Chesapeake Bay Journal

Blue skies are fine, but urban forester Jay Banks looks forward to the day that the skies of Leesburg, VA, look a lot greener.

In November, Leesburg became the first town in Virginia and the seventh in the Bay watershed to become an official partner in reaching the Chesapeake Bay Program urban tree canopy goal.

“My personal hope is that trees start to be considered as an asset to the community, instead of a liability,” Banks said. “Once that happens, we’ve turned a corner.”

The state-federal Bay Program announced the tree canopy goal in a 2003, as part of a directive that focused mainly on restoring forested areas along streams and rivers. But the directive also emphasized increased tree canopy in developed areas—calling for specific canopy goals to be set for 15 cities—where few opportunities exist for restoring streamside buffers to the recommended width.

There's still hope for the Anacostia in spite of all the strikes against it: When the national anthem is finally played in the new baseball stadium rising along the banks of the Anacostia River, long-suffering fans of the Washington Nationals may have to use one hand to hold their hats over their hearts—and the other hand to hold their noses.

Scientists hope to get Bay's oyster restoration rolling with reef balls: Faced with a declining supply of oyster shells and an increasing demand for oyster reefs, scientists are exploring a new way to provide habitat: prefabricated oyster homes.

Exurban development sprawling across watershed's landscape: Beyond the suburbs, yet apart from the countryside, is a familiar realm with a less-than-familiar name: the exurbs.

Volunteers flock to tree planting at Virginia Important Bird Area: Sometimes if conditions are right, a series of ideas will converge, and much like a network of small streams, pick up velocity and become a mighty force just like the river they are intended to serve. That’s what happened in the lower James River this year, as a 20-acre tree planting project designed to quell a serious erosion problem at Presquile National Wildlife Refuge flowed naturally into a collateral effort aimed at designating that stretch of river as a globally significant area by the National Audubon Society.

CBF gives Chesapeake Bay a D for 2006, its highest grade ever: The Bay’s health was scored at 29 on a 100-point scale in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s most recent “State of the Bay” report—the highest mark ever given by the environmental group. Nonetheless, the Bay still got a “D” grade.

Loss of biodiversity a threat to future of world's fisheries, report says: A new study argues that the loss of biodiversity threatens the ability of the world’s oceans and coastal areas to maintain healthy fisheries, a team of scientists said in a recent article published in the journal Science.

ASMFC approves menhaden cap for the Bay: The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in October approved a five-year annual cap on the commercial menhaden harvests in the Bay of 109,020 metric tons, a number derived from the average of harvests from 2001–2005.

Officials are anything but crabby over inability to find foreign invader in Bay: Fishery officials this fall issued the equivalent of an “all points bulletin” in their search for an unwanted alien. But they were pleased to not find their suspect—a foreign crab.

Executive Council gets new members, leader after elections: When Maryland voters went to the polls to elect a new governor in November, they unknowingly selected a new leader for the Bay cleanup effort as well.