Chesapeake Bay Foundation
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[edit] The Chesapeake Bay Foundation
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), the United States' largest regional conservation organization, is dedicated to protect and save the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers. Since 1967, it has worked to "Save the Bay" by reducing pollution to improve water quality
Supported by more than 196,000 active members, CBF is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, with additional offices in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Its programs include environmental advocacy, environmental education, and habitat restoration throughout the Bay watershed (primarily central Pennsylvania, Maryland, and eastern Virginia).
Target issues for CBF include:(
- the reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from sewage treatment plants, agricultural runoff, urban and suburban stormwater, and industrial sources throughout the watershed;
- enforcement of existing environmental regulations;
- farmland preservation and sustainable land-use planning;
- better management of key species like crabs, rockfish, and oysters; and
- increased funding at the federal, state, and local levels to implement these objectives.
Throughout its 40-year history, CBF has sought to inform and engage both citizens and elected officials, demanding that adequate public and private investment be made to save the Bay. The foundation has achieved significant milestones in the struggle to arrest the decline of the nation's largest estuary and to restore its health. CBF has mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers for oyster, wetland, and forest restoration, and trained millions of students and teachers in the field and in the classroom. The landmark EPA study of the Chesapeake Bay in the 1970s, the Chesapeake 2000 agreement setting specific regional goals for water quality improvement, Maryland's historic sewage treatment bond bills in 2004, and Virginia's unprecedented financial commitment to water quality improvement in 2006 have been important strides towards CBF’s ultimate goal.
During the last several years, the urgency of CBF's mission has been underscored by major national and international reports that point to pollution and aquatic dead zones around the world as the leading environmental problem of this century. The rapid rise in population in the Chesapeake watershed -- now approximately 16 million, and growing by 100,000 persons per year -- reinforces the need to implement scientific solutions in the region to address present and future water quality.
CBF has a staff of approximately 165 full-time employees. Nearly 80 percent of its budget of comes from private philanthropic and membership contributions.
To learn more about CBF and its programs, visit cbf.org
