Land trusts are protecting water for National Water Quality Month
There is an intimate connection between what happens on our land and the health of the water that flows from it.
August is National Water Quality Month; a reminder of the essential role water plays in the survival of life on Earth. There is an intimate connection between what happens on our land and the health of the water that flows from it. Protecting a watershed’s natural land cover and preserving forest land can provide natural filtration and reduce the need for costly water treatment facilities.
Take the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, for example. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed spans 64,000 square miles covering parts of 6 Mid-Atlantic states — New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia — and Washington, D.C. More than 18.5 million people and more than 36,000 species of plants and animals live within its borders.
But the Bay and its tributaries also contain excess nutrients and sediment, caused by agricultural runoff, stormwater, wastewater and other contaminants, leading to murky water, algae blooms and low levels of sunlight and oxygen. As a result, the Bay is now covered by the largest and most complex “Total Maximum Daily Load” tool — essentially a "pollution diet" created by the Environmental Protection Agency that “calculates the maximum amount of a particular pollutant that a body of water can receive and still meet applicable water quality standards.” And the interagency Chesapeake Bay Agreement was created to implement the TMDL.
The Alliance has long recognized that conservation and the work of land trusts is essential to achieving the Bay Agreement goals, and toward that end the Alliance launched the Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative with the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network in 2017 to connect land conservation and water quality, to better care for both. The Initiative administers an annual grant program to support projects that accelerate land conservation and stewardship to protect and restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Some examples of this include:
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the accredited Potomac Conservancy partnered with more than 25 local and state agencies, utilities and community groups to leverage federal funding and protect important drinking water sources through the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative.
The Catoctin Land Trust established the Heart of Maryland Conservation Alliance and attracted additional funding to hire new staff and develop a conservation plan for its watershed. The Conservation Alliance’s primary areas of focus include the Antietam Creek watershed, the Antietam National Battlefield, the Potomac River and the C&O Canal National Historic Park. Other land trusts working within the Alliance include the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Maryland Environmental Trust and Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust.
The Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley created the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, which has brought in more than $6 million for conservation and restoration projects. Alliance member land trusts that have joined the collaborative include the Potomac Conservancy and The Conservation Fund.
Since its inception in 2017, the Initiative has since awarded approximately $900,000 through more than 50 grants to land trusts, delivered nearly 50 trainings to 3,500 + participants and developed resources like the 2022 guide entitled: “Taking the Plunge: Guidance and Inspiration to Help Land Trusts Protect and Restore Water Quality.” The guide outlines the legal framework around water quality, walks land trusts through incorporating water quality into their work, and compiles 12 inspirational stories of land trusts that have successfully protected and restored water quality. With these resources, Mid-Atlantic land trusts have created and expanded partnerships that make outsized contributions to water quality in their service areas.