WMDT 47 NEWS -- The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has received a nearly $1 million federal grant to develop tools to protect wetlands that keep pollutants from entering the Chesapeake Bay.
The EPA is overseeing the multi-state, multi-billion dollar initiative to restore the troubled bay.
Carl Hershner, director of the Center for Coastal Resources Management at VIMS, says Virginia has already lost half its wetlands, and it continues to lose these critical buffers.
He said the EPA grant will help develop resource-management plans that provide guidance and tools for protecting wetlands amid increasing development pressures.