I hear ya sista. There hasn't seemed to have been a lot to cheer about this year for cleaning up the Bay. Although I'm not in the grip of report fatigue yet myself. I try to say to myself, "some progres is better than no progress". Hang in there!

I've been wondering about the very same thing. In large part, because I work in a news services office, I am online all day, listen to several news stations on the radio, watch tv news and and read several newspapers. Frankly, am just depressed and exhausted by the bad news. The environment is a disaster, gas and food prices are through the roof, developers are taking over every piece of greenspace they can get their mitts on, climate change is killing what the developers don't ruin, local governments never heard the word "plan," the administration has busted us here and abroad, our democracy is seriously challenged and without much resistance from the other side of the aisle, recession is on the way, the horror of Iraq is literally too much to contemplate in detail without weeping or getting sick and Guiliani, that crook, is running for president. How much worse can it get? I'm already insomniac and ready for the gas pipe.

As sure the arrival of Rockfish in the spring, the arrival of winter means the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will announce its annual State of the Bay report. It is an annual tradition that does not change much in Bay Country, not even the score varies significantly from year to year.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation issues its report, the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council and other government entities ignore the findings. The seasons change, the story repeats itself. Our children grow another year older, same story.

After years of failing to effectively influence policy makers, one would think that the Chesapeake Bay Foundation would change their approach to the problem, but they do not. They print their familiar bumper stickers, they issue their familiar report, they tell their familiar story, but they do not change their tactics.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation refuses to accept the lessons that other environmental groups, like the well-respected Sierra Club, learned years ago. To meaningfully influence the policy process, you have to participate in electoral politics. To this date, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which raises more than $18 million dollars annually, has never endorsed a candidate, never opposed a candidate, never advertised the voting record of a candidate, and never given a single dollar to support Bay friendly candidates.

Unlike the Sierra Club and other politically effective environmental groups, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has adopted a tax status that assists their fundraising goals, but that requires they renounce electoral politics. The Foundation grows larger and less politically effective with each passing year. They issue their failing grade to the Bay restoration, oblivious to the fact that it is as much a measure of their own failure as it is a measure of the failure of their restoration partners.

Dear Ms. Kobell,
I'm not much of a blogger, so I'm sending this to directly.

Regarding the unending stream of bad news, here's a bit of good news I
read just before your blog. (Pardon me if you already know about it).
Washington, D.C. and the EPA just reaced agreement on D.C.
stormwater-permit changes that will call for the city to plant 13,000 trees, write a tax-incentive plan for green roofs and possibly require all new District-owned buildings to have green roofs, and install 50 rain gardens (this is according to Environment News Service, 12/4/07).
A small step perhaps, but we can use any positive news we can get, don't you think?

You all at the Sun do a fine job of environmental reporting.

Sincerely yours,
Alan Raflo
Virginia Water Resources Research Blacksburg, VA 24061

P.S. Plus, I just remembered the stories I've been reading lately about people harvesting oysters out of Virginia's Lynnhaven River, for the first time in many years. I KNEW there was something else good going on!