The 1925 Chesapeake Bay Report Card was produced to celebrate the UMCES Centennial. Inspired by 1920s design, this report card offers a glimpse of what a Chesapeake Bay Report Card might have been like in 1925, when UMCES was founded. The state of the Bay in 1925 is not an accurate scientific assessment, but an estimation based on informed opinions and broad historical generalizations.

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This report card provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed. Since 2016, UMCES has engaged stakeholders throughout the watershed to transform the report card into an evaluation of the Chesapeake Watershed health. Watershed health includes traditional ecological indicators, but also economic and societal indicators.

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El Reporte de Salud de la bahía de Chesapeake de 1925 se elaboró ​​para celebrar el centenario de la UMCES. Inspirado en el diseño de la década de 1920, este informe ofrece una visión de cómo habría sido un Reporte de salud sobre la bahía de Chesapeake en 1925, cuando se fundó la UMCES. El estado de la bahía en 1925 no es una evaluación científica precisa, sino una estimación basada en opiniones fundamentadas, y generalizaciones históricas generales.

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Este informe proporciona una evaluación transparente, oportuna, y geográficamente detallada de la bahía de Chesapeake y su cuenca. Desde 2016, UMCES ha involucrado a las partes interesadas de toda la cuenca para transformar el informe en una evaluación de la salud de la cuenca de Chesapeake. Los indicadores de la bahía evalúan la salud del ecosistema acuático, mientras que los indicadores de la cuenca hidrográfica cubren las condiciones ecológicas, sociales, y económicas.

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On April 1, 2025, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) co-hosted the first joint Chesapeake Bay Report Card Networking Meeting at CBF’s Annapolis headquarters. Over 30 stakeholders from nonprofits, government, academia, and community groups gathered to advance a shared vision for more inclusive, responsive, transparent, and collaborative socio-environmental reporting across the watershed.

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Birds are vital to our economy, ecosystems, and cultural heritage. Investing in bird conservation benefits communities, businesses, and working lands while reinforcing our nation’s legacy of stewardship and biodiversity. By valuing birds, we ensure a richer, healthier, and more vibrant future for all Americans.

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Coastal environments face unique challenges that profoundly affect human well-being. Stressors such as pollution, rising temperatures, flooding, harmful algal blooms (HABs), and emerging contaminants threaten ecosystems and disproportionately impact vulnerable communities. This report presents the findings from the Fall 2024 Coastal Environment and Community Health course, by graduate students in the Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science program at the University System of Maryland.

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From 2022-2023, the COAST Card project held a series of listening sessions to stimulate community engagement throughout the Potomac Watershed. This poster summarizes the results of the activities at those listening sessions.

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The partners of the Chesapeake Bay are investing billions of dollars in the restoration of critical habitats to improve conditions for people and living resources throughout the Bay and its watershed. However, the recent proliferation of invasive Ictalurus furcatus (blue catfish) in the Chesapeake Bay’s major rivers has the potential to disrupt these restoration efforts and limit the full potential improvement of the ecosystem.

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For the development of the Luangwa River Basin Report Card, IAN and WWF Zambia conducted two stakeholder workshops, with one held in Katete, Zambia from May 6-8 and the other held in Mpika, Zambia from May 13-15. This newsletter summarizes the activities and main findings of the workshops and serves as the foundation for the socio-environmental analysis of the Luangwa River Basin.

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