Budget supports Bay access, buoys, treasured landscapes
February 2, 2010
The Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail praised President Barack Obama’s 2011 budget, which funds a Treasured Landscapes initiative and provides funding to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystems, improve public access to the Bay, and enhance efforts to monitor water quality.
“More people will enjoy and benefit from a cleaner Chesapeake thanks to the President’s strong support,” said David O’Neill, President of the Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail. “Protecting our most valuable landscapes, creating more access, and improving water quality will build a legacy for the future.”
O’Neill noted that the Treasured Landscapes Initiative ranks the Chesapeake with other major national restoration efforts, including the Everglades, Gulf Coast, and the California bays and delta.
The proposed budget for the Department of Interior includes $31.6 million for conservation work in the Bay region, which funds the Bay-related activities of the National Park Service (NPS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and United States Geological Survey (USGS). The President’s FY 2011 budget provides for an increase of $10.0 million over the 2010 enacted budget. If approved by Congress, the additional funding would be used to increase public access, improve wildlife habitat, and protect water quality. Specifically:
The NPS budget includes an increase of $1million, bringing to $2 million the fund to provide matching grants to State, local, and non-governmental partners, such as the Chesapeake Bay Gateway partners, concentrating on the Bay, Susquehanna River, and other major tributaries. The money would facilitate additional or expanded public access to the Bay and tributaries. In addition, NPS would assist partners in enhancing public interpretation and education of watershed resources and stories, strengthen heritage tourism within the region, and promote citizen stewardship of the Bay.
The USFWS budget includes an increase of $5 million, bringing to $19 million the funds to restore habitats, investigate the effects of pollution on wildlife, expand migratory bird and fish surveys, and expand opportunities for Chesapeake Bay-oriented wildlife observation and public education.
The USGS budget includes an increase of $3.6 million, bringing its total to $8.4 million to monitor and restore water quality, with particular concern for toxic chemicals effects on wildlife and fish.
The President’s FY 2011 budget also includes $500,000 for the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to maintain and improve the operations of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System. The buoys supply real-time water quality monitoring to scientists and others and provide interpretative information about the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. The agency plans to incorporate the information from the buoys into its Integrated Ocean Observing System and regional state and local water quality monitoring systems.
Other programs proposed in the budget also improve support for restoring the Bay.
The United States Department of Agriculture has designated the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a “high impact” target and included funding ($2.25 million) for the US Forest Service to protect forests in the headwaters of the Bay and for the Natural Resource Conservation Service ($72 million) for its Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiatives to help farmers implement practices that would improve water quality and restore, enhance, and preserve soil, air, and related resources. The Department aims to enroll almost 200,000 additional acres of wetlands for restoration in its various conservation programs.
President Obama’s 2011 budget protects open spaces, forests, and wildlife habitat by providing $619.2 million to the Land and Water Conservation Fund for key conservation and land acquisition programs in the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture. This includes $2.5 million for expansion of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and $1 million for the expansion of Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
