The State Of The Chesapeake Bay 1995

The Chesapeake Bay restoration effort has been touted as the nation's premier environmental restoration program. Yet the Bay and the living systems it supports remain in dismally poor condition, with fisheries in decline and drinking water in danger. This book addresses the Chesapeake Bay as a political problem and reveals how the political process has worked against the interests of science, the public, and environmental advocates all at once. Author Howard Ernst shows that the forces driving environmental degradation are sown deeply into the political soul of America, posing menacing challenges to those fighting to restore large ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay. The book serves as a political roadmap for the future, suggesting how a different course of policy action is needed to 'Save the Bay.'

The Chesapeake Bay Program was created in 1983 when MD, PA, VA, D.C., the Chesapeake Bay Comm., & the EPA agreed to establish a partnership to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Their most recent agreement, Chesapeake 2000,Ó sets out an agenda & 5 broad goals to guide these efforts through 2010 & contains 102 commitments that the partners agreed to accomplish. This report examines: (1) the extent to which appropriate measures for assessing restoration progress have been established; (2) the extent to which current reporting mechanisms clearly & accurately describe the Bay's overall health; (3) how much funding was provided for the effort for FY 1995 through 2004; & (4) how effectively the effort is being managed. Charts & tables.