One thing is clear: This year had more than its fair share of challenges. As we wade deeper into the climate crisis, 2023 saw deadly floods, heatwaves, and storms and is on track to be the hottest year on record. At the same time, we’ve seen hope and innovation (and no, we didn’t use AI to write this). It’s been no different for the Chesapeake region and the people and creatures that call this place home. In this month’s newsletter, we look back at our most popular stories from this complex year. A major new scientific report assessing Bay restoration highlighted what has and has not been working in our fight to save the Bay. Iconic fisheries like striped bass continued to struggle while others are on the rise. Regenerative agriculture—and its deep roots—offered ways of working the land that are critical for restoring ecological balance and clean water. CBF Education celebrated 50 years of inspiring 1.5 million people on the water while our advocacy teams celebrated major clean water wins. Our dedicated volunteers built healthy, resilient shorelines and community; and families found connection and meaning in this watershed we share and love.
Readers’ Choice
Dean Thomas Harrison
The Future of Bay Restoration
Dozens of watershed scientists recently wrote a joint report assessing the challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort and how to accelerate progress. Virginia Senior Scientist Joseph Wood breaks down five of the report's big takeaways and how they could shape the future of watershed restoration as we know it.
Schooling striped bass, also known as rockfish.
iStock/stammphoto
Fish Favorites
The worrisome trend of a struggling striped bass population, a modest improvement in blue crabs, bright spots for the Bay’s oysters, and the clean, cold water critical to Pennsylvania’s beloved trout—are some of our most popular stories of the year revolving around the region’s iconic fisheries.
Generations of the Wilson Family have called this stretch of land along the Yeocomico River home since 1877.
Emmy Nicklin/CBF Staff.
Family Legacy on the Yeocomico
“It is a place steeped in the history of one family’s nurturing of mother nature’s watershed treasure.” So says CBF Board Chair Otis Jones of a special part of the world at the edge of the Yeocomico River in Virginia’s Northern Neck. For 146 years, the Wilson family has called this land and water home—a rare thing for a Black family in the south.
Editors’ Choice
Thelonius Cook grows a variety of crops using his family's traditional agricultural practices on his 7.5-acre farm, Mighty Thundercloud Edible Forest, on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Thelonius Cook
Deep Roots
Tens of thousands of years ago, farmers of color around the world pioneered what many agronomists and conservationists now call regenerative agriculture—farming in ways that restore ecological balance. But while modern science is catching on, some Indigenous and Black farmers worry it is losing the emphasis on community, social justice, and healing.
CBF students are active learners, hauling fishing gear aboard the Bea Hayman Clark education workboat to sort and study what lives in the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Jay Fleming
Learning for Life
This year, CBF Education is celebrating 50 years of bringing students, teachers, policymakers, and community members outside to learn through its award-winning programs. Vice President for Education Tom Ackerman reflects on education's role in creating a lasting culture of environmental stewardship and giving people the tools to solve the complex challenges facing our watershed and our society.
A muddy group of volunteers celebrate progress on a living shoreline project in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Sue Mangan
Building Shorelines and Community
What happens when dozens of people volunteer together one summer to restore a tidal shoreline? They not only help save the Bay—they end up creating community. That's what happened in Portsmouth, Virginia, this summer as 90 volunteers installed a 718-foot living shoreline over the course of 10 weeks, building up oyster reefs and marshes along the waterfront.
Don Runyon
Top Clean Water Wins
From the passage of historic forest legislation in Maryland to unprecedented investments in clean water in Virginia, advocates like you helped secure some big Bay wins this year. Overall, thousands of Bay savers took 22,000 actions for clean water and healthy communities in 2023. Bravo!
In the News
- Smallest dead zone on record: This year, the Chesapeake Bay dead zone was the smallest since monitoring began in 1985 according to data from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Old Dominion University, and Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
- Maryland DNR Announces new striped bass emergency regulations: CBF supports these actions to help bolster the species’ struggling population.
- CBF names Chris Moore as new Virginia Executive Director: Since joining CBF in 2005 as a Science Advocate, Moore has led a host of advocacy, policy, and technical support efforts for Chesapeake Bay fisheries and water quality restoration.
- Hampton Roads Land Conservation Summit: Virginia’s United Land Trusts, Wetlands Watch, and CBF hosted key stakeholders to discuss sea level rise, water quality, and resiliency solutions in the low-lying Hampton Roads region.
What You Can Do
- Get your Bay wildlife fix! Check out our most popular video clips on social media this year, including a heron eating a crab(!), a sea turtle making a guest appearance on a CBF education experience, horseshoe crabs mating, and adorable goslings leaping from their nest by the Bay.
- Explore what you made possible in our 2023 Impact Report!
- Strong action is needed now to ensure a more abundant and healthy striped bass population in the future—and you can help. Take action before December 22!
- Legislative sessions are right around the corner and things move quickly. Stay up to date by joining our SMS Action Network.
- Now through December 31, your gift to save the Bay is worth DOUBLE. Give today to have your donation matched dollar-for-dollar by CBF's Board of Trustees.
