Originally created by the “Chesapeake Bay Agreement of 1983," the Chesapeake Program now includes all seven bay jurisdictions (Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and the District of Columbia), the Chesapeake Bay Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency as well academic, federal, and nonprofit partners. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement(*1), signed in 2014 by Governor McAuliffe and his counterparts on the Chesapeake Executive Council(*2), expressed a renewed commitment to bay restoration, enumerated specific goals, and laid out concrete benchmarks for evaluating progress. Actionable management strategies were subsequently developed for each area and are in the process of being implemented through workplans developed by expert staff and approved through the partnership’s Management Board.

Taken on the whole, evidence indicates an upward trajectory in the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Unless otherwise noted, the information contained in this report were drawn from ChesapeakeProgress(*3) and the annual “Bay Barometer"(*4), both designed and maintained by Chesapeake Bay Program to facilitate oversight, management and public engagement towards meeting the goals and outcomes contained in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.

Virginia agencies, led by the Secretary of Natural Resources, are full participants in the various committees, workgroups and other entities charged with the development and implementation of the goals and outcomes of the agreement.
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(*1) http://www.chesapeakebay.net/documents/ChesapeakeBayWatershedAgreemenetFINAL.pdf
(*2) https://www.chesapeakebay.net/who/group/chesapeake_executive_council
(*3) http://www.chesapeakeprogress.com/about
(*4) https://www.chesapeakebay.net/what/publications/bay_barometer_health_and_restoration_in_the_chesapeake_bay_watershed_2015_2