Regional Management in the Chesapeake Bay

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Regional Management in the Chesapeake Bay
Bill Matuzeski September 4, 2003
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Chesapeake Bay Watershed
New York
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Delaware
West Virginia
District of Columbia
Virginia
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What are we Reacting to?

• Proposal for a National Ocean Council
• Proposal for Regional Ocean Councils
• Guidance for Regional Ecosystem Management
  Plans
• What do these words mean? Do we really want
  another plan?
• The public understands and values places
  Chesapeake, Puget Sound, Tampa Bay, Big Sur.
• How to build on what is already underway in many
  places?
• How to deal with the reality that the places
  dont add up to a whole?

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Looking at the Chesapeake Experience

• Starting in the Bay itself and evolving to a
  watershed -- a 25 year effort.
• An enormous land area, but little ocean frontage
  how to relate to a regional ocean focus?
• Expansion experiences within the watershed
  breaking down the resistance.
• Expanding to the coasts of DE, MD and VA like
  landing on a different planet.
• Culture and history are the defining elements
  common legacies, not common ecosystems.

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Going Operational

• Clear goals agreed to at the highest political
  level.
• Scope and complexity of goals can evolve over
  time.
• Regular meetings of signatories to review
  progress.
• Each jurisdiction meets the goals its own way,
  based on traditional ways of governing and
  cooperating

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The Three Great Challenges

• Cooperation and coordination among Federal
  agencies.
• Federal/state and interstate trust.
• Defining a meaningful way for local governments
  to participate.

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To Make This New Regional Idea Work

• Respect existing regional management efforts.
• Do not dictate regional boundaries let them
  evolve over time.
• Set up incentives to encourage interstate
  cooperation.
• Consider using the Coastal Zone Management Act,
  which has nearly all the necessary authorities.

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Lessons Learned

• Boundaries and issues are more cultural than
  ecological do not underestimate the mystique
  of places.
• The key is clear simple goals about things people
  care about, set on a cooperative basis at the
  highest political level.
• Oceans is not necessarily (in the public mind)
  a logical organizational concept for regional
  efforts.
• Therefore, be flexible and patient as the ideas
  take root.