Restore Bay fish and wildlife and their habitat by...

• Gathering geographic information on oyster stock and existing oyster habitat to identify, locate, and prioritize sites for protection and large-scale restoration.
• Launching a Bay-wide oyster restoration strategy using scientific support for decisionmaking.
• Restoring large-scale oyster habitat in priority tributaries and use science to evaluate oyster restoration progress.
• Supporting the expansion of commercial shellfish aquaculture in the Bay to reduce fishing pressure on oysters and end poaching.
• Sustaining priority Chesapeake marshes that are under pressure from shoreline development and climate change.
• Strengthening federal coordination on permits that affect wetlands and exploring increased coordination on other licensing and permitting that affect Bay living resources and habitats.
• Identifying and prioritizing streams for fish passage and remove barriers to fish migration.
• Improving monitoring of underwater grasses and wetlands habitats.
• Predicting the cause and consequences of habitat degradation in the Bay watershed.
• Improving the science available for decisionmaking relating to blue crabs.
• Revising the goal for blue crab abundance and work with states to ensure sustainable blue crab populations.
• Improving scientific information to support Bay-wide restoration efforts including ecosystem based approaches to living resource management, habitat protection, and restoration. 

Manage and plan for the effects of climate change on the Bay watershed by...

• Identifying communities that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Demonstrating effective restoration planning in the face of land elevation change and sea level rise.
• Enhancing federally supported research to improve and streamline vulnerability assessments.
• Providing land-use change data.
• Developing tools and training to provide states, local communities, and resource managers with effective climate adaptation planning and implementation resources.
• Improving monitoring of climate change impacts in the Bay watershed.
• Ensuring monitoring results are integrated and available to assess the effectiveness of management actions.
• Facilitating interjurisdictional fisheries management with state partners and in coordination with existing management structures.

Strengthen the science available to support decisionmaking by...

• Expanding scientific coordination and capabilities of the Chesapeake Bay Program.
• Ensuring availability of scientific tools, data, and model results.
• Improving modeling used for restoration activities and for assessing effects of climate change.
• Participating in formation of a Chesapeake Monitoring Alliance and coordinating regional monitoring with national networks.
• Explaining the factors affecting progress toward restoration goals and the effects of management actions.
• Assessing new threats to the Bay and watershed.

Support efforts to improve Bay water quality by...

• Ensuring the availability of Bay forecasts and modeling including harmful algal bloom and hypoxia predictions and coastal inundation forecasts for the Bay's coastal communities.
• Supporting efforts to improve monitoring of water quality, including tidal monitoring through the distribution of satellite ocean remote sensing data.
• Expanding NOAA's Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System to monitor the Bay's changing environmental conditions to support Bay restoration and protection decisionmaking.

 Support land conservation in the Bay watershed by...

• Increasing collaboration with states on the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program.
• Supporting the development of protected coastal and marine areas.
• Improving monitoring of land use changes.

 Promote citizen stewardship in the Bay watershed by...

• Initiating robust elementary and secondary environmental literacy initiative affecting students, teachers, and school facilities in the Bay watershed.

Support the creation of "environmental markets" by...

• Identifying coastal communities and habitats that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and sea level rise.
• Working with U.S. Department of Agriculture leadership and other agencies to establish an Interdepartmental Environmental Markets Team.

On September 30, 2010, the Federal Leadership Committee released the fiscal year (FY) 2011 Action Plan, as required by the Executive Order, which conveys the full scope of on-the-ground and in-the-water efforts the federal government will undertake between October 1, 2010, and September 30, 2011, in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These actions and initiatives are based on the President's FY11 Budget Request and are contingent upon receipt of congressional appropriations in support of that request.

Following the structure of the Strategy, the Action Plan is organized into the four major cross-cut themes. The Action Plan also includes a brief section on implementation and accountability efforts. Throughout each section of the Action Plan, specific activities, lead agencies, and completion dates for each activity are identified. At the end of each section, a summary of funding is provided by outcome and agency. A summary table of funding by goal or supporting strategy and agency is also included.