Getting to the Water: The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Public Access Plan

In 2013 the National Park Service and its state partners released the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Public Access Plan, a survey of how people can reach the streams, rivers and bays of a watershed spanning parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Carrying it out would increase the places where people can get to the water by more than 20 percent by 2025.

Where it came from

In May 2009, President Obama's Executive Order 13508 on protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay asked the Department of the Interior to recommend ways to widen public access. The strategy that followed a year later set a goal of 300 new access sites by 2025 and called for this plan.

The plan lists the existing public access sites identified by partners and citizens, and in an appendix the new sites suggested at public meetings in Washington, D.C., Richmond, Baltimore and Harrisburg and through an interactive online map.

Key findings

• There are 1,150 documented public access sites for launching boats, fishing, swimming or looking out over the bay and its rivers.
• Long stretches have little or no access: nearly 60 miles of the south side of the tidal James River have none, and there are long gaps on the Rappahannock, Potomac, Susquehanna, Nanticoke and other rivers and along the bay shore.
• Study after study, including every state's outdoor recreation plan, shows strong public demand for more access.
• Citizens identified 320 specific potential sites, over half of them on public land.
• Boat launches are the most requested; fewer than half of today's sites have a launch or landing for boats or paddlecraft.
• Demand is often highest in and around cities.
• Many potential sites lie along existing water trails or national historic trails, which can bring strong local support.

What it does

The plan sets out joint actions to move access projects forward and guides how to rank and fund them. As the executive order requires, its recommendations were coordinated with citizens, state and local partners, non-governmental organisations, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network, and sites along the Captain John Smith Chesapeake and Star-Spangled Banner national historic trails. A Public Access Action Team with members from every watershed state, the NPS Chesapeake Bay Office and the Chesapeake Research Consortium produced it. Download the full plan.

Sources

• National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay, "Chesapeake Bay Watershed Public Access Plan." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cb-public-access.htm