NEWSLETTER
Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool
CAST Newsletter: March 2023
Tips and information to facilitate environmental restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
Did You Know?
Did you know BMP targeting maps now are available on CAST? BMP targeting maps have been created using CAST delivery factors and 2022 Progress loads to communicate which land-river segments in the watershed would be most effective for BMP targeting. Maps have been created for each nutrient and sector. You can find the links to these maps in the Numeric Goals for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sediment section of the Develop a Plan page.
CAST Webinars and Training
Upcoming Webinars
This month's webinar will highlight the Conowingo and Climate Change WIPs. We will first define and dive into the background of these WIPs. Then, we will demonstrate how to use tools in CAST to quantify the differences between the Conowingo Baseline and Conowingo WIP scenarios.
- Topic: Conowingo and Climate Change WIPs
- Time: March 16, 2023 at noon EST
- Join Zoom Meeting
- Meeting ID: 849 6994 9957
- One tap mobile +13017158592,,84969949957#
Available Training Videos
In our last webinar, we heard from guest speakers, Dr. Rebecca Murphy and Mr. Erik Leppo, to learn more about the Tidal Water Quality Trends and what this monitoring data-based trends mean for the overall health of the Bay. Rebecca walked through the available information and how it is analyzed and interpreted. Then, Erik demonstrated how to use the Bay Trends Mapping tool to visually and spatially represent the short- and long-term water quality trends over time.
This and other past training videos, on topics ranging from buffers to targeting nutrient reductions, are available in the Learning section of CAST under 'Free Training Videos'. Amongst the variety of training content available, there are also short videos on topics like 'Where do I start,' under CAST 101 - Getting Started.
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Success Story
Creating Silvopasture on Small Acreage in Nelson County, VA: Partners worked with a landowner to establish a silvopasture system - combining trees, forage, and livestock production. Read more about this success story on the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education's Projects page.
Does your organization have a Chesapeake Bay Watershed success story you'd like to share? If you have a story you would like to see in the next CAST Newsletter, submit an article using the 'Contact Us' feature from any page of the CAST website.
Chesapeake Bay Program Deadlines
2022 Progress toward the Bay TMDL
The Chesapeake Bay Deadlines refer to the major jurisdictions' annual reporting of new BMPs implemented, and existing BMPs verified as functioning in the watershed. BMP implementation information is used to create annual progress scenarios using CAST and to make assessments and report out the estimated impacts of restoration efforts.
The Phase 6 NEIEN Appendix has been approved and is available for download under CAST Progress Reporting.
- March 2023: 2022 Progress finalized and released on CAST. Progress may be delayed due to unresolved issues surrounding the verification assessments. We intend to make the progress scenearios available on CAST even if the reporting progress indicators have not been released.
Updates to CAST
New features: Two new pages are available from the CAST Home page: Monitoring and Ecosystem Benefits. The monitoring page contains a space to view maps and graphs of monitored water quality data. The Ecosystem Benefits page contains information about the complementary benefits to BMP implementation.
Updates to the Estuary Trends data is now live on CAST.
The Ecosystem Benefits Browser is now live on CAST. The Ecosystem Benefits Browser is an interactive tool which visualizes and summarizes the Goals, Outcomes, and Co-Benefits associated with CAST BMPs.
These updates do not change the loads in scenarios.
A full list of changes is available on CAST's Upgrade History. The new CAST version is Phase 6 - 7.6.0.
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