The Renewed Agreement II IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY REGION IN 1999
The Chesapeake Bay Program officially recognized the
importance of community watershed organizations to the
restoration of the Bay and its living resources in 1997 when the
Chesapeake Executive Council signed the Community Water-
shed Initiative. The Bay Program fleshed out the initiative in
1998 with adoption of the Community Watershed Initiative
Strategy.
New Community Watershed
Task Force Established
In 1999, the Bay Program further committed itself to partner-
ing with and supporting community-based efforts to protect and
restore the Bay system by forming the Community Watershed
Task Force. The role of the task force is to implement the strat-
egy. Currently, the task force includes representatives from eight
regional and local watershed groups, as well as federal, state
and local government representatives from throughout the Bay
watershed.
The task force identified several initial priorities, including:
•	Assessing the needs of community groups and the needs
and interests of other Bay Program partners in working
with community groups;
•	Packaging existing Bay Program tools and resources for
communities;
•	Conducting outreach to communities about Bay Program
goals and how they translate to local rivers and streams,
as well as about the resources available to protect rivers
and streams; and
•	Promoting opportunities for collaboration and coordina-
tion among the Bay Program's subcommittees and part-
ners as they work in communities.
Survey Names Top Concerns
In July, the Bay Program's Community Watershed Task
Force issued a survey to more than 290 organizations in the Bay
watershed. The purpose of the survey was to assess the needs
and interests of the growing number of community watershed
groups and to identify their top concerns. The survey attracted
84 responses or a 29% response rate. Overall, the survey
showed that these groups are active in restoration, pollution
prevention and planning activities. The top two issues identified
as concerns were protecting drinking water quality (81%) and
conserving/restoring rivers and streams (74%>). Respondents
Top 5 Issues Identified by Organizations
also said that while they are very concerned about the quality of
their local rivers and streams, they are less concerned with the
overall health of the Bay (46%>).
Funding is the type of assistance most sought after by these
organizations, according to the survey. However, the groups also
identified needs for:
•	Technical assistance and guidance, especially with pollu-
tion prevention and restoration projects;
•	Assistance with the production of outreach materials;
•	Training for outreach and organizational development;
and
•	Equipment and materials, especially plants, trees and
seeds for riparian buffers and stream bank restoration
projects.
Bay Program Responds with Clearinghouse
The survey results will help to shape the work of the task
force by identifying gaps and generating interest in the goals
and commitments of the Bay Program. As a result of the survey,
the Bay Program is creating a clearinghouse to facilitate part-
nerships and mentoring among watershed groups and among
Bay Program partners and watershed groups. The clearinghouse
will be designed to connect those local watershed groups with
specific needs and interest areas to those groups with expertise
and resources in those areas. This web-based clearinghouse will
be available in 2000. For more information, contact Amanda
Bassow, (410) 267-5723.
Issue	% of Orgs
1.	Protecting drinking water quality	81 %
2.	Conserving/restoring rivers and streams	74%>
3.	Preventing natural disasters (e.g., flood control) 65%
4.	Protecting/restoring wildlife and habitat	63%>
5.	Maintaining/restoring commercial and/or	60%>

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Small Watershed Grants Program UnderWay Website Highlights Communities
The Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program com-
pleted its first full year in 1999. The program provides small
grants to organizations working at the local level to protect and
improve watersheds. The purpose of the grants program, which
is funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is
to demonstrate effective techniques and partnership building to
achieve Chesapeake Bay objectives at the small watershed
scale. In 1998, the program awarded $650,000 in grants to
37 community groups and local governments throughout the
Bay watershed. Projects ranged from creating a greenways plan
for the Tunkhannock Creek watershed in northeastern Pennsyl-
vania, to developing tools to educate landowners about soil
erosion in Annapolis, Maryland, to demonstrating the benefits
of a constructed wetland in a low income community in
Norfolk, Virginia. For more information on Small Watershed
Grants, call Karen Hester Abrams of the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation, (202) 857-0166.
The new Bay Program website, www.chesapeakebay.net,
features information on the entire Bay watershed, as well as
the local watersheds that help to support the region. It also has
several resources that will assist community-based organiza-
tions. Those resources include:
•	Bay Atlas: Allows users to customize maps of their
watershed using various data available through the Bay
Program, including land cover, submerged aquatic
vegetation, and some water quality data.
•	My Watershed: Uses Bay Program data to generate
profiles of watersheds at a range of scales, from large to
small. The profiles include a map of the watershed and
graphs depicting population trends, land cover and nutri-
ent and sediment pollution information. The profiles also
help users find Bay Program-funded restoration projects
in their watershed; the local public access sites to the Bay,
rivers and streams; local businesses that are pollution
prevention partners in the Businesses for the Bay program;
and local watershed groups that are active in the area.
•	Community Resources: An annotated listing of resources
available through the Bay Program and its partners, in-
cluding specific contact information.
For more information on the Community Watershed Initiative, t
sotowww.chesapeakebay.net - -> ^7*'
on the Bay Program website.	m.
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