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GERALD WINEGRAD: WHAT THE CHESAPEAKE BAY IS REALLY TELLING US | COMMENTARY
Maryland’s Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain recently posted an op-ed, “What the Chesapeake Bay is trying to tell us.” The secretary left many gaps, omitting what the bay is really telling us. First, the Chesapeake is loudly telling us now and has been for decades that it is not its warming waters that are the major…
Read MoreGERALD WINEGRAD: NATURE IS THE BEST PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTH AND LONGEVITY | COMMENTARY
As we plunge into the New Year enveloped in grey wintry weather and heightened socio-economic and political stress, let us seek relief in nature, a cure-all for distress, anxiety and depression.
Evidence of the need for this natural balm is everywhere. Suicide is a major national public health problem with U.S. suicide rates among the highest of wealthy nations. In 2024, the U.S. suicide rate was 15.6 per 100,000 people, 26th highest of 183 countries and well above the world average of 9.2. By comparison, our neighboring nation of Mexico is at 7 and Canada has a 9.4 rate.
GERALD WINEGRAD: WEAK NEW BAY AGREEMENT IS DEATH WARRANT FOR CHESAPEAKE | COMMENTARY
The agreement has been politically sanitized to appear as if meaningful plans are being made, when actually it is a major setback.
Read MoreGERALD WINEGRAD: FOREST DESTRUCTION STILL THRIVES IN BAY REGION | COMMENTARY
When forests are destroyed and fragmented by development, agriculture and timbering, their ecological services and economic benefits may be lost if timbered land is not reforested or allowed to regenerate. The EPA-led Bay Program and scientists connected with bay restoration have recognized the incredible importance of forests to a healthy bay, especially streamside forested buffers.
Read MoreDECLINE OF UNDERWATER GRASSES IMPEDES BAY RESTORATION | COMMENTARY
Remarkably, Maryland DNR’s Brooke Landry, their SAV program chief and chair of the Bay Program’s SAV Workgroup, touted the SAV data with the greenwashing that pervades bay restoration: “Despite many environmental pressures on the Bay, we continue to see signs of resilience and recovery in our underwater grasses. The increases in SAV acres observed in three of the four salinity zones this year are truly a testament to the effectiveness of long-term nutrient reductions and collaborative restoration efforts.” Really?
Read MoreCOMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE DRAFT 2025 CHESAPEAKE BAY WATERSHED AGREEMENT
The Draft omits references to the most critical commitment of the Bay states and EPA in the 2014 Watershed Agreement—to meet the TMDL and fully implement each state’s WIP. This omission tarnishes the entire process as this TMDL has guided restoration for 15 years, and supposedly still does. Meeting the reductions in N,P,S is the most important commitment in the 2014 Agreement as well as its predecessor, the 2000 Bay Agreement.
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