The Impacts of Smart Growth Strategies in the Chesapeake Bay Since the early 1990’s the Chesapeake Bay has been suffering from different pollutant sources such as overpopulation, human activity on land and runoff. Although pollutants are part of the problem, they only make up a small percentage of the Bay’s problems. Human activity and urbanization are the main contributions for the Bay’s poor health. An increased human population necessarily causes an increase in human waste. The problem with the Chesapeake Bay Watershed’s population growth is that it cause a lot of trash, waste and unknown fluids to be dumped into the Bay and as the people multiply trash, waste and fluids will also multiply. Not everyone living in the Chesapeake Watershed …show more content…
Leapfrogging is when development is happening on a virgin land near areas of dense development (Charles, Crowder & Shreve, n.d.). People who live near these areas will have a hard time getting to work which is the problem. Urbanization occurs when the the physical size and the number of people living in that city grows. The Chesapeake Bay Watershed has multiple major cities, such as Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Baltimore and parts of Delaware, which makes urbanization potentially high in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (Charles, Crowder & Shreve, n.d.). The Chesapeake Bay Watershed already has a large amount of people and if we expand cities, then that can be a pull factor for others outside the Watershed. Overpopulation is already a major problem in the watershed and urbanization will only make the problems worse. There are already 15 million people living in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and if the population continues to grow they predict it will be 18 million by the year 2020 (Ernst, 2013). If the population continues to grow rapidly the Bay will eventually get over crowded with runoff, trash, and human substances the bay will go into a bigger dead zone or become permanent (Forbos,
silence. Living from “hand to mouth” induced the gold miners to only be able to
The seventeenth century was a time of great change in colonial America. Virginia, the first colony in the Chesapeake region, was established in 1624. Plymouth, the first colony in New England, was established in 1620. These two regions developed in distinct ways, but were intertwined because of their ties to England. The Chesapeake colonies were established for economic reasons, as the Virginia Company of London looked to mass-produce cash crops in the new world. The New England colonies, however, were created to be a religious haven for those who opposed the English church. Both regions developed economic and political systems that catered to the desires of the respective populations and the geographical conditions.
Looking at the early English colonies in the Chesapeake Bay region, it’s clear that the English had not learned any lessons from their experiences at Roanoke. Poor planning, a bad location, unrealistic expectations, flawed leadership, unsuccessful relations with the local Indians, and no hope of finding the mineral wealth the Spanish found in Mexico, all contributed to failure. The first colonists in the Chesapeake region were not only ignorant, lazy and unambitious, but their attempts were hampered before they had begun. However, a solution to these problems was found in a single plant: tobacco. Nevertheless, this cash crop ultimately created numerous problems for the colonists. The ignorance and indolent acts of the Chesapeake colonists to unsuccessfully restore the colony by themselves led to the demise of the colony as a whole especially regarding the planting of agricultural goods for food.
The amazing part about the steps being taken to try to save the Chesapeake Bay is how much scientists and people who carry out legislation in the local and state governments are working together to try and create policies on businesses and people to
One of the Bays biggest resources is its oysters. Oysters are filter feeders which mean they feed on agley and clean the water. The oysters feed on agley and other pollutants in the bay turning them into food, then they condense the food down to nutrients and sometimes developed pearls. Filtering the water helps the oysters to grow, and also helps clean the Chesapeake Bay. One oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day, Oysters used to be able to filter the Bay in about a week. However, these creatures are now scarce in the bay. The Chesapeake Bays Oyster (crassostrea virginica) Population has declined severely because of over harvesting, agricultural runoff, and disease. Now the Chesapeake Bay is becoming polluted without the oysters and the water is not nearly as clean as it once was. The Chesapeake Bay was the first estuary in the nation to be targeted for restoration as an integrated watershed and ecosystem. (Chesapeake Bay Program n/d). This report will show the cause and effect of the Chesapeake Bay's Oyster decline on the Bay.
In the late 16th and into the 17th centuries, many nations were colonizing in the New World. Many people from English origin settled in the Americas and into two different societies. The New England and Chesapeake region developed into two distinct societies with separate identities because of economic, political, and social differences.
The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary with six major tributaries, the James, the Potomac, the Susquehanna, the Patuxent, the York, and the Rappahannock Rivers, feeding into the bay from various locations in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia (Chemical Contaminants in the Chesapeake Bay – Workshop Discussion 1). These areas depend on the Bay as both an environmental and an economic resource. Throughout the last 15 years the Chesapeake Bay has suffered from elevated levels of pollution. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater treatment plants, farmland, air pollution, and development all lead to reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, which harm fish, crabs, oysters and underwater grasses (Key Commission Issues 1). There are other types of pollution in the bay such as toxic chemicals, but because nutrient pollution is the most significant and most widespread in the Bay its effects are the most harmful to fisheries. Nitrogen and phosphorous fuel algal blooms which cloud the water and block sunlight from reaching underwater grass beds that provide food and habitat for waterfowl, juvenile fish, blue crabs, and other species (Blankenship 11-12). Algae plays a vital role in the food chain by providing food for small fish and oysters. However, when there is an overabundance of algae it dies, sinks to the bottom of the Bay, and decomposes in such a manner that depletes the oxygen levels of the Bay (11). The reduced oxygen levels in the Bay reduce the carrying capacity of the environment and these “dead areas” sometimes kill off species that can not migrate to other areas of the Bay, such as oysters (11). Increased abundance of algal blooms also led to the overabundance of harmful and toxic algae species and microbes such as the microbe Pfiesteria, which was responsible in 1997 for eating fish alive and making dozens of people sick (12). The heightened awareness of diseases that can be contracted through consumption of contaminated fish also has an economic impact. Therefore, the excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have fueled an overabundance of algal blooms, which has reduced water clarity and lowered oxygen levels, affecting many species within the bay and ultimately the industries that rely on these species.
For many years now scientists and researchers have been paying their attention to the bay. Millions of dollars and hundreds of hours have been spent to return the bay to its glory. However, with all that has been done the bay is still in danger and the work is no where near complete. In 2005 the bay's health was evaluated at a “D”. (Chesapeake Bay Restoration)
the more people there are in the world the more water pollution there is going
The Chesapeake Bay plays host to an astonishing amount of plant and animal life, providing much of our fish intake for species that aren’t being overfished. For the species that are being overdrawn, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is working to restore the populations, and it’s going well thus far. Another theme that is endangering the marine life populations as well as the health of the human population is the massive amount of polluti...
In the early 1600s, Britain had managed to establish colonies on the coast of the present day United States. After the Spanish had settled North America in the 1500s, Britain became increasingly interested in what lay in the New World. The first successful group of aristocrats to make it to the New World had established a settlement at Chesapeake Bay, present day Virginia. The Chesapeake colonies ruled the East Coast until 1629 when the Puritans arrived. The Puritans were a group of religiously persecuted individuals who had broken away from the Anglican Church. These two groups hoped to find a new sense of peace in the New World that England could not provide them with. Despite the difference in purpose and religious views, both the Chesapeake
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States .It holds 18 hundred trillion gallons of water. The Bay is about 200 miles long, and is home to more than 17 million people. It has been on earth for millions of years and has survived many different events. The importance of the Chesapeake Bay is incredible; two of the United States’ five major North Atlantic ports – Baltimore and Hampton Roads – are on the Bay. (Chesapeake Bay Program, n/d). The Chesapeake Bay provides shelter and food to all living things in the surrounding area. Both people and animals use the Bays resources every day and have done so for centuries.
People from England started colonizing America. And they went there with different motivations in mind. Some were going there in order to gain a fortune and be able to live happily. Those people settled in the South and created the colony Chesapeake. Others were going to America in order to gain religious freedom from the Church of England. Those people settled in the North and created New England. The different motivations for moving to America is why the two colonies developed into completely different societies, despite the fact that they were all from the England. These differences led to sectionalism between the North and South, and eventually led to war breaking out over the morals of having slaves (The Civil War).
46. Indicate the factors that contributed to population growth in the American colonies during the eighteenth century, and discuss the characteristics and consequences of that growth.
and is existing surely because of humans themselves- overpopulation. “Overpopulation is the problem” and causes other externalities such as pollution, deforestation, and a greater handful of biodiversity losses. In addition, overpopulation causes economic and political factors such as more consumption per person and the reduction of resources that can be provided per person. This contributes to the strain on ecological systems and the economic and population growth. With overpopulation, many resources become finite and an umpteen amount of ecosystems are being destroyed. Overpopulation relates to the impact of humans on pollution. Obviously with more human life, there is more necessity for jobs such as factories that give off fumes, automobiles, and the use for burning fossil fuels. In greater extent, this leads to an environmental factor in that it accumulates chemicals in food chains such as mercury, arsenic, and copper. It can lead to political problems as well, when trying to interact with other countries and stop the problem of global pollution and eventually endin...