Salt is the key. If the concentration of salt is too high, it can stop biological action - as in the barrels of George Washington's salted herring. Pickle a cucumber, and it will last far longer than a fresh one. In the Bay, however, the range of salinity varied from 35 parts per thousand salt at the mouth of the Bay (the saltiness of the Atlantic Ocean) to zero parts per thousand for several miles below the Fall Line.

Look at the pictures of Chincoteague and other Tidewater areas at sea level, and you'll see marches filled with grasses. (If there are trees, then the correct term would be "swamp." rather than marsh.) Photosynthesis in an acre of Chesapeake Bay salt marsh can easily surpass the productivity of any Virginia farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Humans prefer to eat corn on the cob rather than marsh grasses, of course, so few of us normally think of salt water marshes as more valuable than corn fields. We may be picky eaters, but the decaying grasses are a great food source for the tiny zooplanton in the water that we can only see with a microscope.

The decaying grasses provide the organic material at the base of the "detritus" food pyramid. The marsh grasses (often Spartina species) and the underwater grasses ("Submerged Aquatic Vegetation" or SAV) are essential to the health of the bay. The submerged grasses create especially valuable habitat - and are sensitive to pollution. The snails, small fish, birds, and larger fish that feed on each other in a hierarchy of life (and death) won't be there if the grasses disappear.

There was natural band of SAV surrounding the points of land and islands, but little SAV on the bottom of most of the Bay. The depths at which submerged grasses will grow in the tidal waters of Virginia and Maryland is limited by wave action in the shallow end (the roots can't hold the plants in one place where the water is sloshing around) and by light penetration in the deep end. Light can only go through several feet of water naturally before being absorbed.

Two factors coming from farms and cities upstream have substantially reduced the number of acres underwater where SAV could grow:

• excessive siltation
• excessive algae growth from nitrogen and phosphorous.

The 16 million people who live in the watershed (primarily in three urbanized regions in Virginia - see watershed profiles) have upset the natural balance through a number of different stressors. Life adapts, over thousands of years of time - but in the short run we have come close to dramatically lowering the productivity and biodiversity in the Chesapeake Bay. If Powhatan somehow magically returned, he'd probably be awed by modern cars and houses and electricity - but he'd be stunned by how little food he could gather easily from the waters today. There's no guarantee that he'd consider the tradeoff to have been a good one.

The Bay can be saved. It's getting heathier, though the stressors continue to increase as population increases. We can mitigate the damage from different sources, but as described in Where Have All The Grasses Gone?, "Water quality is the key to restoring grasses to the Bay."

The loss of 50% of the SAV in the last 40 years, and dramatic declines in the harvest of fish, oysters, and crabs, finally stimulated a strong response by local citizens to "Save the Bay." Watermen who once made a decent living from tonging or dredging oysters are unable to break even. As the children in the families of watermen get out of high school and choose to enter college or other professions, a 300-year old way of life on the Bay is nearing extinction.

Government agencies were slower to act, in part because so many governments are involved in managing the Chesapeake Bay. The watershed includes not only the three states and the District of Columbia who have signed the Chesapeake Bay Agreement, but also the states of West Virginia, New York, and Delaware. Air pollution from power plants on the Ohio River may contribute substantial percentages of mercury and other toxic substances, and of course the Federal Government has a role to play with the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Chesapeake Bay/Susquehanna River Ecoteam

If you want to keep track of the players, it helps to have a scorecard of "who's who." As described in a June 28, 2000 news release, the partners have made specific restoration commitments:

• Increase the number of native oysters tenfold by 2010
• Restore blue crabs by establishing harvest targets and implementing complementary state management plans Baywide
• New wetlands restoration and protection goals
• Reduce the loss rate of farm and forest land to harmful sprawl development in the watershed by 30 percent by 2012
• Permanently preserve from development 20 percent of the lands in the watershed by 2010
• Strive for zero release of chemical contaminants from point sources by 2010
• Provide a meaningful outdoor Bay or stream experience for every school student in the watershed before graduation from high school, beginning with the Class of 2005
• Expand public access by 30 percent by 2010, and add 500 miles of water trails by 2005

Slogans have to fit on a bumper sticker. If you look twice at the list above, based on the Chesapeake2000 agreement, you can see what the three words in "Save the Bay" really mean.

Chesapeake Bay Water Quality