Tuesday, February 17, 2026 – 7:00pm – 8:30pm
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Event Details
Speaker: Gerald Winegrad, Bay champion and former Maryland state senator
Former Senator Gerald Winegrad has devoted himself to environmental causes for 56 years, including Chesapeake Bay restoration. He represented the SERC area in the Maryland legislature for 16 years. He will examine the results of 42 years of formal efforts to restore the Bay in which he was intricately involved, winning many awards for his environmental advocacy.
Bay restoration is based on greatly reducing nutrients and sediment which cause dead zones, collapsing fisheries, and flesh-eating diseases in humans. Agriculture is the major source of these pollutants. You will learn about the successes and failures in achieving these goals and impediments to further progress from this Bay insider.
The inconvenient truths will be examined as to why 70% of Bay waters remained impaired, failing to meet Clean Water Act requirements. What needs to be done to restore the Bay’s water quality will be detailed and how citizens can take actions to assist in saving the Bay. The major shortcomings of the newly adopted Bay Agreement, signed by the Bay state governors and the EPA in December, will be discussed. It is the 5th such Agreement, beginning with the 1983 Agreement which triggered the establishment of the formal Chesapeake Bay Program.
This event is part of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)’s free evening science talks, and it will be recorded. Closed captions will be available during the live stream and on the recording. By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to watch live and receive a link to the recording a few days after the live stream. SERC seeks to showcase a wide variety of topics and perspectives for its evening science talks. Views expressed during these talks belong to the individual speakers and not the Smithsonian.
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