Bay Journal

Al Todd named executive director of the Alliance

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is excited to announce the hiring of Albert H. Todd, a longtime partner and ally, as our new executive director. Please join us in welcoming Todd at either our Taste of the Chesapeake Event on Sept. 15 at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, or at the sixth annual Chesapeake Watershed Forum, our annual gathering of watershed groups and local governments which takes place Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in Shepherdstown, WV.

Todd has an extensive professional history in Bay watershed issues and solutions. Most recently, he served as the Chesapeake Bay team leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Environmental Markets and as assistant director to the Forest Service for Ecosystem Services and Markets. In those roles, he coordinated activities aimed at measuring and valuing the services that nature provides, such as clean water, and in developing markets that can foster greater investment in watershed and ecosystem restoration and protection.

In recent years, Todd has also worked with the EPA on policies and strategies that support the use of water quality trading and offset programs to meet the targets of the Bay's "pollution diet" or total maximum daily load.

Before his most recent positions, Todd had a long career in national watershed management, focusing on the Chesapeake Bay in particular. After more than a decade with the U.S. Forest Service in California, he spent nearly 16 years with the Chesapeake Bay Program, where he led a diverse set of initiatives aimed at improving watershed health through the conservation, restoration and stewardship of trees and forests. These efforts included programs for restoring riparian forest buffers, expanding urban tree canopy and protecting forests important to drinking water supply.

Todd also worked closely with state foresters and their staff to improve forest sustainability and has routinely built diverse partnerships to address watershed and forest issues at the national, regional and local scales.

Todd brings a wealth of experience in cultivating relationships with federal and state agencies, nonprofits, businesses, communities and landowners on projects that demonstrate creative approaches to conservation.

The Alliance looks forward to his leadership as it continues existing efforts and programs and embarks on new ones that move us toward a restored Chesapeake Bay.

Chesapeake Watershed Forum

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay invites watershed organizations and local governments to the sixth annual Chesapeake Watershed Forum, which takes place Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV.

The forum's workshops, networking opportunities and social activities are designed to keep watershed organizations and local government up-to-date in the latest advocacy tools, emerging issues concerning the Chesapeake Bay, land preservation and conservation, restoration science, and organizational-capacity building skills. Chesapeake Websprint will return for a second year to help organizations create a website in just one weekend. The keynote speaker is Tim Palmer, award-winning author and river photographer. Two pre-forum workshops - Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing & Woods in Your Backyard - will be offered this year from noon Sept. 29 to noon Sept. 30.

The forum registration fee of $200 includes meals from Friday lunch to Sunday lunch and two night's lodging (Friday and Saturday). No lodging rooms are available on-site Thursday night. Those who must arrive early will find plenty of hotels in the Shepherdstown/Harpers Ferry/Hagerstown area. The pre-forum workshops fee of $100 includes one night's lodging (Thursday) and meals (Thursday lunch to Friday lunch).

For registration details, go to https://allianceforthebay.org/?page_id=1946.

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