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INTRODUCTION 



The Nature Conservancy in conjunction with the Chesapeake Bay 

 Foundation contracted with the Smithsonian Institution to make an 

 ecological survey and study the Chesapeake Bay Region. This report 

 summarizes the results of the study and suggests future action. 



The urgency of preparing this report and initiating resultant 

 land protection efforts is self evident. Pressures for development 

 are increasing daily along all of Maryland's Western Shore and the 

 major river estuaries. Many areas are being rapidly built up, and 

 the completion of a second Chesapeake Bay bridge will bring comparable 

 demands to other accessible portions of the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake 

 Bay. 



Maryland State officials privately question the power of current 

 county zoning regulations and of recent State wetlands legislation to 

 do more than delay major and destructive industrial and residential 

 development projects as demographic and economic pressures grow. These 

 same officials are frank to acknowledge that the only sure way of 

 preserving natural resource, areas is through purchase. The State of 

 Virginia has no basic law for the protection of wetlands, and the 

 prospects seem dim for wetlands legislation in the foreseeable future. 



The governments of both States, as well as the U. S. National Park 

 Service, have long-term plans for additional land acquisition proposals 

 predominantly from the point of view of the recreational opportunity 

 these lands can offer to the maximum number of people - a philosophy 



