PROTECTING THE BAY: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE?

By H.S. Parker

In late 2022, 196 countries committed to the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect the earth’s wildlife and natural environments. The U.S. helped draft the Framework and broadly supports its goals but is not yet a signatory. Target 3 of the Framework calls for protecting and managing 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. Known as “30X30,” this goal is the strongest pledge for conservation that the world has ever seen. For context, only 17% of land areas and 8% of marine areas are currently protected. 

The Chesapeake Conservancy is leading an effort to adopt 30X30 for the watershed of Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. The initiative would complement an ongoing multiagency and multi-organizational effort to protect unique natural areas around the Bay and make them available to the public. These protected areas include parks, refuges, nature centers, unique historic and cultural sites, and wildlife management areas. More than nine million acres – over 20% of the watershed – are now permanently protected from development. State agencies manage half of this land; the federal government controls over 20%; and local governments and private organizations, including land trusts, administer the remainder. 

Protection is important, but so is access. The Chesapeake Bay watershed comprises more than 64,000 square miles in six states and the District of Columbia. The Bay’s convoluted shoreline stretches 12,000 miles, almost half of the earth’s circumference. Enough access to the Bay for everyone, right? 

The answer is no. The watershed is home to 18 million people but most shoreline land is privately owned. Thus, for many, access to the water means a potentially expensive trip of an hour or more to a public, Bay-side location that may be teeming with people (think Sandy Point State Park, near Annapolis, on a sunny day in mid-July). The problem is particularly acute for low-income, urban communities, especially those of color.

Government and private entities are trying to address this access problem. For example, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways program of the National Park Service is working with the Trust for Public Land, the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership, and other organizations to find ways to connect more people to the Bay. 

These initiatives pale in comparison with a recent bold proposal to substantially expand public access and recreational opportunities along Chesapeake Bay, while simultaneously protecting natural areas. In July 2023, a bipartisan group of mid-Atlantic-area U.S. House and Senate legislators introduced the Chesapeake National Recreation Area (CNRA) Act. The CNRA would be a component of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park System (NPS). Essentially a new national park, the CNRA would comprise a network of existing and new public natural areas and waterways along the Bay’s shores. The NPS would be authorized to manage existing protected areas and to acquire new properties. The agency would also prepare a CNRA management plan, to include transportation planning.

The CNRA Act unanimously passed the U.S. Senate in November 2024 but failed to advance in the House in the 118^th Congress. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) reintroduced the legislation in April 2025 and there are high hopes for its ultimate enactment.

As the CNRA Act advances, we would be wise to consider the experience of the existing U.S. National Parks system. Often referred to as “America’s best idea,” the parks are currently facing unprecedented challenges as they try to balance public access with protection of unique natural areas. The principal challenge is overcrowding. In 2024, 332 million people visited National Park sites, an increase of over 20 percent since 2007. This occurred even as funding and park staffing numbers declined by similar amounts. The resultant impacts have been predictable: traffic jams, insufficient parking, damage to vegetation and wildlife, human injuries, even increases in crime. In one observer’s words, we are “loving parks to death.” 

A Chesapeake National Recreation Area need not face similar challenges. A well devised and executed management plan, specifically adapted to the Chesapeake Bay region, and developed in close partnership with existing Bay-area agencies and organizations, can ensure that the CNRA will provide an enjoyable experience for all, with minimal damage to the sites’ fragile natural resources. Above all, the CNRA will require sufficient, dedicated, consistent, and long-term funding.

We can only hope.

Henry S. Parker is a scientist and writer who previously lived in Annapolis and now resides in Vermont.