Celebrate the Bay with me at the Environmental Leadership Awards

Written By: Will Baker, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

I will be honored to represent the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as we receive the Chesapeake Champion Award from our close partner and friend, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.

Thanks to our long history of collaboration, we’ve made great strides to further protect this national treasure. There’s a lot more work to do, but thanks to supporters like you, we will continue saving the Bay.

As CBF finishes its 50th year, we celebrate progress. But we are not looking back!

Our goal is a saved Bay that is the model for environmental restoration worldwide.

We must accelerate pollution reduction, further protect and restore vital natural filters and habitat, and utilize the very best, science-based fisheries management possible. We are pleased that our bi-annual State of the Bay health index score has increased again, this time by over six percent, to a C−, better than the D+ from 2014 but still a grade that is far from acceptable.

The science is clear, and it has drawn a clear road map for saving the Bay. Now, more than ever, when the Pruitt EPA is trashing sound science, all of the states in the watershed must embrace it. They must hold to their promises to achieve specific pollution-reduction targets by 2025.

Our elected and appointed leaders need to build on the momentum and do everything in their power to succeed. The fate of America’s most iconic national treasures is at stake.

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday night.