When Was The First Chesapeake Bay Agreement Signed

In 2000, Bay Partners signed Chesapeake 2000, a comprehensive agreement that provides a clear vision and strategy for restoration efforts by 2010. Chesapeake 2000 set 102 goals to reduce pollution, restore habitats, protect living resources, promote sound land use practices, and engage the public in the restoration of the bay. It was also the first Bay Agreement to focus on ecosystem-based fisheries management. The success of Chesapeake 2000 was mixed. The agreement laid the foundation for restoration efforts in the 2000s and beyond. The Bay Partner Program has achieved significant restoration gains in some areas, such as . B land protection, restoration of forest buffer zones and reopening of fish passage. However, limited progress has been made on many other health and recovery measures, including oyster abundance and reducing nutrient pollution from agriculture and urban areas. This is the fourth agreement in the program`s 30-year history. The first Chesapeake Bay Agreement was signed by Governor Thornburgh in 1983. Governor Casey signed the second agreement in 1987 and Governor Ridge signed the third agreement in 2000.

The agreement identified adaptive management as a fundamental principle. Adaptive management is a process that supports decision-making in the face of uncertainty, reduces uncertainty over time, and responds to change. The Chesapeake Bay Program implements this process through the Strategy Review System, which is documented on ChesapeakeDecisions. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signs the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement with the State of Maryland, the Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the District of Columbia and the Chesapeake Bay Commission. The unilateral agreement recognizes the need for cooperative measures to clean up the bay, but does not include any requirements or timelines. This concept was formally adopted in 1984 when Governor Harry Hughes received approval of the Critical Areas Program, in which state and local governments oversee coastal development in the bay watershed. Perhaps the most important date for the clean-up of the bay was the signing of this first agreement in December 1983. The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement set the first numerical targets for reducing pollution and restoring the bay`s ecosystem.

Among other things, the agreement aimed to reduce the entry of nitrogen and phosphorus into the bay by 40 per cent by the year 2000. .

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