Chesapeake Bay. December 10, The bay's health and its ability to meet our needs depend on clean water. That's why so much of our work focuses on using nature and natural filters like forests and wetlands to help reduce pollution in the streams and rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. Our team collaborates across six states - 64, square miles of streams and rivers, forests, farms and cities β to protect and restore the bay. Your support will mean cleaner water, healthier habitat and more abundant life in the Chesapeake Bay.
Wetlands play a critical role in Chesapeake Bay water quality by slowing freshwater entering the bay and trapping nutrients and sediment. Making a real impact on bay water quality requires bringing back some of the 1. In Delaware, the funds will help TNC to restore over 60 acres of wetlands in the Great Cypress Swamp in partnership with Delaware Wild Lands and Ducks Unlimited adding to acres of previously restored cypress and Atlantic white cedar wetlands.
TNC will leverage this year Virginia partnership to engage private landowners along the Rappahannock River in conservation programming. This remarkable project saw over 2 billion oysters planted over acres. Not stopping there, we then launched an effort in partnership with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and University of Maryland to measure the pollution reduction ability of the oyster reefs as they grew over the next two years.
Using a web-based model, the study found that the restored reefs have the potential to remove one million pounds of nitrogen from the Chesapeake Bay over a decade. In addition, the restored reefs are able to filter the full volume of Harris Creek in less than ten days during summer months. The study shows that oyster restoration is an important and cost-effective addition to the suite of approaches that make up Bay recovery efforts.
What makes this such a smart investment is not just the role oysters can play in water quality, but also the numerous co-benefits that come with a healthy reef. In we completed construction on an additional 10 acres of reef. What does that number represent?
