About the Trail

President Obama Calls for Conservation of Bay's Landscapes
The Friends of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake Trail welcome and support the May 12 Presidential Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Protection, which recognizes the Bay’s landscapes and ecosystems and the need to conserve them. Read more

Help Us Improve Public Access to Our Nation's Waterways
As Congress begins to reauthorize the highway/transit bill, you can help us make the case to Congress for better public access.

Send us examples of Federal or State maintained roads or bridges that have guardrails or other barriers to accessing water for paddling or fishing. Please complete our survey here.

Congress Considers More Smart Buoys:
We Need Your Help!
Congress is considering a plan to extend the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS), the state-of-the-art buoys that monitor the health of the Bay along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Currently, six CBIBS buoys mark the trail and provide scientists with water quality information needed to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

NOAA has identified 20 areas throughout the watershed where there are observational needs and your continued support in securing these funds brings us an important step closer to achieving that goal.

Thanks to your vital letters of support last year, Congress provided NOAA with $500,000, which will be used to deploy two buoys this summer. These buoys will enhance our understanding of the biological, physical and chemical processes across the Bay and its tributaries and support the educational components of the John Smith trail.

This year we are asking our friends to urge members of Congress to provide funding for five additional buoys- two in Virginia, two in Maryland, and one in Delaware--as part of NOAA’s budget in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

Please help! The Trail needs your support!

Please click this link for a draft letter of support to send to your Members of Congress for buoy funding. To ensure a quick delivery, please fax the letters). Please click this link to find their contact information.

Lastly, please fax or email a copy to us (443-482-2806; tbarrett@conservationfund.org), so we can ensure that the appropriate Congressional staff see these important letters. Thank you for your outstanding support.

More Trail Updates & Events

Join the Adventure

Want to know where the best fishing is?
Find out from John Page Williams--angler, author, and naturalist. More >>

Stay informed about trail events and National Park Service planning. Sign up for our enewsletter, join our network on Facebook, and explore this website.

Photo credits: Bill Portlock, Ian Plant