Chesapeake Bay National Park?

Capital News Service, Senate panel passes bill making Chesapeake National Recreation Area a national park unit

The Chesapeake Bay area is one step closer to becoming part of the national parks system.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday passed the Chesapeake Bay National Recreation Area Act, moving it onto the Senate floor.

The measure, sponsored by Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, would create the Chesapeake National Recreation Area in Maryland and Virginia and make it part of a network of sites overseen by the National Park Service.

“In Maryland, we know the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “And creating the Chesapeake National Recreation Area will celebrate that fact while also bringing major benefits to the Bay.”

“Not only will this open up more equitable public access to the Bay, the (Chesapeake National Recreation Act) will also mobilize additional federal support for restoration, shine a light on the untold stories of its history, and support greater economic opportunity in the region,” the senator said.

One of the key goals of making the Chesapeake National Recreation Area part of the national parks system is to boost national pride in the bay and its history, amplifying the stories of historically underrepresented groups such as Indigenous and Black people.

And you can't do that without making it a National Park, after all.

Of course, it will not be a National Park in the sense that Yosemite and Yellowstone, just to name two of the best known national parks, whose territory is completely under the control of the Park Service and closely regulated. It will be a National Park in Name Only, with a few visitor centers, and a lot of web presence, and no doubt a cloud of Federal employees doing the things that Federal employees do. I can hardly wait for them to tell me I can't fish in "their" waters, or collect fossils on "their" beaches.