Restoring watersheds project by project: trends in Chesapeake Bay tributary restoration
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چکیده
over marine waters, fueled primarily by several highprofile ocean commission reports and news coverage of coastal dead zones (POC 2003; USCOP 2004; MSNBC 2005). Special attention has been paid to coastal fisheries, generating heated debates over the need to relieve pressure on populations through harvesting restrictions and habitat set-asides and to reduce non-point source pollution that broadly impairs coastal fisheries (Boesch and Greer 2003). In the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW), inter-state agreements to clean up the Bay and restore fisheries have existed for over two decades. The 1987 Chesapeake Bay Agreement included provisions to address non-point source pollution by reducing nutrient and sediment loadings by 40%, thereby acknowledging that restoration of the estuary would require watershedwide implementation efforts, including tributary plans. Specific goals and policy recommendations related to fish passage and riparian buffer restoration were subsequently added to this agreement. However, it wasn’t until the 2000 Chesapeake Bay Agreement that provisions were formulated for the development of guidelines focusing on the aquatic health of stream corridors and local watershed management planning efforts. In October 2004, recommendations for new water-quality goals, state-level tributary “clean-up” plans, and methods to finance the Bay restoration were announced by the Chesapeake Bay Program, the regional government partnership that directs Bay restoration activities (CBP 2005). Individual states within the watershed have now developed plans that include estimated costs for efforts aimed at improving water quality, such as urban and rural stream restoration, forest buffers, and wetland restoration projects, and affiliated best management practices (CBP 2004a; CEC 2004). The call for tributary strategies for all regions of the CBW is encouraging, particularly since the desire to 259
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تاریخ انتشار 2005