When different faith communities intersect, the headlines are typically focused on conflict and tension. But while each faith tradition is unique, virtually every religion has a common thread – the desire and call to steward the creation given to us by our Creator. And here in the Chesapeake Bay region, we’re writing some positive headlines.

Every day, my colleagues and I at Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake (IPC) witness the enormous positive change that’s possible through the powerful social infrastructure of faith communities. During times of political and religious divisiveness, restoring and protecting the Bay and its rivers and streams remains a unifying priority. At IPC, our mission is to inspire and equip people of faith to honor, protect, and restore our shared watershed. With more than a third of the nearly 18 million inhabitants of the Chesapeake watershed identifying as part of a faith community, there is tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the shared value of creation care to improve the health of our treasured waterways.

And if there’s any lesson we can learn from the history of the Bay cleanup effort, it’s that collaboration is essential to reach our restoration goals. Since 1983, the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the District of Columbia have partnered to improve the health of the rivers and streams feeding the Chesapeake Bay. The most recent agreement in 2014 set a deadline to have all pollution reduction practices in place by the end of 2025. While we have seen progress, we are behind on meeting many of the agreement’s goals and outcomes. 

Now is the time to accelerate our restoration efforts and invest in projects and programs that are moving the needle. While large-scale projects are obviously vital, projects more modest in nature are an essential part of our efforts to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. 

One such project is the improvements made on the grounds of the Nepali American Cultural Center of Baltimore County. Facing flooding and runoff issues, they secured federal funding to build green infrastructure on their property that slows the flow of polluted runoff by utilizing natural processes to filter water before it enters local streams and creeks. Also receiving matches from partner and community sources, the project’s impact extended beyond the immediate environmental benefits, as community celebrations and maintenance support from local university students.

The project at the Nepali American Cultural Center of Baltimore County is far from the only example of conservation efforts that have positive impacts that extend beyond restoration goals. At Stillmeadow Community Fellowship in West Baltimore, they are reforesting their ten-acre property to create a Peace Park open to the community. Projects like these not only improve local water quality but serve as a unifying force to build bonds in our communities. 

When I visit project sites like this, it reminds me of the very deep roots of our desire to protect and restore our precious natural resources. At the heart of it, we have a moral calling to steward our environment. The Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams don’t belong to us. We are called to safeguard this national treasure for future generations. Partnering with faith communities on environmental causes puts a spotlight on the motivation and foundation for our work for clean water. With this context, it becomes crystal clear that we can make no better investment than supporting restoration projects making a tangible difference.

Federal funding is critical to executing projects on the grounds of faith-based institutions. With this support, IPC has helped faith organizations secure more than $4.3 million since 2022, impacting thousands of members in those communities and improving the health of local waterways. And yet we have connected with less than ten percent of Maryland’s faith organizations. The potential for positive change is immense if the 19,000 congregations estimated across the entire watershed united as champions for a healthy Chesapeake.

But faith-based organizations rely on federal funding tied to the Bay restoration effort to support their conservation projects. With the Chesapeake Bay restoration effort facing a critical juncture, we must recommit ourselves to restoring the Bay and local watersheds and refresh the goals to accommodate the increase in population and development in the region and the impacts of climate change. 

I urge Governor Moore as the Chair of the Chesapeake Executive Council to lead his fellow Governors of the other states in the Bay watershed to make this recommitment. As faith communities are uniting around caring for creation, so too can our region coalesce to write positive headlines on the health of the Bay and its rivers and streams.