Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse would become part of the Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area / Wikipedia

This week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously to advance the Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area Act out of committee. This will move the legislation to the Senate floor for a vote. 

Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen sponsored the measure which would turn much of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia into the Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area. This particular plan has been in the works since at least 2021 when Van Hollen put together a working group composed of Maryland and Virginia lawmakers and a handful of conservation groups to draft language for the measure. 

“In Maryland, we know the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “And creating the Chesapeake National Recreation Area will celebrate that fact while also bringing major benefits to the Bay. Not only will this open up more equitable public access to the Bay, the (Chesapeake National Recreation Act) will also mobilize additional federal support for restoration, shine a light on the untold stories of its history, and support greater economic opportunity in the region,” the senator said.

The bill as written would allow the National Park Service to acquire land voluntarily transferred by landowners primarily, though the Park Service would immediately take over a handful of sites within the proposed recreation area boundary (see here). The Park Service does currently maintain some sites within the proposed boundary as national monuments. 

If the legislation gets full Congressional approval, the Park Service, which now can only assist local and regional conservation and tourism organizations, would take over sole administration of the Chesapeake Gateways and Watertrails Network. 

Funds to turn the nation's largest estuary into a unit of the Park Service and to maintain the unit would come from the Department of Interior's annual budget. 

“Thanks to Senator Van Hollen’s leadership, this is a great day for the Chesapeake Bay, with another step forward in the four-decade effort to establish National Park Service recognition for the nation’s largest estuary,” Chesapeake Conservancy President and CEO Joel Dunn said in a statement. “The Chesapeake Bay is as spectacular as Yellowstone or Yosemite, as great as the Great Smokies and as grand as the Grand Tetons.”