A-5 



with an average of 190 frost-free days annually to 60°F in the south 

 with an average of 210 frost-free days. 



Normal annual total precipitation is 44 inches throughout the 

 Bay region. Prolonged droughts are rare but short dry spells prompt 

 the use of supplemental irrigation for the production of crops 

 (Forest Service and Soil Conservation Service, 1972). 



USES AND PRESSURES 



Chesapeake Bay has provided man with food, wealth, an easy means 

 of travel, and satisfaction for some 5,000 years. The Indians reaped 

 a rich harvest of fish and shell fish, gathered shells for making 

 trading wampum, and plied its seemingly endless waterways in their 

 dugout canoes. 



The imprint the Indians made was small indeed-so small that 

 evidence of their long tenure is difficult to find. Far different 

 have been their European successors. Great changes have been 

 wrought. Changes are still being made. Yet amid these changes 

 there are still many areas of the Bay that appear virtually untouched, 

 Others look much like they must have in Colonial times. The Chesa- 

 peake estuary retains fragments of all the different eras that have 

 occurred from the most primitive to the most modern. 



Although the major uses of the Chesapeake have changed little, 

 the techniques by which the uses are effected have undergone consid- 

 erable modification. Often uses are in direct conflict with each 

 other. However, the estuary is so vast and the uses are so varied 

 that the Bay has accommodated most of them. In the past few decades 

 however, it has become increasingly apparent that even this vast area 

 is being transformed. Some of these changes are hardly evident and 

 others have profound effects far from the locations being changed - 

 and many are in the best interests of only a few people but at the 

 expense of many. 



The population pressure on the Bay is increasing. The Chesa- 

 peake estuary is the southern anchor of the Atlantic coastal 

 megalopolis that sprawls from Massachusetts to Virginia. The ports 

 of Baltimore and Hampton Roads, their satellite cities and the 

 others that have developed around the Bay supported 11 million people 

 in 1960 - a population expected to more than double in the next 40 

 years. An additional 3 1/2 million people live within a day's drive 

 from the Bay, 



Waterborne commerce has always been among the most important 



