Park Service, citizens discussing whether to include bay in system.
ANNAPOLIS, MD.-The National Park Service (NPS) is considering whether to include portions of the Chesapeake Bay in the National Park System, an action many consider a key element in maintaining the bay as an ecologically viable estuary.
The Chesapeake Bay Special Resource Study will explore whether NPS should help do more in the partnership effort to conserve the bay, considered the largest and most complex estuary in America.
The agency has presented six initial concepts for how bay resources might be represented in the park system. Congress directed the Park Service to study the feasibility of the idea. The study will not lead to the Chesapeake Bay becoming a stand-alone national park, officials said. At most, NPS will consider whether it is appropriate to include selected bay resources in the park system. The bay's 4,479 square miles include more than 50 rivers and thousands of miles of shoreline. Its watershed spans six states and Washington, D.C.
NPS recently gathered comments from public meetings on the study.
"Generally, people were quite supportive of the study," said Jonathan Doherty of NPS. "They gave thoughtful feedback on the six initial concepts we presented, and interesting new ideas."
The initial six concepts are:
- A historical area or reserve composed of a small, traditional bay town or community.
- An aquatic ecological preserve representative of the bay's estuarine environment, centered on open bay systems with parts of the adjacent shoreline.
- An ecological and cultural reserve representative of the bay's estuarine environment and human interaction with that environment over time.
- An ecological and cultural reserve representative of a cross-section of the bay watershed, but focusing on a single bay tributary, from upland to open bay and island.
- One, or a series of, educational and interpretive centers to enhance understanding and interpretation and provide a central bay location for visitors.
- A series of natural and cultural preserves representative of the bay's estuarine land environment, centered on uninhabited islands and aquatic open bay waters.
The study could be finished by summer, at which time a recommendation will be sent to Congress. NPCA has long suggested that the Chesapeake Bay become part of the park system.
More public workshops will take place in the spring. For more information, visit www.chesapeakestudy.org, or call 410-267-5725.
