Planning Session: Using Ecosystem Services to Increase Progress Toward, and Quantify the Benefits of, Multiple CBP Outcomes

April 18, 2023 - April 18, 2023
Annapolis, MD

This planning session convened in-person on Tuesday, April 18th at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office in Annapolis, MD.

  • Day 1, see more here.
  • Day 2, see more here.

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) hosted a workshop for the purpose of developing a strategic plan for the Chesapeake Bay Program to incorporate ecosystem services (ES) into its current decision framework, tools, and engagement with local partners; as well as guidance to help partners apply ES information to increase implementation of restoration and conservation activities. This will enable CBP to take advantage of ongoing efforts and new datasets to better identify, assess, and communicate the multiple benefits of restoration and conservation activities in the Bay watershed.

Workshop Purpose (Days 1 and 2): To convene practitioners and decision makers to create an action plan that can empower partners to accrue multiple, broader community benefits – beyond a focus on reducing excess nitrogen, phosphorus or sediment – through ecosystem services or similar information that can inform holistic implementation decisions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

  • Day 1 purpose: To interface with a blend of stakeholders to gather their relevant experiences and needs with respect to the kind of ecosystem service information that has served them well to champion projects for broader, multiple benefits, or that would be helpful to strengthen efforts in the future.
  • Day 2 purpose [tentative]: To synthesize input gathered through Day 1 into recommendations that can address key barriers and information gaps, with an emphasis in articulating a value-added role that the Bay Program partnership can play in relation to other actors.

Workshop Objectives: 

This workshop had two primary objectives: (1) have investigators engage with stakeholders on effective application of new ES results into tools and decision making at multiple levels, and (2) develop recommendations for an actionable workplan of how ecosystem services can be used to address multiple CBP outcomes. The plan will provide recommendations for both short-term applications of ecosystem services into tools (between 2023-2025), as well as longer-term improvements based on research needs identified at the workshop. This workshop focused on the following aspects of ecosystem services for decision making:

  • Refine stakeholder needs and knowledge gaps and evaluate how ecosystems services data being produced from several studies related to water-quality practices can be applied by decision makers and conservation and restoration practice implementers to help advance other CBP outcomes and support local restoration and community goals.
  • The suggested CBP outcomes to be emphasized include riparian forest buffers, stream health, wetlands, climate resiliency, and healthy watersheds.

Background Information, Current Efforts, and CBP Efforts on Addressing Multiple Outcomes: 

Several STAC workshops have addressed aspects of ecosystem services and multiple benefits from water quality practices. There are several ongoing projects, and previous reports, addressing aspects of ecosystem services that would be utilized for the workshop including, but not limited to

  • Identifying and Defining Levels of Meaningful Change in Ecosystem Services of the Chesapeake Bay and its Watershed, Rossi et al., 2022. Link to article
  • EnviroAtlas High Resolution Metrics of Ecosystem Services for the Mid-Atlantic (USEPA)
  • Ecosystems Services of Floodplains in Chesapeake and Delaware Basins (USGS)
  • GIT-funded Ecosystem Services Project: Quantification of the Value of Green Infrastructure Hazard Mitigation Related to Flooding, RTI, 2020. Link to report
  • BMP Impact Scoring Report, TetraTech, 2017. Link to report

Final STAC Ecosystem Services Planning Session Agenda

Workshop Steering Committee: 

For more information, please contact Meg Cole, STAC Coordinator, at colem@chesapeake.org.