Maryland Forest Technical Study Story Map

<p><b>Open the Data Resource:</b> <a href='https://cicgis.org/portal/apps/storymaps/stories/b519e88ccc8c4c4c8d4c870f64e210ed' rel='nofollow ugc'>https://cicgis.org/portal/apps/storymaps/stories/b519e88ccc8c4c4c8d4c870f64e210ed</a></p> <p>Forest conservation and tree planting are central strategies to achieve the goals laid out in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement and are reinforced in many parts of the Maryland legal code. To monitor forest and tree canopy cover status and progress toward its commitments, the Maryland General Assembly enacted legislation (House Bill 991) in 2021 requiring a Technical Study of Changes in Maryland’s Forest Cover and Tree Canopy. The Maryland Forest Technical Study Story Map presents the results of this study, which improves Maryland’s statewide inventory of forest and tree canopy cover, assesses near and long-term change and assesses the effectiveness of forest and tree programs operating in the state. Notably, this study makes use of a newly released, innovative, very high-resolution (1-m) land use and land cover dataset for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, used for the first time to monitor individual trees within and outside forests across Maryland. This is complemented by moderate-resolution satellite imagery, ground observations and other research to generate insights on the status of tree canopy cover in the state.</p>