ANNAPOLIS, MD – During an Eastern Shore “Bay Day” tour, Governor Wes Moore today announced a major policy shift in how Maryland will deploy state resources to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways to restore the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays. At points throughout the day, the governor was joined by Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 Administrator Adam Ortiz, and various state, local, and federal officials to learn more about the impact of policies on local communities and industries.
“Our administration is focused on working in new and collaborative ways to reduce the pollution reaching our bays and providing our local communities and farmers with the opportunities and resources they need to succeed,” said Gov. Moore. “Now is the time to embrace the lessons we’ve learned in the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays over the past 40 years and evolve our strategy to reflect that.”
Under the Moore-Miller administration, Maryland will become the first state in the Bay watershed to embrace the latest scientific recommendations to improve our land and clean our waterways, taking a proactive healthier waterways that are more accessible for Maryland’s communities, more resilient to climate change, and benefit the important industries that depend on the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays.
To support the effort, Governor Moore signed two executive orders and outlined plans to provide more places for people to safely swim, better protect coastal areas from climate change, and increase fish and crab populations to improve economic opportunities for watermen and the state’s seafood industries.
“The bay belongs to all of us, and it’s on all of us to protect it,” said Lt. Gov. Miller. “Today’s announcement solidifies our administration’s plan to ensure Maryland does its part to make our coastal bays a thriving ecosystem for future generations. Whether it’s farmers, homeowners, boaters, or business owners, our approach invites every Marylander to be a part of the solution to keeping our waterways clean.”
Speaking at Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area in Queenstown, the governor signed a new executive order to create the Governor’s Council on the Chesapeake and Coastal Bays Watershed, renaming and restructuring the former Governor’s Council on the Chesapeake Bay, or Bay Cabinet, which was first formed in 1985. The restructured council will be charged with coordinating and accelerating the restoration of the state’s waterways with a collective goal to create healthy watersheds that benefit the environment, economy, and communities.
Maryland will focus water quality improvement projects in specific areas with the most potential to improve wildlife habitat and populations and bolster shorelines from rising sea levels.
“The new focus on increasing wildlife habitat will help striped bass and blue crab populations recover. Our ongoing effort to plant 5 million new trees in Maryland during the next decade will add new streamside buffers along rural and suburban areas as well as increase tree canopy in our cities to prevent polluted runoff and cool temperatures,” said Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz. “As rising sea levels and stronger storms due to climate change threaten Maryland, we’ll be looking to expand marshes and reconnect streams and rivers to their floodplains to mitigate flooding threats.”
At the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science at Horn Point, Gov. Moore signed a second executive order to establish the Oyster and Shell Substrate Task Force. The diverse task force was created to develop a proactive plan to keep and purchase oyster shells to ensure the state has enough hard surface to increase oyster abundance in the Bay.
Gov. Moore also traveled to J.M. Clayton Seafood in Cambridge, where he met with leaders and discussed issues surrounding the Bay’s blue crab industry.
The tour finished in Easton at a regenerative agriculture farm owned by Paul Swann, where the governor viewed best practices to help reduce agricultural runoff.
What a scam. A ton of grants for saving the bay. If you were in charge of grading it…would you ever give it an A if that meant the money would be cut off….probably not.
The shellfish in the pictures look very healthy to me. The Chesapeake Bay should get an “A” rating from the Bay Foundation, but never will due to a reduction in funds if the bay is too healthy.
Maybe the governor will come to Salisbury and take a ride on Mill Street. What a f**king joke that street is. It would be smoother is was just dirt.
If it’s anything like his alphabet people program or his crime prevention program, no thanks. I think we’d be better off on our own without his help.
We must have diversity in our Bay Improvement Strategy!!!
This crook needs to make the STATES that their waterways empty in the BAY pay their fair share instead of constantly charge Maryland citizens more money each year. It is a proven fact the top of the BAY is dead because of the other STATES such as PENNSYVANIA water ways draining into the BAY along with other STATES. This IDIOT needs to know his geography instead of his DEMON politians. he was elected by by these idiots and is derelecting his SWORN DUTY to work for all citizens of MD and not just his political hacks which are the DEMON DEMOCRATS in the I95 BALTIMORE – DC corridor.
PA, one of the biggest polluters the bay has
More money for them to party up and take vacations on the taxpayers money.
Can’t wait for his plan to make MD #1 in wind turbines by lining the CB with them 🙁
This Ef’n new governor is a dirty POS!!