NPS And Partners Working Towards A Healthier, More Accessible Chesapeake Bay

On a partly cloudy August morning, my two children and I were launching our kayaks into the Blackwater River in Maryland, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, when we spotted a blue crab just beneath the water at the river’s edge. Sitting comfortably in some mud, and almost hidden by a marshy sedge called Olney’s three square, the crab smoothly sidled away from our kayaks as we paddled by. I wondered how many more of these “beautiful swimmers”—as author William Warmer famously called them—were there beneath the water, out of sight.

It turns out that there are about 405 million of them in the Chesapeake Bay, according to the July 2020 findings of the Chesapeake Bay Stock Assessment Committee, which performs an annual survey of crab populations. In an August blog post, Chris Moore, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s senior regional ecosystem scientist, noted that while current numbers represent a drop from the estimated overall crab population in 2019, which was 594 million, and the number of adult females, an important indicator of overall population health, dropped from an estimated 191 million to 140 million in the same time frame, crab populations are fairly consistent with previous recent years, particularly 2013 and 2018.

“In general, the population has been more robust since a new bay-wide management plan was agreed to in 2008,” Moore stated in the blog post. “One of the best indicators of this increased abundance has been the fact that we have been above the target abundance for adult female blue crabs twice since 2008, after exceeding it just once between 1990 and 2008.”

The largest estuary in North America, the Chesapeake Bay is a national significant, biologically rich, and economically productive waterway--and the heart of a 64.000-square-mile watershed. In his journeys through the bay between 1607 and 1609, Captain John Smith wrote that the bay interior “may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places known, for large and pleasant navigable rivers, heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation.” But the bay has also, at times, been one of the most polluted watersheds in America, with ecological “dead zones” that were first discovered in the 1970s. Since then, however, the bay has rebounded into a mostly healthy and productive ecosystem, the result of federal, state, local, and nonprofit partnerships, including significant National Park Service involvement, that have worked towards the watershed’s protection.

Most lovers of the Chesapeake know that, as the watershed goes, so goes the crabs. Blue crabs have long been the centerpiece of a historic and valuable commercial and recreational fishery. In 2019, commercial crabbers hauled in about 61 million pounds of blue crabs from the bay and its tributaries--up slightly from roughly 55 million pounds in 2018, according to the July 2020 report, and recreational crabbers reaped about 3.8 million pounds of crabs in 2019, similar to the previous year.

Ecologically, the crab is a vital part of the ecosystem, serving as forage for many species of fish and birds. Although current population numbers mean the crab population is holding steady, CBF’s Moore says more still needs to be done to ensure the long-term health of the bay and the plant and animal species that rely on it. Reducing the level of nutrients and polluted runoff from farms and lawns before it reached the bay’s tributaries, mitigating climate change and the weather changes it engenders, and improved water quality all would continue to boost the bay’s health.

Although there is not, as yet, a comprehensive national park unit devoted to the Chesapeake Bay, the National Park Service maintains a strong presence in the region, maintaining a Chesapeake Bay office that works closely with state agencies as part of the Chesapeake Bay Program, formed in 1983 to coordinate ecological restoration efforts, as well as the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, a public-private partnership of parks, refuges, museums, water routes, and more.

As part of this work, NPS also oversees the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, established in 2006 as a series of water routes that trace the explorer’s navigations. Operated as part of Colonial National Historical Park, trail staff have placed particular emphasis on telling the stories of indigenous people that interacted with the bay historically and who still do today, through several ongoing tribal connections and partnerships. “We also do a ton of paddling programs that get kids on the water and connect them with that historical water-based experience,” says Kym Hall, Colonial superintendent. “We ask them, ‘What does the health of these waterways have to do with the history? What does the health of these waterways have to do with what’s happening here today?’ There’s a strong nexus.”

NPS also works closely with the Chesapeake Conservancy, which advocated for the establishment of the water trail along with other sites and park expansions along the bay (such as the Mallows Bay National Marine Sanctuary). The Conservancy is now working to promote the creation of the Chesapeake National Recreation Area.

“Most of the great landscapes in the nation have some representative national park unit,” says Conservancy President Joel Dunn, “but the Chesapeake Bay—one of the largest environmental restorations in the world, the largest estuary in North America—does not. We believe that a national park unit will create more public access, which is absolutely a driver for creating conservationists, while celebrating Native American history, Black history, our watermen, and more. We hope it will be an international and national spotlight on the Chesapeake Bay.”

This month, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan sent a letter to Maryland Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen advocating for legislation to create a Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area, and Van Hollen is reportedly interested in taking the lead on crafting the bill. “Maryland is fortunate to have several exceptional [national park] units located here, but there is no one unit devoted solely to the Bay,” Hogan wrote. “I believe the Chesapeake is as grand as the Grand Canyon and as great as the Great Smokies and should be included in a new federal-state partnership.”

In a similar letter sent in August to Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam wrote that “Established as an official unit of the National Park System, a Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area would elevate the Chesapeake Bay and bring additional national and international recognition. More importantly, it would bring greater National Park Service expertise and resources to the Chesapeake Bay area and restoration efforts, and establish more public access points to the bay itself.”

Kym Hall remembers that, years ago, the stories about the Chesapeake were always about how to bring the bay back to health. “To think about shifting that narrative to ‘It’s so awesome here that you want to come play and recreate,’ that feels symbolic of recovery,” she says.

“The NPS logo holds a lot of weight,” Dunn says. “My dream and vision is to generate significant private philanthropic funding to support the national park. I think it would bring together our community in a positive way, and it would be a great response to the Covid crisis. It would be a great response for the call for equity in our community. There’s a legacy element to this that’s really important to me. I want future generations to appreciate and enjoy the Chesapeake like we have.”

Note: Beginning on National Public Lands Day (Sept. 26) and continuing through November 14, the Chesapeake Conservancy is sponsoring its first-ever virtual footrace called “Champions for the Chesapeake.” Funds from the race will support efforts to establish the Chesapeake National Recreation Area. A link to registration can be found at www.chesapeakeconservancy.org.