About 58 percent of the watershed remains forested, but those lands face troubling trends. Maintaining or expanding forests are beneficial in almost any setting. Urban forests help reduce stormwater runoff, energy use and air pollution. Streamside forests reduce runoff and improve aquatic habitats. Large forest tracts protect groundwater, reduce runoff, provide habitat and many other services.
Studies show that as forest cover in a watershed declines, so does water quality.
But it has no explicit forest preservation or restoration goals. Such goals were considered during the writing of the agreement, but were dropped because of a lack of consensus. Yet we claim that forests are the best land use for the Bay. That tells you how hard forests are to deal with, politically. The study recommends the states adopt specific goals for forest cover in rural, urban and suburban areas to help implement Bay Program commitments.