Though the Chesapeake Bay region is home to more than 18 million inhabitants, environmental problems remain for this 4,500-square mile estuary. Reversing the poor water oxygen levels symptomatic of the Bay’s imbalance requires a robust community response.
Hannon Armstrong joined with the conservation group Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) to help restore the Bay’s ecological health with its annual Walk the Watershed event. As a two-month fundraising event, Walk the Watershed invited community members outside to case the lands that drain into the Chesapeake Bay.
While each of the 165 teams courted donations and respectively walked 200 miles (a distance roughly equivalent to the Bay), Hannon Armstrong’s team alone clocked an impressive 1,595 miles on foot, raising more than $40,000.
In total, participants covered more than 30,000 miles to raise $174,000 for the CBF’s conservation initiatives. Funds from the event helped the CBF educate 2,320 students, plant 34,800 trees, and seed the Bay’s sanctuary reefs with 1.7 million juvenile oysters. Clearing pollutants from the Chesapeake’s waters and restoring healthy oxygen levels for its 3,600 flora and wildlife species is a goal both audacious and worthy.
Hannon Armstrong’s proud partnership with the CBF to Walk the Watershed forwards our shared mission to Save the Bay.