Conserving the Chesapeake Landscape

The Chesapeake watershed’s mosaic of protected lands, including 55 national parks and iconic national trails, such as the Appalachian Trail and Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail offer an opportunity for collaboration and large landscape-scale conservation. With 17 million residents and several of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas, water quality remains a critical issue for the Bay and its tributaries. A broad collaborative is taking place throughout the Chesapeake region to restore water quality, revive and sustain natural resources, and protect cultural landscapes using innovative strategies and national parks and trails as the catalyst for conservation.