Gately family for preserving this jewel of the Chesapeake and the Moore administration for their continued leadership in protecting, and making accessible, Maryland’s tremendous natural resources.”

Bipartisan legislation to extend programs essential to Bay restoration and other regional conservation efforts across the country cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today by unanimous voice vote. 

The America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act would extend and set funding levels through fiscal year 2030 for the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) grant program, and the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways program.

The bill, introduced by Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), would also extend the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s ability to administer the Chesapeake Bay Program’s three grant programs and the Chesapeake WILD grants. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Federal (CBF) Direct Keisha Sedlack issued the following statement: 

“CBF is encouraged by the vote to send the ACE Reauthorization Act to the Senate floor. We hope the committee’s broad backing for protecting precious natural resources like the Chesapeake Bay  ecosystem signals this legislation will enjoy similar support among all senators.   

“The bill would help ensure federal partners in the cleanup can continue to provide robust support for initiatives that improve water quality, reduce polluted runoff, restore essential wildlife habitat, and introduce more people to the wonders of the Bay ecosystem. 

“CBF is grateful to Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito for their bipartisan commitment to reauthorizing the ACE Act and thank committee members Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for voting for the bill. We now call on House Bay champions to keep their companion legislation moving forward as well.” 

Explore examples of projects funded by these programs from the six Bay states and DC. 

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force Co-Chairs Reps. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) have introduced a trio of bills to reauthorize three federal programs essential to restoring the Bay and its tributaries, conserving wildlife habitat, and boosting public access to this national treasure. 

The bills are similar to the Bay-related provisions in the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act introduced in the Senate last month. The bipartisan ACE Reauthorization Act would extend conservation programs nationwide.

The three-bill House package would extend the Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake WILD grants, and the Chesapeake Gateways program from fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2030.

EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program would be reauthorized at $100 million annually. The Program, which coordinates the multi-agency federal-state cleanup partnership, is currently funded at $92 million.  

Roughly two-thirds of its annual budget goes to grant programs that leverage local matching dollars to fund projects to control polluted runoff from urban, suburban, agricultural lands; restore streams, wetlands, and riparian buffers, establish oyster reefs, protect forests, and reconnect local waterways for fish passage. 

The Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) matching grant program would be renewed at $15 million annually. It was created in 2020 in the original ACE Act to support wildlife habitat conservation projects and provide technical and planning help to local partners. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and currently funded at $8 million. 

Finally, the legislation would extend the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways and Water Trails Network and Chesapeake Gateways Grants and Assistance program at $6 million annually, double the level of $3 million annually. 

The Chesapeake Gateways Program helps preserve and enhance access to public lands, historic sites, trails, parks, wildlife refuges, and museums in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. 

Together the Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake WILD grants, and the Chesapeake Gateways Program have funded numerous projects in the six Bay states and the District of Columbia. See list below for examples. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement: 

“CBF is excited to see bipartisan momentum building to extend federal programs that improve water quality, wildlife habitat, and public access to the Bay and its tributaries. 

“EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service are essential partners in the multi-state, multi-agency Bay restoration effort. They provide federal dollars to fund local conservation projects across the six Bay states and the District of Columbia. 

“We are entering a new phase in the Bay cleanup. These bills are an important step toward ensuring our federal partners have the tools they need to meet the coming challenges. CBF thanks Reps. Rob Wittman, Bobby Scott, and John Sarbanes for their leadership and urges the House to act quickly on this important Bay legislation.” 

See list of examples below:

Maryland

• $75,000 Chesapeake WILD grant to Baltimore Green Space, which will provide $30,600 in matching funds, to engage underserved communities to expand habitat for imperiled pollinators and gather data on bumble bees as an indicator species across 12 properties in Baltimore City.
• $445,400 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Chesapeake Conservancy, which will put up $392,700 in matching funds, to support community-led conservation crews in Baltimore City, Prince Georges County, and Howard County in planting trees, restoring native habitats, and other projects chosen by the communities.
• $150,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to Baltimore County to support a Spanish-speaking Park Ranger and develop Spanish-language signage and informational materials at Marshy Point Nature Center and Loch Raven Fishing Center.

Pennsylvania

• $546,500 Chesapeake WILD grant to Ruffed Grouse Society, which will provide $611,700 in matching funds, to improve 1,600 acres of ruffed grouse habitat along the Kittatinny Ridge in central Pennsylvania.
• $75,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, which would put up $75,000, to work with members of the Dairy Farmers of America to complete six agricultural conservation plans to help improve water quality in south-central Pennsylvania.
• $150,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Susquehanna National Heritage Area to create an education center and heritage park focused on the area’s role in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War.

Virginia

• $750,000 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia, which will provide $2.85 million in matching funds, to acquire 700 acres of ancestral lands along the Rappahannock River and apply the tribe’s traditional stewardship practices to reforesting the land and improving biodiversity. 
• $252,500 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will put up $90,000 in matching funds, to bolster eastern brook trout populations in the Upper North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
• $149,500 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the James River Association to develop curriculum and teacher resources to connect fifth-grade students in 21 Hampton City elementary schools to nature and the city’s Native American and African American culture. 

West Virginia

• $275,900 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust, which will provide $1.38 million in matching funds, to work with hunt clubs to protect 1,000 acres of critical habitat for Eastern brook trout, freshwater mussels, several endangered species, and 60 other species of greatest conservation need.
• $500,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will contribute $409,500 in matching funds, to reconnect one and half miles of brook trout habitat and another mile of streamside forest habitat in the Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. 
• $110,000 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Jefferson County Parks and Recreation Commission to develop a master plan for Moulton Park and its 82-acre expansion that includes recreation and public access, native species protection, soil conservation, and forest regeneration.

Delaware

• $50,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance to develop a stormwater management strategy to meet Delaware’s pollution-reduction goals in the Nanticoke River watershed.
• $177,600 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Delaware Wild Lands, which will provide $130,600 in matching funds to restore 25 acres of native forest and meadow habitat and nearly half a mile of streamside habitat in the Great Cypress Swamp.

New York

• $73,700 Chesapeake WILD grant to the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (SUNY) on behalf of SUNY-Oneonta to develop a plan to evaluate potential habitats needed to rebuild brook floater mussel populations in the Susquehanna River.
• $140,600 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to Trout Unlimited, which will provide $70,000 in matching funds, to open 2.8 miles of high-quality brook trout habitat in the Wylie Brook watershed.

Washington, D.C. 

• $180,000 Chesapeake Bay Program grant to the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, which would provide $16,300 in matching funds, to engage local environmental justice communities in planning, preparing, and financing sanitary sewage system corrections to reduce discharges sewer system overflows in the Anacostia River watershed.
• $147,600 Chesapeake Gateways grant to the Friends of the National Arboretum to involve diverse local communities in the Anacostia River watershed in volunteer opportunities at the Arboretum. 

Important programs that fund Bay restoration and recovery work were spared from budget cuts in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations deal the House of Representatives passed today by a vote of 339-85. 

The six-bill package would fund EPA, the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Army Corps Engineers, among other agencies, through the end of fiscal 2024. It still must pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Biden to take effect.

EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, which coordinates the sprawling federal-state partnership to clean up the Bay and its waterways, would continue to be funded at $92 million through the end of fiscal 2024. About two-thirds of the Program’s annual budget funds grants for local cleanup projects in the six Bay states and the District of Columbia.

The Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) grant program would have its current funded level of $8 million extended through the rest of fiscal 2024. Administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, this competitive grant program supports community-led initiatives to restore and conserve fish and wildlife habitat across the Bay’s 64,000 square-mile watershed. 

The budget deal would also keep Army Corps of Engineers funding for large-scale oyster recovery efforts in Maryland and Virginia at $6.45 million. Both states are on track to finish projects restoring native oyster populations in 11 Bay tributaries (five in Maryland and six in Virginia) by the 2025 deadline set in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. 

In a win for Bay fisheries, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service would get $500,000 to control invasive blue catfish that are wreaking havoc on native species in the Bay. The department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would get up to $1 million to inspect wild-caught invasive blue catfish.

USDA’s Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program is slated to receive $3 million for grants to wild-caught catfish processors, to make it easier to bring these fish to market. The deal also includes language encouraging the federal government to purchase wild-caught catfish. 

Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement: 

“CBF is glad to see important programs that improve water quality, protect wildlife habitat, and support oyster restoration in the Bay and its tributaries spared from detrimental funding cuts. The Bay states are entering a new phase of the cleanup effort. Chesapeake Bay restoration programs need reliable funding from federal partners to tackle the challenges to come. 

“We are also pleased Congress recognized the urgent need to control invasive blue catfish before they overwhelm the native fisheries that anchor our region’s economy and culture. 

“CBF appreciates the hard work negotiating this legislation by lawmakers including House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Tex.), House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Appropriations Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), and House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.).”  

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Feb. 21 from states and industry groups trying to stop EPA from implementing its “Good Neighbor” rule. The rule requires upwind states to control ozone pollution that crosses state lines, which prevents downwind states from complying with federal air quality standards. 

Nitrogen oxides (NOx), a key ingredient in ozone pollution, contribute roughly one-third of nitrogen pollution degrading water quality in the Bay and its tributaries. Better known as smog, ground-level ozone is also a dangerous pollutant that is especially harmful to children, senior citizens, and people with heart and lung conditions. 

Air pollution from anywhere in the Bay’s 570,000 square-mile airshed ultimately endangers the health of the Bay, its waterways, and the more than 18 million people living in the Bay watershed. The airshed stretches from South Carolina north to Canada, and as far west as Indiana. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is represented by Earthjustice, and part of a coalition of environmental and public health groups that has been working to defend the Good Neighbor rule since it came out in June 2023.  

Ariel Solaski, CBF Director of Litigation, issued this statement about the case: 

“The health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and the people living in its watershed depends on clean air. This assault on the EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan puts public health at risk and undermines the progress being made restoring the Bay and its tributaries.” 

Legislation introduced in the Senate today would renew several federal programs essential to restoring the Bay and increasing public access to this natural wonder.  

The Bay-related provisions are part of a larger bill to reauthorize the America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Act. The historic, bipartisan conservation law was enacted in 2020.  

The America’s Conservation Enhancement (ACE) Reauthorization Act would extend and renew  funding for: 

• the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program, which coordinates the federal-state partnership to clean up the Bay and its tributaries, at $100 million annually through fiscal year 2030. The Program is currently funded at $92 million. 
• the Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Defense (WILD) matching grant program at $15 million annually. The program was created in the 2020 law and is currently funded at $8 million. It is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 
• the National Park Service’s Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Water Trails program at its current annual funding level of $3 million for the next five years. The program works with state and local partners to promote access to a network of historic sites, trails, parks, wildlife refuges, and museums across the watershed.  
• the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a competitive grant program that supports local communities’ efforts to clean up and restore waterways and wildlife habitat. 

Projects recently funded by these programs include restoring ancestral lands of Virginia’s Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe; converting a contaminated lot in East Baltimore into a community-friendly urban garden; helping the Lebanon County, Pa., Conservation District develop water quality improvement plans for the Little Swatara and Swatara Creek watersheds; and improving eastern brook trout populations in West Virginia’s Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. 

The bill was introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Bay state Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). 

CBF Federal Director Keisha Sedlacek issued the following statement:

“The Chesapeake Bay Foundation welcomes the Committee’s timely bill to renew the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act. This historic law supports several federal programs crucial to restoring the Bay, its waterways, its fisheries, and its wildlife. 

“EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are key partners in the federal-state Bay cleanup effort. As we enter the next phase of the partnership, it is essential they have the critical authority the bill would provide to help Bay states meet the challenges of the future. 

“CBF enthusiastically endorses this important legislation. We urge the Committee to act on it quickly and call on Bay champions in the House to act as well.”  

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) issued the following statement from Pennsylvania Executive Director Julia Krall, in response to Governor Josh Shapiro’s $48.3 billion General Fund budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-25.

As a final budget continues to take shape in the coming months, CBF is specifically calling for funding that could extend the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP), passed by the Pennsylvania legislature and signed by former Governor Tom Wolf in 2022.

The ACAP cost-share is part of the new Clean Streams Fund (CSF), with a comprehensive spending package of $220 million from the federal American Rescue Plan. The CSF dedicated $154 million to ACAP as investments to be passed through conservation districts and authorized conservation partners for local agricultural practices to reduce pollution to local rivers and streams.

The design of the legislation that created ACAP was a collaborative effort between CBF, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. The CSF and ACAP were introduced by State Senator Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming).

In response to Governor Shapiro’s General Fund budget proposal for fiscal year 2024-25, Ms. Krall said:

“The final General Fund budget that reaches the Governor’s desk needs to include funding that will extend the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program (ACAP) that is helping family farmers design and install conservation practices that keep soils and nutrients on the farm and out of the water.

“CBF is concerned that ACAP might dissolve if the initial investment of $154 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds through the Clean Streams Fund are spent by the end of 2026 and not replenished. It would be a horrible loss of opportunity and momentum for meeting Pennsylvania’s clean water goals.

“The ACAP cost-share is working. According to the State Conservation Commission in December, 66 conservation districts signed ACAP agreements and roughly $151 million has been committed to the critical work. 

“Additional funding in the 2024-25 General Fund budget would extend ACAP and allow it to seamlessly enter a new phase.  

“Increased and sustained investments of financial and technical resources in ACAP are essential to help farmers reduce pollution from agriculture. The health, economic wellbeing, and quality of life of all Pennsylvanians depend on it.”