Bay Restoration Plan a Success

A early 21st Century plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay has proven to successful as more than 1.2 million acres of land within the Bay watershed has been conserved.

Ten years ago, mid-Atlantic states hoping to restore the Chesapeake Bay pledged to conserve 20 percent of all land within the Bay watershed by 2010. Today, state leaders can say they did, with room to spare.

They set aside 1.2 million acres over the past decade, with Virginia preserving the most, and more than 7.2 million acres since the Bay cleanup began in the 1980s, according to government statistics.

That equates to 21.3 percent of all farms, forests, wetlands and historic sites within the watershed being off-limits to development, statistics show.

In his executive order last year, President Barack Obama vowed to keep the trend going, urging that another two million acres be shelved by 2025.

But with state budgets reeling and the federal treasury awash in debt, is that goal realistic?

A recently released study by two environmental organizations says the task will be difficult but is possible.

Conducted by the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Chesapeake Conservancy, the study takes a hard look at one of the key parts of reviving the Bay that gets little attention: land conservation.

Putting aside land keeps it from being torn up and developed, lowers any pollution that might flow off of it and provides habitat for wildlife. Even after an active decade of conservation, 58 percent of all land in the Bay watershed today could still be developed. Of that, most is forested.