After five decades of Chesapeake Bay conservation, we're on a mission to engage new communities, plant more trees, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Since 1971, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay has united communities, companies, and conservationists to improve the lands and waters of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. For 50 years, the Alliance has served as the ‘backbone’ for regional collaboration across our watershed by creating connections, building partnerships, and collaborating with diverse audiences through shared goals.

With four strategically placed offices and four main program areas, we’re uniquely positioned to solve downstream problems with upstream solutions. We prevent pollution where it begins – on the land – before it even reaches our rivers and streams, and the Chesapeake. Our programs build resiliency among our communities and landscapes to continually adapt to an ever-changing world.

Let’s take a look at some of our impacts!

 

 

 

 

We’ve made a big impact in our first five decades, but building resilience into changing landscapes takes long-term, committed action. For every tree we plant, shoreline we repair, and rain barrel we install, our Chesapeake watershed needs 100 more.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed is a critical resource for recreation, industry, seafood, agriculture, and tourism. It’s home to over 18 million people who rely on it for drinking water and 3,600 species of plants and animals who need it to survive.

That’s why we’re on a mission to expand our efforts over the next 50 years by: Engaging new communities, planting more trees, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and making an even bigger impact.

 

Are you ready to make your impact?

“While there are many good organizations out there, my gifts go to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. They do their mission of restoring the Bay through partnerships and collaboration with communities and companies. The Alliance is focused on stopping runoff pollution, at its source, upstream of the Bay. Their actions help prevent pollution before it ends up in the Chesapeake Bay.”
– Susan Johnson, Board Member

Making a difference in our watershed means building relationships with the individuals who live, work, and play throughout its lands and waters. Uniting communities under one mission is one of our biggest strengths at the Alliance. Through a wide variety of programs, we connect people to their local rivers and streams, where they become directly involved in local restoration efforts. It’s an approach that builds resiliency among our communities and landscapes to continually adapt to an ever-changing world.

 

STUDENTS AS SCIENTISTS

RiverTrends water quality monitoring volunteer, David Steinberger is part of our network of community scientists who collect and establish important baseline data throughout the watershed. The program offers David a unique opportunity to share his passion for science with the middle/upper school students he teaches at Fredericksburg Academy in Virginia.

 

CORPORATE COLLABORATION SO SWEET YOU CAN TASTE IT

Collaboration is one of the sweetest ingredients to successful supply chain sustainability. That’s why we teamed up with The Hershey Company and Land O’Lakes to create Sustainable Dairy PA. The partnership positions dairy producers as an important part of improving water quality and mitigating climate change impacts.

 

EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF CLIMATE CHAMPIONS

Emma always wanted to help fight climate change, but it isn’t easy for a High School student to feel empowered to make a real impact. Northeastern School District’s partnership with the Alliance offered Emma and her classmates the opportunity to improve the quality of their local stream. In Emma’s case, the project provided a fresh perspective on her future education plans.

 

BUILDING THE BOND BETWEEN HEALTHY LANDS AND WATERS

When Jeanne Hoffman and Bobby Whitescarver met, the worlds of farmer and conservationists collided. Nestled in Virginia’s legendary Shenandoah Valley, the couple’s farm and marriage are representative of the symbiotic relationships that occur when we work with farmers to maintain productive agricultural lands while simultaneously protecting their local waterways.

“I choose to support organizations that work collaboratively to solve problems – and that is what the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay does.  If you want to be part of a great team of individuals and organizations that work cooperatively to make real, tangible improvements to the forests and streams of the Bay watershed, please join me in supporting the Alliance.” – Andrea Field, Board Chair

We need YOU to help us to grow and accelerate a more inclusive movement for clean water across our Chesapeake watershed. Join us to prevent pollution upstream before it even reaches our waterways.

When you partner with the Alliance, you’re making a direct impact on the health of our lands and waters throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Your support allows us to plant trees, restore streams and rivers, enhance healthy forests, measure and track local water quality, create green jobs, and give a voice to all those who believe in clean waters and a healthy Chesapeake.

The time is right. The moment is now. The Bay and her rivers are important to all of us. Let’s work together to make the long-term improvements that we need,

For our Forests, For our Streams, For our Future.

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