chesapeake bay trust

The Chesapeake Bay Trust is pleased to publish this report on public attitudes in Maryland about the environment and efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay. While we commissioned this study in November of 2008 to inform our work as grant-makers supporting community-based environmental restoration and education initiatives across the state, we believe that our findings are an important resource for the broader environmental community and policy makers in Maryland.

Of particular concern to us was determining how significant a priority environmental stewardship is for average citizens across Maryland, both within their own households and in terms of public policy. We wanted to test the hypothesis that after years of lackluster progress the public may be succumbing to “Chesapeake Bay fatigue.” And we wanted to gain a better understanding of how the Trust can more fully engage citizens in the work of Bay recovery both in terms of their willingness to make voluntary contributions through the Bay Plate and Chesapeake Bay and Endangered Species Fund income tax check-off programs and in terms of the targeting of our grant programs to ensure effectiveness and broad public support. In the process, we have uncovered findings that are valuable beyond our own work, so we are issuing this public report.

Contained here are the results of a scientific survey of more than 1,000 Marylanders, producing a vivid picture of the current environmental attitudes, practices, and priorities of average Marylanders. We hope that you will find this report as useful as we do, and that together we can use this new information to advance the work of protecting the Bay, its tributaries, and all our natural resources here in Maryland.