Chesapeake Bay Reserve, Maryland

Location: The Jug Bay component of the reserve is located 20 miles from Washington, D.C.; the Otter Point Creek component is 19 miles northeast of Baltimore; the Monie Bay component is located 20 miles from Salisbury, Maryland Total Acreage: 4,820 Monie Bay: 3,426 Jug Bay: 722 Otter Point Creek: 672 Designation: Monie Bay in 1985, Jug Bay and Otter Point Creek in 1990 Lead State Agency: Maryland Department of Natural Resources Mailing Address: Chesapeake Bay-MD Reserve; Tawes State Office 580 Taylor Avenue, E-2, Annapolis, MD 21401 Phone: 410-260-8730

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States and is one of the most productive bodies of water in the world. It lies on the Atlantic Coastal plain in the Chesapeake Bay subregion of the Virginian Biogeographic Region. Roughly half of the Bay lies within the state of Maryland.

The multi-component Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland reflects the diversity of estuarine habitats found within the Maryland portion of the Bay. The purpose of the Maryland Reserve is to manage protected estuarine areas as natural field laboratories and to develop and implement a coordinated program of research, monitoring, education and volunteer activities.

In the Maryland portion of the Bay’s watershed are a variety of habitats. The Maryland Reserve encompasses several of those habitats, including salt marsh at Monie Bay, a tidal freshwater marsh at Otter Point Creek and a tidal, riverine system at Jug Bay. The location of the three sites reflect the importance of tributaries to the overall health of the Bay ecosystem.