NEWSLETTER

Chesapeake Assessment Scenario Tool

CAST Newsletter: January 2025

Tips and information to facilitate environmental restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Did You Know?

Did you know carbon sequestration estimates have been added to BMP Submitted vs Credited reports? The carbon reduction estimates for select BMPs are derived from the USDA's COMET-Planner. In the CAST reports, the irrigated and non-irrigated values are averaged and reported as county-level estimates, based on the amount of each practice credited in your scenario. You can find these estimates by running a BMP Submitted vs Credited report, or the new Carbon Loads Report from the Reports page.

CAST Webinars and Training

Upcoming Webinars

This month's webinar will highlight Modeling Conservation. Although models are typically used to track changes to the landscape, there is also value in the preservation of natural and agricultural land that can be quantified as well. Guest speaker, Ben Alexandro, from the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership, will join us to share some examples of programs in the watershed that support conservation and how to get involved. Then, we will demonstrate a couple ways to use CAST data to quantify nutrient reduction benefits to preserving existing natural land.

  • Topic: Modeling Conservation
  • Time: January 16, 2025 at noon EST
  • Join Zoom Meeting
  • Meeting ID: 889 1500 6591
  • One tap mobile +13017158592,,88915006591#

In-person trainings are available upon request.

Available Training Videos

November's CAST webinar highlighted Monitoring Trends. Although the model data is used for planning and tracking progress toward the Bay TMDL, the monitoring data is what is used to calibrate the model and ultimately delist streams. Three guest speakers joined us to share resources that can be used to track water quality and living resource progress in the nontidal and tidal Chesapeake Bay. Breck Sullivan kicked things off by sharing the information available in the Tributary Summaries and Storymaps, which summarize the short- and long- term trends in the nontidal and tidal water quality for major Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Then, Dr. Rebecca Murphy shared the findings available in the recently updated tidal trends, which are based on data collected from more than 130 monitoring stations throughout the mainstem and tidal portions of the Bay. Dr. Qian Zhang then took us home with a demonstration of shiny apps for the Water Quality Standards Attainment Indicator, which house the data used to update the Water Quality Standards Attainment and Monitoring Outcome on Chesapeake Progress.

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

Maryland Departments of Natural Resources, Environment Celebrate Milestone of 1 Million Trees Planted: State is on track towards 5 million trees goal after plantings increased significantly in 2024. Read more about this success story on the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' website.

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

2024 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.

  • January 2025: Progress reports and resubmission reminders continue each Friday. Calls with state technical leads continue.
  • February 10, 2025: Final opportunity for states to update BMP data.
  • February 11, 2025: Final progress run information available to jurisdictions - needed for outside reporting of progress on commitments to keep results relevant.
  • March 21, 2025: 2024 Progress finalized and released on CAST. Progress may be delayed due to unresolved issues surrounding the verification assessments.

Updates to CAST

New features:

Stream restoration calculator fix for nutrient reduction credit population error.

Clarification of error message when selecting multiple BMPs to delete in Edit Scenario.

Updated 2024 base conditions are now available.

Miscellaneous bugs and fixes.

Note: CAST reports will still reflect the version number 7.14.0

A full list of changes is available on CAST's Upgrade History. The new CAST version is Phase 6 - 7.14.1.

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