Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
Center for the Inland Bays Board Approves Update of Plan for Cleaning up the Bays
Indian River Inlet, DE: The Board of Directors of the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays (CIB) approved the 2012 Addendum to the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) at their quarterly meeting on September 28, 2012.
“The plan is a blueprint for actions by all levels of government, industry and businesses, public and private organizations, and the general public, to restore and protect the Inland Bays,” according to Roy Miller, Policy Coordinator for the CIB and manager of the project.
The document culminates an eighteen month effort to examine, revise, and update the original Inland Bays CCMP published in 1995. The original Plan will remain in effect; this update will be an addendum that provides prioritized tasks for the next five years and includes issues that have emerged since the original document was written.
The focus areas in the CCMP Update are nutrient management, wastewater management, stormwater management, water quality management, managing living resources and their habitat, planning for
climate change, coordinating land and water use decisions, and outreach and education. Under each focus area are objectives, actions and performance measures.
In March 2011, a working committee was convened to provide guidance and expertise in the process of revising the CCMP. The committee included representatives from the DE Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the DE Department of Agriculture, the Sussex Conservation District, Sussex County government, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Southern Delaware Tourism office, University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and the Environment, the CIB’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, and a cadre of informed citizens including its Citizens Advisory Committee.
The CIB also solicited input from the Inland Bays watershed community at a Public Workshop held in Rehoboth Beach in May 2012. Those not able to attend the meeting were invited to submit their comments on the CIB website.
In the seventeen years since the original CCMP was completed, much has been accomplished. Only three major point sources of nutrient loading to the Bays remain of the 13 point sources identified in 1990, and two of these sources will be removed in the near future. Nutrient management plans have been implemented for nearly all the farms in the Inland Bays drainage system, and thousands of acres of land have been placed under protection.
“But, much remains to be done,” said Chris Bason, Executive Director for the CIB, “as shown in the 2011 State of the Delaware Inland Bays Report, especially in the areas of nutrient pollution and habitat loss, and on emerging issues such as pharmaceuticals in our water supplies and sea level rise and these are addressed in the Update.
2012 Addendum to the Inland Bays CCMP
View PDF »
1995 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
View PDF »
Did You Know
DID YOU KNOW?
Blue crabs have the ability to sacrifice limbs (called autotomy) in order to avoid capture. Missing limbs are regrown by a process called regeneration.
Take Action
TAKE ACTION
So Many Ways to Help the Bays
You’re Invited!
YOU'RE INVITED!
Join us for these upcoming events.
- Millsboro Rain Garden Planting and Workshop
10:00 am - May 21, 2013 - STAC Meeting
9:00 am - June 7, 2013 - 9th Annual Inland Bays Clean Up
9:00 am - June 8, 2013 - 1st Annual Rock & Row Recycling Regatta
2:00 pm - June 13, 2013 - Bethany Beach Nature Center
N/A - June 16, 2013 -
