Following dramatic testimony presented in a Congressional hearing June 23, about the severe impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on the Chesapeake Bay region, more than 70 non-profit organizations comprising the Chesapeake Coalition urged Congress to pass climate legislation.  

“We know enough to take action. All that remains is the political will to do something,” said coalition member Skip Stiles, executive director of Virginia-based Wetlands Watch.

Today’s hearing on The Impacts of Climate Change on the Chesapeake Bay was held by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, and the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, in Edgewater, Maryland.  Committee members heard from scientists, policy experts and local government officials on the dramatic impacts climate change and sea-level rise will have on local communities. 

“The impacts of climate change and sea level rise on our low-lying communities will be dramatic, especially as it relates to the survival of our rich heritage.  We are in jeopardy of losing a sense of place rooted in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Stuart Parnes, president of the Maryland-based Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum at the hearing today.

Waterman and shellfish farmer Tommy Leggett also testified about the importance of action.  “Coastal communities of people dependent on the Bay for their livelihoods are engaged in a desperate struggle to restore the Bay and the bounty that lives in it,” Leggett explained.  

The Chesapeake Coalition is comprised of more than 70 non-profit organizations from throughout the six states than make up the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and combined represents more than 500,000 individual members.  The Coalition launched the “Choose Clean Water” campaign in May, which is committed to strengthening the Chesapeake Bay Program in the Clean Water Act and obtaining federal controls for storm-water runoff from highways as well as passage of strong climate legislation.

“Every effort and every resource we have put into restoring the rivers and streams leading into the Chesapeake could be lost if we fail to act on climate change, which is why we cannot afford to miss this historic opportunity,” said coalition director Hilary Harp Falk.