It was a bad sign last spring when Bob Orth answered the phone and the words spilled out from the other end. “Where did all the grass go?” The… Read Story
Just five decades ago, Elliott Island on Maryland’s Eastern Shore was a global hotspot for avid birders who wanted to add the diminutive Easte… Read Story
Several new scientific discoveries give hope that eastern hemlocks will not go the way of chestnut, elm and ash trees and largely disappear fr… Read Story
Six years ago, a young, emaciated sei whale that normally inhabits the deep waters of the Atlantic was spotted swimming erratically in tidal r… Read Story
Bald eagles don’t need a long runway to take flight, but they appear to enjoy hanging out on one anyway. Read Story
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a sweeping conservation measure that provides continued support for several key Chesapeake Bay … Read Story
Crawdad, crawfish, crayfish. No matter what you call the crustaceans, the rusty crayfish, an interloper from the Ohio River watershed, has bec… Read Story
Facing a tight deadline and a global pandemic, state biologists swooped in to preserve Virginia’s largest colony of nesting seabirds. Read Story
From Virginia to New York, residents of the Chesapeake Bay watershed were hit with a deluge of water in mid-July 2018. And it wasn’t just anot… Read Story
Overwhelmed by record high flows and warm temperatures, the Chesapeake Bay’s vast underwater meadows last year suffered their largest drop sin… Read Story
Over three decades, barges will unload the same amount of dredged material along the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay off Maryland’s Eastern Shore… Read Story
In the late 1970s, the treetops of the James River looked like a ghost town. Despite plenty of suitable habitat where bald eagles could have b… Read Story
He was known by a number in life. In death, he became a statistic. Read Story
On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, an evergreen forest that’s never ventured so far north is slowly gaining a toehold in fields where until recently… Read Story
Ruffed grouse, a strikingly beautiful bird that symbolizes wildness, is in trouble across its native range, including states in the Chesapeake… Read Story
When black skimmers, royal terns and other migrating seabirds return to South Island this spring, they will be greeted by a fresh layer of pavement. Read Story
A novel plan to refurbish an old waterfront park near Baltimore with sand and silt dredged from the harbor has received its first major infusi… Read Story
It’s hard to imagine a world without birds chirping outside in the morning or during a stroll in the woods. But a new study has found that bir… Read Story
A team of researchers studying dolphins in the Potomac River got unexpected fruit from their labors last month when they witnessed a dolphin b… Read Story
Frosted elfin butterflies aren’t much to look at. Their 1-inch wingspan and brownish-gray wings give them the appearance more of a moth than a… Read Story
The “green” plan for the new shopping center carved from a historic farm in Lancaster County, PA, looked impressive on paper and in the newspa… Read Story
Portions of the Chesapeake Bay’s underwater grass meadows appear to be headed for steep declines this year, a delayed response to the torrenti… Read Story
The Trump administration announced sweeping regulatory rollbacks Monday to the Endangered Species Act, drawing outcry from environmental group… Read Story
A federal court has overturned a permit needed for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to continue its path across West Virginia and Virginia, where s… Read Story
The roadsides, rest stops, interchanges, traffic islands and even urban intersections across Pennsylvania may soon look a little more unkempt … Read Story
On a cold morning last February, Bob Schutsky looked out the dining room window of his home along the Susquehanna River in southern Lancaster … Read Story
Federal and Maryland authorities are seeking the public’s help to track down whoever poisoned at least nine bald eagles in two locations on th… Read Story
The imperiled eastern hellbender, a creature most people consider ugly and few Pennsylvanians have ever seen, became the state’s official amph… Read Story
Who loves Baltimore these days? Bald eagles, that’s who. A white-headed adult pair has set up housekeeping at Masonville Cove, a restored wetl… Read Story
Ospreys are a familiar sight on the edges of the Chesapeake Bay and in the tidal reaches of its tributaries, as abundant as sailboats on a sun… Read Story
The Virginia Environmental Endowment is handing out the first round of grant funds in a multiyear program to benefit the James River — and “pr… Read Story
The Trump administration has once again called for deep cuts in federal funding for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, despite failing twice before t… Read Story
It’s been a tough season for waterfowl hunters around the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s going to get even tougher next season. Read Story
A string of recent court decisions has left the future uncertain for a sprawling natural gas pipeline project cutting its way across some Ches… Read Story
The Chesapeake Bay region has received $13.1 million in grants for environmental projects from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Na… Read Story
Maryland’s pioneering law to restrict the sale and use of insecticides implicated in honeybee die-offs had a bumpy debut this year. Spot check… Read Story
The spotted lanternfly, an exotic insect that feeds like a vampire on the sap of fruit orchards and hardwood trees, has been detected for the … Read Story
This article is Part 4 of our special report, The Bay's Pollution Diet: Is it Working? See also: Part 1, Chesapeake cleanup may lose race to … Read Story
The diminutive Eastern black rail, an elusive marsh-dwelling bird that has nearly disappeared from the fringes of the Chesapeake Bay in recent… Read Story
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hiring a new manager at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, sparing a natural area popular with hunte… Read Story
When Larry Bannerman was a kid, he and his friends used to go crabbing in a cove off Bear Creek, a tidal tributary of the Patapsco River that … Read Story
A national wildlife refuge that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year to the Chesapeake Bay may be forced to close to the public soon. Read Story
It’s a little past dawn on a foggy spring morning, but already the field on Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore is wide awake. From the cover of ta… Read Story
Buoyed by a resurgence in aquatic grasses and water-quality upticks in several rivers, the Chesapeake Bay remained moderately healthy in 2017,… Read Story
Some Bay Journal readers have wondered what became of Harriet, an osprey nesting in Masonville Cove in Baltimore that last summer was fitted w… Read Story
This spring, when pods of dolphins crossed the threshold into Chesapeake Bay waters, the scientists were ready for them. Read Story
As construction begins on Dominion Energy’s transmission line across the James River near Virginia’s Historic Jamestowne, almost $15.6 million… Read Story
One of the federal permits required to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through three states and a portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed wa… Read Story
April showers bring May flowers — and mosquitoes. This spring, a team of researchers with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental … Read Story
When Marcellus Shale drilling came to Pennsylvania state forests, it brought a few hitchhikers along — invasive plants. They got a free ride i… Read Story