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Executive Summary
As the new home of Maryland PIRG's environmental work, Environment Maryland can be contacted regarding this news release.
Year after year the Chesapeake Bay
is inundated with nutrient pollution
as millions of pounds of nitrogen and
phosphorous flow into its tributaries
from the land and fall into its waters from
the air. Every summer the effects of that
pollution are revealed in algae blooms
and massive dead zones that spread over a
third of the bay.
This pollution comes from many
sources, including sewage plants, septic
tanks, suburban fertilizer use, power
plants and car emissions.1 Despite the
best efforts of many farmers, agriculture
remains one of the leading sources of
these nutrients, which run off of both
crop and animal farms.2
Maryland law requires farmers to
have nutrient management plans so they
know just how much fertilizer to use each
season and can reduce their runoff by only
applying what they need.3 And there are
many additional methods, known as best
management practices, that farmers can
implement on their fields and farms to
further reduce the nutrients running off
of them.4
But for farmers struggling to make a
profit, both nutrient management plans
and best management practices can be
prohibitively expensive. Without some
outside assistance many farmers cannot
afford to make these critical reductions.
The solution to help farmers and the
bay is simple. Maryland’s tributary teams,
working with the Department of Natural
Resources, have developed a Tributary
Strategy that provides a road-map to clean
up the bay. They concluded that funding
agricultural conservation practices is the
most efficient way to help keep farming
sustainable and help protect the bay. Their
recommended budget for these practices is
$800 million over eight years.5
State programs such as the Maryland
Agricultural Cost-Share Program (MACS)
help farmers implement conservation
practices that keep farming profitable
and reduce runoff into the bay. These
programs provide cost-share assistance for
practices including:
• Cover crops. Winter crops such as
wheat, rye, or barley reduce soil
erosion and absorb excess nitrogen
and phosphorous that remains in the
soil after the summer crop has been
harvested.
• Buffer zones. Grass and forest buffers
along streams slow erosion and trap
nutrients before they enter the water
system.
• Manure management. Building manure
sheds, transporting manure to areas that
need it, and developing management
plans all help farmers, especially poultry
growers, handle their excess waste.
• Technical assistance. Soil conservation
districts provide outreach, education,
and support to farmers who are
interested in or could benefit from
these programs. Without this assistance,
few farmers have the time to spend
researching practices they could
implement to reduce their runoff.
Working farms and the Chesapeake
Bay are both essential pieces of Maryland’s
landscape, history, and heritage. With state
cost-share programs, farmers benefit from
added financial security in their business
and the Chesapeake Bay benefits from
healthier waters. Unfortunately, funding
for these state cost-share programs has
been cut drastically in recent years.
Current funding is far short of the levels
needed to fully implement these practices
across the state.
This report highlights the experiences
of two fishermen and five farmers whose
lives depend so heavily on the land and
the bay. Each individual case study shows
the economic difficulties that come from
nutrient runoff, the role that conservation
practices can play in alleviating that
difficulty, and the importance of state costshare
programs for making change happen.
Five years ago Maryland entered the
Chesapeake 2000 Agreement, pledging
to restore the Chesapeake Bay to a
healthy state by 2010.6 But halfway to that
deadline we are not halfway to that goal.7
Agriculture is the most cost-efficient
place to make the necessary nutrient
reductions. Most farmers want to do all
they can, and they know what needs to be
done to further clean up their farms. The
will, science, and technology all exist. All
that is needed is the funding. To protect Maryland’s farms and clean
the Chesapeake Bay, we should:
• Fund the Tributary Strategy
recommendations for agriculture
and provide funding for the MACS
programs and the Manure Services.
• Require the poultry producers such
as Perdue and Tyson to provide more
financial assistance to their growers in
managing their manure.
• Fund the Soil Conservation Districts
and the Agriculture Extension Service
to provide technical and policy
assistance to farmers for implementing
conservation programs.
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