PEC, a member of the Friends of the John Smith Chesapeake Trail, joined more than 20 national, regional and local organizations and agencies in signing a joint letter to the leadership of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior urging them to create a Chesapeake Bay Treasured Landscape Fund to conserve lands of ecological, cultural and historic significance.
Other signatories included the Secretaries of Natural Resources from Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, American Canoe Association and the National Park Service.
The joint letter voiced the organizations’ support of the Department of the Interior’s recommendation to create a Chesapeake Bay Treasured Landscape Initiative to protect lands of ecological, cultural and historic significance, and requested an allocation in the FY 2011 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill of $10 million for a pilot program for land conservation that contributes to the protection of water quality, wildlife habitat and cultural and other significant landscapes throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.