Chesapeake cleanup and climate goals often match - Baltimore Sun

Chesapeake cleanup and climate goals often match

In his recent commentary, “Accelerating restoration of the Chesapeake Bay”(Dec. 4), Adam Ortiz of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency meticulously outlined four decades of progress in the Chesapeake Bay restoration, highlighting both successes and challenges. He aptly concluded that our generation’s responsibility is to build upon past achievements while addressing shortcomings collaboratively as a united, bipartisan, multi-sector Chesapeake team.

We echo this call for perseverance and propose that we recognize a pivotal opportunity to align bay restoration efforts with our pressing need for climate action. Renowned as Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), ecosystem-based approaches aim to restore habitats, enhance biodiversity, improve agricultural productivity and protect communities from heat, floods and storms. NCS and Chesapeake Bay restoration converge on the common ground of emphasizing the crucial role of investing in environmental restoration and conservation.

The urgency to act is underlined by the Chesapeake region’s vulnerability to climate impacts including faster-than-average sea-level rise, widespread extreme precipitation events and heightened urban temperatures — impacts disproportionately affecting disadvantaged communities.

Investments in increasing stormwater management capacity, wetland restoration, land conservation and ensuring marsh migration as sea levels rise present significant opportunities to enhance resilience while improving water quality. Despite lagging behind other restoration goals, increasing the pace of wetland restoration could be the single-most effective investment for building climate resilience.

Conservation and biodiversity protection stand out as the most effective and cost-efficient climate solutions. The Chesapeake Bay Program’s 2025 goal for land conservation, successful in protecting an additional 1.7 million acres of land since 2010, sets a positive precedent. Looking ahead, investments in protecting intact forests in rapidly urbanizing corridors and expanding the protection of fragile coastal ecosystems promise substantial returns for both climate and bay restoration.

Uniting the communities engaged in bay restoration and climate action is imperative to leverage collective expertise and garner support for investments at federal, state and local levels. As we approach the post-2025 phase of the Bay Program, incorporating and adopting climate goals becomes paramount. The Chesapeake Bay Program’s unique scale, employing restoration and conservation approaches across millions of acres, has the potential to serve as a global example.

Let’s unite the communities of practice in Chesapeake Bay restoration and climate action, strategically focusing efforts for tangible, rapid results. Innovation and scaling are our keys to success.

— Joel Dunn and Mark Conway, Annapolis

The writers are, respectively, president and CEO, and executive vice president of Chesapeake Conservancy.

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