Chesapeake Bay Journal

Biofuels could eventually be a boon for the Chesapeake, with farmers growing hundreds of thousands of acres of nutrient-absorbing switchgrass and wastewater treatment plants using excess nutrients to raise crops of algae.

But those sources of biofuels-and the accompanying benefits-are still a long way from making it into the nation's gas tanks, according to a new report.

In the near future, most biofuel activity will focus on ethanol from corn, and will add to the Bay's nutrient pollution problems unless "extraordinary" efforts are made to control runoff, warned the report from the Chesapeake Bay Commission, an advisory group to state legislatures.

The report, "Biofuels And the Bay: Getting it Right to Benefit Farms, Forests and the Chesapeake," calls for dramatically ramping up spending on farm conservation programs to offset the increased pollution that will otherwise result as additional land is converted to corn production in the Bay watershed.

Gypsy moths taking bite out of Bay watershed's forests: Gypsy moth caterpillars chewed their way through more than 1 million acres of the region's forests this year, making it the worst outbreak of the exotic pest in more than a decade.

Report seeks greater efforts to manage pollution from development: The EPA and its Bay Program partners need to place more emphasis on controlling nutrient runoff from urban and suburban areas if they are to keep pace with the impact of new development, according to a federal report.

NOAA report finds most coastal areas suffer from excess nutrients: The vast majority of the nation's estuarine waters suffer from excess nutrients, and most are predicted to worsen by 2020 as populations in coastal areas continue to swell, according to a recent report.

Pace of dam removals accelerating across watershed: In mid-August, when river advocates gathered on the banks of the Rivanna River to announce the ongoing breaching of the Woolen Mills dam, they heard something unknown for nearly two centuries.

Invasive species will no doubt find this audit taxing: Everywhere one looks in Zeta Cross' yard, it's green, green, green, which is good. But let's get a closer view.

York River oyster project to test viability of aquaculture industry: In 18 months to two years, the mesh bags of baby oysters recently scattered into Virginia's York River could yield hundreds of bushels of market-size oysters-and herald a new way of doing business. To reach that point, the 2 million spat planted in August will have to survive the forces that have depleted stocks of the briny catch in the Chesapeake Bay-disease, pollution and, more recently, cownose rays.