We must save the forest to save the Chesapeake !

Written by Gerald Winegrad, The destruction of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem began more than 400 years ago with the clearing of forests and later, the filling and draining of wetlands. About 66% of our tidal and freshwater wetlands were destroyed, including thousands of acres drained with federal and state funds to create farmland. The Eastern Shore…

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Protecting Forests and Increasing Buffers to Restore the Bay and Local Rivers

(Posted by Dawn Stoltzfus.)

With all the recent focus on the Chesapeake Bay TMDL and local WIPs, here’s something that may have flown under the radar of Marylanders following Bay restoration efforts: the Maryland Sustainable Forestry Council is developing a set of legislative proposals to achieve a “No Net Loss” of forests in Maryland, due by December 1, 2011. It seems like we could easily be losing sight of the forest for the trees!

Last week, former Maryland State Senator Gerald Winegrad testified before the Council. As Senator Winegrad notes in his testimony [link], “the Sustainable Forestry Council can greatly assist in efforts to restore the Bay by focusing on nonpoint source pollution as forests and wetlands are the greatest protectors of the Bay from pollutants.”

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