 Environment
Natural Ecology
The Chesapeake Bay is comprised not only of the tidal waters
in the Bay itself, but of all the waters flowing into the
Bay from throughout the 64,000 square miles of the watershed.
That watershed extends from and includes the salt water of
the Atlantic Ocean entering from the south, to the fresh rainwater
falling as far north as Cooperstown, New York where the Susquehanna
begins; from Chester River headwaters in Delaware on the eastern
shore, to the Alleghenies in Virginia and West Virginia.
Before European settlers began to arrive here some 400 years
ago, the lands of the Chesapeake Bay watershed were largely
in a natural state. Forest covered 95 percent of the land.
Wetlands covered over 3.5 million acres and underwater grasses
are estimated to have covered 600,000 acres.
These resources - forest, wetland, underwater grasses -serve
to regulate the flow of rainfall running off the land and
to filter the contaminants out of it as it moves into and
through the streams and rivers to the Chesapeake Bay. Well-managed
farmland can also function as a natural filter.
When development converts these resource lands to roads,
buildings, even lawns, their ability to filter runoff is reduced
while, at the same time, the rate and volume of runoff increases.
There are many technical methods for handling contaminated
runoff; however, the most cost-effective and least disruptive
is to preserve, maintain, and restore natural lands, particularly
those closest to the water's edge.
|
