Before I speak to the vital importance to the nation of working to pass S. 492 this session, let me introduce myself. My name is Michael Hirshfield. I am the Senior Vice President of CBF, which has its headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland and offices in Virginia and Pennsylvania. CBF is a member-supported, non-profit environmental education and advocacy organization with over 80,000 members throughout the Bay watershed and nationwide. Our mission is to Save the Bay--to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.
Mr. Chairman, I have good news and bad news concerning the health of the Chesapeake Bay. A year ago, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation released its first annual State of the Bay Report. We assessed the health of 12 factors that go into making a healthy Bay--including, for example, oysters, crabs, striped bass, underwater grasses, and wetlands in order to produce a sort of Dow Jones for the Bay. We compared the health of each of these factors against what they would have been over 300 years ago, before the beginning of European settlement. If the Bay of Captain John Smith's time was considered 100%, we calculated that the Bay of 1998 was only 27%. Bad news indeed, a Chesapeake Bay only a small fraction of what it once was and what it could be. As Will Baker, President of CBF, said when we released the report: "The Bay will never again reach the pristine levels of the past. But we think a Bay with a value of 70% is achievable. The State of the Bay Report provides a reference point for how far we have fallen and how far we have to go to reach a reasonable level of health for this marvelous body of water."
But there is good news. Mr. Baker also concluded the following: "The work of public agencies and private groups and individuals is beginning to show small signs of success. The Bay experienced a steady downward trend in health, but it has stabilized and begun slowly improving. On balance, the Bay is in somewhat better shape than it was 15 years ago." Mr. Chairman, for the Bay to be even slightly better off than it was 15 years ago, in the face of the pressures of population growth during that period, is nothing short of remarkable. And it owes that improvement, in no small measure, to the hard work of the dedicated individuals from both the public and private sector led by the Chesapeake Bay Program. We believe that we have stopped the decline, and can now truly talk about restoring the Bay.
The Chesapeake Bay Program has been described as a national and international model of a cooperative ecosystem restoration program. It brings together federal, state, and local government officials under a cooperative management umbrella in unique fashion. The relatively modest amount of federal dollars devoted directly to the Chesapeake Bay Program through the EPA are leveraged many times over other federal, state, local, and private dollars. We at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have been critical of the Bay Program in the past, and I am quite confident we will be critical of it in the future. I'm sure you would be surprised and disappointed if we weren't. It is too slow, too cumbersome, too bureaucratic. CBF is impatient, and it is our job to push as hard and as fast as we can. Yet our impatience with the Bay Program is also a measure of our respect--we expect nothing less than the best from it. It has never been "just another government program," and we intend to make sure that it continues to strive for the highest goals, not the lowest common denominator.
The Bay Program has done a lot for the Bay since the 80's. At the present time, it is in the process of challenging itself once more to develop goals and objectives for the next decade and beyond. We will be urging the Program to set lofty goals, and we will be working hard to help achieve them. But to do the work of Saving the Bay, we need a solid framework for the Bay Program. S. 492, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act of 1999 provides such a framework. It reauthorizes the Chesapeake Bay Program, providing it with the institutional resources necessary to carry out such an enormous task. We are pleased to see that it includes mechanisms to ensure good public accounting of its actions and expenditures. CBF believes that such public accounting mechanisms are essential to ensure public confidence in its government leaders.
We are also excited to see the new section on small watershed grants, that will enable local government and community groups to help engage in active restoration. Such on the ground activities have two major benefits: first, they produce tangible results that benefit the Bay. Second, they produce expanded constituencies for Bay restoration. It is for this reason that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has committed itself to spending $10 million in privately raised dollars to restore oysters, wetlands, streamside buffers, and underwater grasses, leveraging the dollars and efforts of government agencies and private agencies throughout the watershed. However, CBF is only one of the many organizations spending time and resources on Bay restoration under the umbrella of the Bay Program. On behalf of all of those individuals and groups who are not here today, I urge you to move rapidly to approve S. 492, so that the effort to Save the Bay can continue with renewed energy and momentum on into the next century.
I would also like to take a few minutes to comment on some of the other legislation before you today. In particular, we would like to thank Senator Chafee for introducing and working for passage of S. 835, the Estuary Habitat Restoration Partnership Act of 1999. CBF is part of Restore America's Estuaries (RAE), a coalition of eleven regional environmental organizations that all have estuary protection and restoration at the core of their missions. Will Baker currently serves as chairman of RAE, and testified last week on behalf of a similar piece of legislation introduced by Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, a tireless worker on behalf of the Chesapeake. We would like to thank the members of both bodies, from both parties, who recognize that restoring the nation's bays and sounds is of critical importance to the health of the nation's environment and economy. Others are testifying about S. 835 today; let me just add my voice to urge you all to move swiftly to pass it.
Finally, I would like to join my colleagues on this panel in urging you to support passage of a B.E.A.C.H. Bill in this Congress, as well as legislation that would strengthen the implementation of plans developed by estuaries as part of the National Estuary Program.
The common thread through all the legislation before you today is clear. It has to do with the places we call home. The Chesapeake Bay is our home. Even if we live miles from its shore, it is part of what makes this whole region special. The Bay is our lifeline. It nourishes our environment, strengthens our economy, enhances our leisure time, protects our children's futures. We need to care for the Bay and invest today in its health and very survival. We need to do the same in all of the nation's estuaries and coastal areas. I urge you to help us by passing the important legislation before you today. Thank you for holding this hearing on these important issues, and for providing me the opportunity to speak to you today.