Group photo of the partners who attended the 2024 CCP Annual Meeting.

Written by Chase Douglas and Ben Alexandro

The majesty of the Chesapeake Bay and the 64,000 square miles of landscapes that nourish us cannot be conserved alone. The beauty of our treasured landscapes in this region is without equal, as is the need to cherish them. This work is beyond any one agency or organization. Over the last 15 years, conservationists, partners and the public from all walks of life have been coming together to protect tens of thousands of culturally and ecologically important landscapes every year and have been on track to protect two million acres by 2025. The benefits of our treasured landscapes are beyond the billions of dollars they generate for our economy. Conservation brings people together to enrich the lives of countless families that call this region home. Conservation takes partners throughout the region working every day to protect what we cherish.

The Chesapeake Conservation Partnership has always been a testament to the power of that collaboration. This is why growing the partnership to reflect the growing movement has been so successful. Last year, the partnership reached a landmark milestone by welcoming the 100th partner organization. Since then, the CCP has continued to expand with 20 new partners joining the ranks to foster collaborative action among its members and with private landowners to conserve culturally and ecologically important landscapes to benefit people, public health, economies, and nature throughout the six-­state watershed. By expanding the partnership, CCP brings in new and unique perspectives to collaboratively identify creative solutions for the major barriers faced in land conservation.

CCP Staff on a site visit with Deborah Nardone with The Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds and representatives from the Moshannon Creek Watershed Alliance in Philipsburg, PA.

Our new partners bring a wealth of expertise that will support the collective efforts of the partnership and enable us to better engage with communities across the watershed. For example, The Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds works closely with partners, including local communities, government agencies and community organizations to identify and address the most pressing issues facing Pennsylvania’s watersheds and is a dedicated nonprofit organization that makes grants to those protecting the state’s water resources. Green Latinos, provides a fresh perspective on access to nature and the prioritization of initiatives that conserve nature where communities will directly benefit. Their leadership in other coalitions outside of CCP, such as the Public Land and Ocean Collective and The America the Beautiful for All Coalition, provides ways to uplift and highlight important conservation work and needs that affect Latino communities.

Chesapeake Legal Alliance, whose mission is “to apply the power of the law to protect and restore clean water and promote healthy, resilient ecosystems for communities across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.” The Legal Alliance is interested in exploring new ways to help land trusts and other conservation partners with their legal needs. Voluntary easements and land deals can be complicated, especially when it comes to the legal details. CLA is interested in working with partners to help. Their ability to provide partners with free legal services, including strategic policy and innovative legal analyses, offers partners opportunities to tackle conservation projects with new tools and support. These are just a few examples of the wonderful services that the organizations in this partnership offer.

The full list of new partners includes:

• Baltimore County Land Trust Coalition
• Central Pennsylvania Conservancy
• Chesapeake Legal Alliance
• Defenders of Wildlife
• Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds
• GreenLatinos
• Historic Virginia Land Conservancy
• Howard County Conservancy
• Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake
• Mathews Land Conservancy
• National Wildlife Federation 
• ND Ponics
• Old Dominion Land Conservancy
• Old-Growth Forest Network
• Otsego County Conservation Association Inc.
• Pennsylvania Game Commission
• Shenandoah National Park Trust
• The Lebanon Valley Conservancy 
• Upstream Alliance
• West Virginia Rivers Coalition

If you would like to see a complete list of partners, you can find it on the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership website under the Our Partners tab.

Whether organizations are interested in economic sustainability, scenic, historical and cultural heritage, working lands, important wildlife habitat, water quality and supply or overall quality of life. This partnership has welcomed all who want to come together to work collaboratively towards conservation. 
A non-partisan organization, agency, tribe or other entity working on conservation in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed interested in becoming a partner of the CCP, can apply here: Chesapeake Conservation Partnership: New Partner Application Form. Organizations interested in getting more involved, updating their contact information, or applying to join the partnership can reach out to Chase Douglas: [email protected].

Ben Alexandro presenting at the 2025 Virginia United Land Trust Conference on the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Beyond 2025 Process and the work of the CCP Beyond 2025 and CCP Urban Conservation Action Teams.

As a way to better engage partners for collective work around shared interests, this year, CCP created new action teams. These action teams provide a space for partners to share their expertise and insights with efforts like the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Beyond 2025 initiative, while also incorporating the collective feedback into the framework of the CCP’s strategic vision. These action teams provide the space for partners to lift up their expertise and insights while also infusing the collective feedback into the framework of CCP’s strategic vision. By addressing land conservation through what drives our partners, the CCP brought meaningful efforts to conserve the natural landscapes in the Chesapeake Bay for all people. 

The Partnership’s strength lies in its numerous individual organizations that actively engage in creating and executing a collaborative agenda to achieve the permanent protection of landscapes. Conservation excels when partners come together around shared interests and benefits for conserving important landscapes throughout the region.

Photo credits:

1. Chase Douglas, Chesapeake Conservation Partnership 
2. Kerri Batrowny, Delaware Department of Natural Resources
3. Chase Douglas, Chesapeake Conservation Partnership

Lightning Update is a regular communication of the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions of the Partnership or member organizations.
To share a success story, news, or important event, send your information to:

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Support for the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is provided by:
National Park Service Chesapeake
EPA Chesapeake Bay Program
USDA Forest Service
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Virginia Outdoors Foundation
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Chesapeake Conservancy

The Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is co-convened by: