Partnership
The Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional partnership that works across state lines to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. We bring government agencies, academic institutions and watershed organizations together to create a healthy watershed.
Who We Are
The Chesapeake Bay Program engages partners from across the watershed. We are led by the Chesapeake Executive Council, whose members include the governors of the six Bay states, the mayor of the District of Columbia, the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We are advised by the public, scientists and local officials. And we work with government agencies, academic institutions and watershed organizations.
How We’re Organized
Chesapeake Bay Program staff are organized into Goal Implementation Teams (GITs), which put the strategies in place to accomplish the goals and outcomes of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. These GITs are further organized into action teams, committees and workgroups, and are guided by the Management Board. The Management Board is guided by the Principals’ Staff Committee, whose members act as policy advisors to the Chesapeake Executive Council. To learn more, click on the boxes in the organizational chart below.
Goal Implementation Team
Advisory Committees
How We Work
The Chesapeake Bay Program uses a structured, iterative decision-making process known as adaptive management to accomplish its work. This process was adopted by the Principals’ Staff Committee in 2011 and named a core principle of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement in 2014. It allows us to make decisions in the face of uncertainty and to reduce this uncertainty over time. In following this decision framework, we learn while doing: we take action, monitor results, assess our progress and adjust our efforts as needed.
The Chesapeake Bay Program implements adaptive management on a partnership-wide scale through a structured process known as the Strategy Review System (SRS). During this process, the partnership reviews its progress toward the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement; identifies the management approaches and actions that are or are not working; considers the scientific, fiscal and policy developments that could affect future progress; and adjusts supporting documents as needed. ChesapeakeDecisions is a tool that promotes transparency and guides the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Goal Implementation Teams (GITs) and Management Board members through the Strategy Review System (SRS).
The framework below outlines the steps we must take to put adaptive management in place.
Contact Us
Our staff welcome your questions and comments. To offer feedback about ChesapeakeStat, send us a message. To reach out to a Goal Implementation Team, click on the appropriate box in the organizational chart above. To find a specific person, visit our staff directory or partnership directory, or call us at 800-YOUR-BAY (800-968-7229).