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The Chesapeake Bay watershed spans 64,000 square miles throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washinton, D.C. To put that into perspective, that’s more than 14 times the size of the Chesapeake Bay itself. This expansive, diverse land is home to more than 18 million people and over 3,000 plant and animal species. There’s a wide range of landscapes and even more life to explore throughout the watershed, so we’re glad you’re here.
BIRD SPECIES
FISH SPECIES
INSECT SPECIES
MAMMAL SPECIES
REPTILE SPECIES
AMPHIBIAN SPECIES
ALGAE SPECIES
INVERTEBRATES
“Animals Upstream” is an engaging four-part video series that unveils the often-overlooked wonders within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. When one thinks of the Chesapeake Bay, images of rockfish, oysters, and blue crabs likely come to mind. While these are iconic to the region, the watershed extends across 64,000 square miles and provides a home to more than 3,600 species of plants and animals.
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North America is home to nearly 300 unique species of freshwater mussels. Southeastern states, particularly those with tributaries flowing to the Mississippi River, host a massive hotspot of freshwater mussel species diversity.
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It’s Halloween season! Experience the wild and wonderful abilities of this parasitic fungi that could be in your own back yard.
It’s officially spooky season, which makes it the best time to talk about my favorite misunderstood creature, bats. Although not aquatic wildlife, bats play an important ecological role in the Chesapeake Bay.
Summer is here, and that means the peak of hummingbird season in the Chesapeake Bay region. Explore the steps we can take in our own spaces and communities to help these flying jewels thrive!
The chestnut-sided warbler is a diminutive but beautiful neotropical migrant songbird that breeds throughout the forests of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Proggin’ is a very Chesapeake-specific term for beachcombing. My family and I have spent hours just walking the shore, looking down at what washed up.
As someone who works in communications, where my job can be boiled down to making people care more about the Chesapeake Bay, this little lesson on marine ecology, delivered by a weather-beaten boat captain no less, was no doubt the highlight of my trip.
The audible and visual sensory overload as tens of thousands of birds simultaneously take flight is something you have to see to believe. At times, it can feel like you’re standing in a real-life snow globe surrounded by an inconceivable number of snow geese as they lift off the water.
This March, the Film Festival will be premiering our very own short film, Surf & Turf: A Chesapeake Bay Watershed Story! It is a story of the captivating journey from inland mountains and headwater streams, to the wide-open, salty expanse of the Bay itself.
In the Shenandoah Valley, the Alliance brought together a waterman and a farmer to share their personal stories and professional passions, while breaking bread together. Theirs is a story of the captivating journey from inland mountains and headwater streams to the wide-open, salty expanse of the Bay itself.
