At the Dawn of the Chesapeake’s Next Chapter, a Case for Brightening

The following was first published in Bay Journal.

I spent the end of 2025 the way I hope many of you did — gathering with loved ones, getting outside and reconnecting to what matters most. The days have been short on sunlight but full on life.

The space to take a breath and collect ourselves is rare these days. That’s what I love most about this time of year. Here in the dark folds of winter, we are at the beginning. Everything is possible.

The decades-long effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay is at a new beginning, too.

We have a freshly updated Chesapeake Bay Agreement that will guide restoration for the next 15 years. We have a new chair of the Chesapeake Executive Council: Gov. Josh Shapiro, who will be the first Pennsylvania governor in more than two decades to lead the 40-year partnership to clean up our estuary. And we have a level of buy-in from the region’s top elected leaders that we haven’t seen in years — despite an early season snowstorm, four governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia showed up to adopt the updated agreement in person. 

What’s next is up to us.

The agreement is less ambitious and less accountable than many of us had hoped. There’s no doubt the whipsaw of federal funding cuts to conservation and science, the loss of staff and threats to state budgets all curbed the desire and capacity to do more.

While we can acknowledge its shortcomings, we can also agree that it’s time to move forward and work together toward our common vision for a healthy Bay. When you’re in the depths of winter, it’s important to remember that the darkest time also marks the point when the world once again begins brightening.

Each of us can be a catalyst.

The Bay faces weighty challenges, among them climate change, pollution and declining fisheries. The agreement should not be seen as a limit on our vision or our work to address these problems but rather a foundation on which to build.

In the immediate term, leaders need to shore up that foundation by preserving the resources, staff and programs needed to meet their restoration commitments. States across our region face major budget challenges. But one of the key lessons we’ve learned from decades of restoration is that while funding alone is not a solve-all, progress and innovation stall without it. 

At the same time, this is a moment to think big. We can’t shy away from our toughest challenges.

We need to acknowledge our changing climate and ramp up the incredible success we’ve seen restoring oysters. We can and should expand this model to the other habitats and species that make the Bay resilient and productive.

And we must build durable solutions on land that finally address polluted runoff from farms, cities and new development, using the wealth of new data and science available to target pollution hotspots.

This is already taking root through creative pilot projects. That includes initiatives like Maryland’s Whole Watershed Act and the comprehensive restoration planning Pennsylvania is doing in places like Lancaster County. Both take a targeted approach to restore habitat, clean water and community benefits.

Another great example is Virginia’s new Pay-for-Outcomes program. It rethinks how to incentivize innovations that create real, measurable and cost-effective improvements in water quality.

We are still far from where we need to be. This is the fifth Bay Agreement and, after 40 years of formal restoration efforts, many of our collective goals aren’t met. But this time, we have the opportunity for a better outcome.

The Bay has brought an unprecedented group of people together — across state lines and political parties, across all walks of life and generations. For all we may disagree on, we agree on the importance of this place. We agree it is vital to our region’s economy, heritage and common identity. We agree it is worth saving.    

We shouldn’t underestimate the power of that.

Collectively, we have a long track record of accomplishing things that people once believed impossible: drastically reducing the amount of sewage and air pollution finding its way into our waters; establishing unprecedented, legally enforceable pollution limits across six states; completing the largest oyster restoration project in the world; creating environmental education standards and opportunities that are among the best in the country.

We must not downplay these achievements or think of them as low-hanging fruit compared to present challenges. None of them was easy at the start. Just because we have not yet solved a hard problem does not mean we will not.  

There’s momentum around Chesapeake Bay restoration that I haven’t seen in years. Momentum, combined with better data about where pollution is coming from, means we can finally solve a generations-long challenge. But only if we follow through on the current moment with action, only if we stick together and amplify the voices of problem-solvers at a time when it seems everything is designed to tear us apart.

At the dawn of a new year, each day the sunlight lasts a little bit longer. The world gets a little bit brighter. What might be possible if we begin the work of brightening, too? The future is ours to illuminate, ours to create.