For quite some time now, the Coalition and many of our member organizations have circled 2025 as we chart the future of the Bay restoration effort. In this op-ed published today in The Baltimore Sun, Coalition Director Kristin Reilly shares the story of her connection to the Chesapeake Bay, the status of the decades-long effort to protect and restore the Bay’s rivers and streams, and how it’s crucial for state and federal leaders to recommit to the Bay restoration effort and refresh the goals and outcomes of the 2014 Chesapeake Watershed Agreement.

From the communities they engage to the people they hire to lead them, it is hard to ignore the large, white elephant in the room. And while most environmental organizations work and strive for diversity, this culture persists.