CHESAPEAKE BAY - We might not think of them in such a way, but trees are one of the most important resources for the Chesapeake Bay.
Unfortunately, they are becoming fewer and fewer in the Bay's watershed.
Before water reaches the Bay, it has to travel through lots of waterways lined with trees.
The trees are a first line of defense against pollution in the Bay, according to Salisbury University Professor Tom Horton.
"They filter out pollution, they provide habitat, they shade the water in smaller streams, which makes the habitat a lot better for fish," Horton said.
In fact, much of the Chesapeake Bay's pollution comes from a surprising source.
"A lot of people don't realize close to a third of the bay's pollution comes from dirty air," Horton said. "Where that dirty air falls on a forest, a lot of it, maybe 90 percent, gets absorbed by the trees. It falls on a parking lot maybe zero percent gets absorbed."
In recent years, though, trees have been disappearing in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
According to the Chesapeake Tree Canopy Network, Maryland's Eastern Shore lost more than two square miles of forested space between 2014 and 2018.
Progress is being made to reverse the trend, though, and it has been getting results.
"The Lower Eastern Shore is actually one of the spots in the State of Maryland where tree cover has been increasing," said Anne Hairston-Strang, acting state forester with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Forest Service.
In Wicomico County alone, existing tree cover removes more than 11 million pounds of air pollutants and sequesters 158,000 tons of carbon per year, according to the Chesapeake Tree Canopy Network.
But according to Horton, more still needs to be done.
"You just can't do any better for the bay, for water quality, for habitat, than to plant lots of trees," Horton said.
The success of current programs to improve forest cover near waterways will be gauged when a new survey of forest cover loss or gain is released, likely in 2024.