Contacts
Michael Shultz
(410) 972-2470
MAY 12, 2009 -- The Friends of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake Trail welcome and support today’s Presidential Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Protection, which recognizes the Bay’s landscapes and ecosystems and the need to conserve them.
“We commend President Barack Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for recognizing the environmental and cultural value of conserving the Bay’s spectacular landscapes and ecosystems,” said Charlie Stek, Chairman of the Board of the Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail. “We pledge our support to the federal partners and the Governors of the Bay states to expand public access and to conserve landscapes and ecosystems of the Chesapeake’s watershed.
The executive order directs all the departments and agencies to work with the Department of Interior to develop a plan to expand public access to the Bay from federal land, to identify landscapes and ecosystems valued for their historical, cultural, ecological, or scientific worth, and to develop options for conserving these landscapes and ecosystems. The plan is to be coordinated with the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network, and the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail.
The executive order also requires federal agencies involved in the bay restoration to provide clear program goals, measures of success, and strategies for restoring water quality, increasing public access, and conserving landscapes and ecosystems. It forms a Federal Leadership Committee to coordinate this work. The committee would be made up of senior officials from federal departments and agencies involved in the bay restoration, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Interior, Homeland Security and Transportation, and would be headed by Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa P. Jackson.