We gratefully acknowledge the federal and state agencies who financially supported this project: the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA); the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDDNR) Coastal Resources Management Program of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 as amended by the Office of Ocean Coastal Resource Management (OCRM); and the School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary (VIMS). Also, we thank the Allied Signal Foundation for providing a private grant to VIMS in partial support of this work.
Acknowledgments would not be complete without commendation for the groups that provided groundtruthing of SAV beds, which was used in conjunction with interpretation of the 1995 photography. The USFWS with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation organized citizens to report locations and species composition of grass beds around the bay. Kathryn Reshetiloff of the USFWS was responsible for compiling and tabulating the citizen ground-truth data. Stan Kollar of Harford Community College (HCC) in Maryland, Dr. William Hilgartner of The Johns Hopkins University, Kent Mountford of the USEPA, and Peter Bergstrom of the USFWS, provided ground-truth data for certain specific regions of the Maryland portion of the Bay. Virginia Carter and Nancy Rybicki of the USGS National Center provided ground-truth data for the Potomac River. The Maryland Patuxent River Park staff, provided ground-truth data for the Patuxent River. Ken Moore and Matthew Harwell of VIMS Department of Biological Sciences, as well as the faculty, staff and students of the VIMS Crustacean Ecology program, provided ground-truth data for the lower bay. The National Park Service (NPS) and the Ocean Pines Boat Club of Berlin, Maryland, provided ground truth for Chincoteague, Isle of Wight, Sinepuxent, and Assawoman bays.
The production of this report required the dedication of numerous scientists, technicians, artists, photographers, and others. The following people deserve a note of thanks: Rich Batiuk and Carin Bisland, USEPAChesapeake Bay Program Office; Kathryn Reshetiloff, USFWS; and Peter Bergstrom of the USFWS. We are especially grateful to the dedicated VIMS personnel who contributed greatly to the production of this report: Jane Lopez, Jerry Harrison, and Connie Motley of the Sponsored Programs office provided grant administration; Pat Hall, Rob Hayhurst, Steve Clukey, and Suzanne Alexander of Information Technology and Network Services provided computer services; Gina Burrell, Alice Tillage, and Jean King of the Department of Biological Sciences provided secretarial and purchasing services; Wanda Cohen, Kay Stubblefield, Harold Burrell, Bill Jenkins, and Sylvia Motley of the VIMS Publications Center provided report production services; Tom Pierce provided security; and George Thomas of the Shoreline Studies Program, Department of Physical Sciences, provided the aerial photograph used on the cover.
Air Photographics, Inc. conducted the aerial photographic missions and was responsible for the high quality aerial photographs.