Bay Program Discovers "New" Wetlands

CBP, Chesapeake Bay Program notes increase in wetlands across the watershed. "New tracking tool captures previously unreported acreage"

Experts from the Chesapeake Bay Program report that between 2014 and 2022, the Chesapeake Bay watershed gained 4,310 acres of newly created or restored wetlands. This is a slight increase (5.1%) of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement outcome to create or reestablish 85,000 acres of tidal and non-tidal wetlands, primarily on agricultural or natural landscapes. This figure includes 616 acres of wetlands on agricultural lands.

The Watershed Agreement outcome also calls for the function of 150,000 degraded wetlands to be enhanced by 2025. The latest data shows that 60,666 acres of wetlands have been enhanced (i.e., improving one or more functions of an existing wetland) between 2014-2022, meeting 40.4% of this goal.

Previously, the Wetlands Outcome was tracked using data collected through the National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN). These data were reported by each of the watershed jurisdictions—Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia—as part of their annual Watershed Implementation Plan tracking to the Environmental Protection Agency under the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load. This means that only those wetlands that were created or restored for the purposes of meeting water quality goals were reported. Additionally, NEIEN does not track the acreage of wetlands enhanced, and the process in which these data were collected varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

In 2023, the Wetlands Workgroup released a new tracking system, Habitat Tracker, that allows data for all created, restored and enhanced wetlands to be reported. However, due to this reporting transition, it is likely that all reported gains and enhancements are not yet accounted for, as not all watershed jurisdictions track their data to the degree of resolution required for data standardization. Please note that wetland losses are not yet available through the Habitat Tracker tool.

I suppose that's one way to get your numbers up.