Don’t Veer Off Course on Chesapeake Bay Restoration
The Chesapeake Bay is Maryland’s greatest natural treasure and one of our most valuable economic assets. In order to improve the environmental health and economic viability of the Bay, we must employ a multitude of techniques. One of those techniques is restoring oyster populations.
Why? Take a look at the video below.
See that? That’s right, not only do oysters support jobs, they also act as natural filters in the Chesapeake Bay.
The effort to restore native oyster populations in the Chesapeake Bay has been an uphill battle. Years of pollution, disease, development and overharvesting have taken their toll on oyster populations and the Bay itself..
The good news is that we’re turning the tide. For years, we’ve been working to bring federal, state and local interests together to figure out how best to restore oysters in the Chesapeake Bay — and to act upon that strategy. This collaboration is working. Up and down the Chesapeake Bay, we are securing funding and implementing plans to bring oyster back. In September, we reached a major milestone in our attempts reestablish oysters in Harris Creek, the largest successful oyster restoration project in history.
Since the project started in 2011, the partners have collectively planted 2 billion seed onto 350+ acres of reefs in Harris Creek. A minimum of 5 feet of navigational clearance was left overtop of every reef, to avoid interfering with navigation. Seeded reefs now cover 8 percent of the 4,500-acre Harris Creek oyster sanctuary.
- Maryland Oysters: Hope in a Half Shell, Sep 16, 2015
The bad news is that there are efforts underway to scuttle the momentum generated by years of research, planning and hard-fought federal funding. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is now asking the Army Corps of Engineers to halt an oyster restoration project in the Tred Avon River near St. Michael’s, Md.
The Tred Avon is one of three Maryland waterways targeted so far for large-scale oyster restoration under a joint state-federal plan. It is an ambitious plan to restore a species that’s population has plummeted to less than one percent of historic levels due to diseases, over-harvesting and an excess of sediment in the Chesapeake. Maryland and Virginia both pledged to work to rebuild reefs and protect oysters in 10 bay tributaries by 2025 as part of a multi-state Chesapeake Bay watershed agreement signed with the federal government two years ago. The Tred Avon’s restoration reefs are expected to cost $11.5 million.
Environmentalists have criticized the delay. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation suggested the Hogan administration is backsliding on the state’s commitment to restore oysters. Federal officials and Maryland’s two U.S. senators say they fear the delay could drag out and possibly derail the overall restoration effort. In a letter Tuesday to Baltimore Corps commander Col. Edward P. Chamberlayne, Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski warned the delay could undermine the restoration effort’s benefits and may jeopardize federal funding to carry it out.
- Watermen Seek, Win, Halt in Tred Avon Oyster Restoration Project- Tim Wheeler and Rona Kobell, Jan. 13, 2016
Last week, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski and I sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District expressing concern about the recent State of Maryland request to delay the next major phase of project implementation in the Tred Avon, where eight acres of oyster reefs are ready to be restored under a plan that aims to improve almost 150 total acres. You can read the letter below.
Make no mistake, this is a step in the wrong direction. Not only does this move by the State of Maryland needlessly delay progress, it unnecessarily risks the forfeit of the federal funds that make the restoration work possible.
I will continue working with state, local and federal officials, as well as watermen and scientists, to get us back on track. Visit the link below to help me do just that.
