Our Strategic Plan

2025 Deadline

Federal, state, and local governments will fully enforce the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts and all other laws and regulations that are essential to the health of the Bay. Efforts to undermine these existing federal laws will be repelled.
The Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint, the precedent-setting program for pollution reduction, will remain in place, with full implementation completed by 2025. This will achieve the equivalent of a 40 on CBF’s State of the Bay health index. The additional loads brought about by climate change and other factors will be quantified and addressed.

2025 Outcomes:

1. Broad recognition that the Bay is a national treasure.
2. Saving the Bay is a national priority, as demonstrated by the full implementation of the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint.
3. 10 billion oysters will be planted in the Bay and its tributaries, supported by the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance.
4. 10 million new trees will be planted in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership.
5. 1 million Voices for Clean Water will take action, particularly at the federal level, to demand clean water for the Bay.
6. CBF’s programs, board, staff, and supporting constituency are diverse, reflecting the demographic profile of the region.

Strategies:

CBF will continue to defend and implement the Blueprint across the watershed, ensuring full implementation by 2025.

Pollution flowing down the Susquehanna, exacerbated by increasingly intense storms, may overwhelm progress made thus far by Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia unless addressed. CBF will ensure the increasing pollution challenges caused by climate change are addressed while vigorously fighting to repel legislation and regulation that stands in the way of meeting the 2025 Blueprint goals.

Building on core capabilities and programs, CBF will achieve the goals of the Making History campaign (10 billion oysters in the Bay, 10 million new trees in Pennsylvania, and 1 million individual actions taken) in an effort to defend and implement the Blueprint across the watershed by 2025.

Programmatically, CBF will:

1. Educate—CBF will educate strategic and diverse stakeholders, opinion leaders, elected and appointed officials, school administrators, teachers, and students about the imperative of clean water.
   Education will serve as a means to student and citizen engagement and behavior change.
2. Advocate—CBF will advocate for the defense and implementation of the Blueprint utilizing our team of scientists, lawyers, and policy experts. We will engage decision makers, the general public, and CBF members in efforts to ensure that good laws and regulations are developed, introduced, passed, retained, and enforced.
3. Litigate—CBF will use litigation to ensure Blueprint implementation, and to expose and rectify the most egregious cases of non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
4. Restore—CBF will natural filters in order to achieve demonstrable, specific, on-the-ground water quality improvements. When conducting restoration work on private land, CBF will make every effort to encourage the landowner to advocate for Blueprint implementation.
5. Diversify—CBF will diversify our staff and Board to enhance our ability to save the Bay. We will connect with and engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Consistent with our mission, we will incorporate concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice across all strategies.
6. Innovate—CBF will innovate new methods and programs for engaging citizens, reducing pollution, and fully achieving the Blueprint goals.