The Whole Watershed Act is a swift and proactive response on behalf of the Maryland General Assembly to innovate approaches to regulating and supporting the health of the Chesapeake Bay watershed (“Summary of the Whole Watershed Act of 2024,” April 16) .
It is heartening to see scientists, legislators, and regulators working together to bring evidence-based reasoning to new forms of watershed governance. He sees two strengths in the new approach. It would localize the scale at which projects are conceived and implemented and empower people who live, work and play on waterways. The second strength is targeting the multiple benefits and outcomes of clean water, not pollution reduction per se, but targeting other important characteristics of healthy watersheds, such as recreation, waterway access, and healthy fisheries. The need for an integrated project.
The Center for Environment and Society (CES) at Washington College prepares the next generation of environmental managers and change agents through interdisciplinary, field-based learning. The center's Natural Lands Project has transformed more than 2,000 acres of marginalized farmland across the Eastern Shore into diverse natural meadows, wetlands and forests to increase diversity and improve water quality. .
Our Chesapeake Place program strengthens regional connections with students and communities who come together to promote cultural and natural resource preservation and planning. The center is now widening its research to include food systems and regenerative agriculture, recognizing the rich potential of agriculture in the region.
Because sustainability is central to our mission here at the University of Washington, CES recognizes this bill as a timely project that brings together natural science and cultural research to improve, evaluate, and understand our position in the watershed. We believe this is an opportunity to propose an interdisciplinary educational research project. We are excited to see what comes next for the Chesapeake Bay region and are willing to work to be good stewards and citizens who live and work in this unique natural resource.
— Valerie Imbrus and Beth Choate, Chestertown
The authors are director and vice director, respectively, of the Center for Environment and Society at the University of Washington.
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