Environment

Protecting Our Environment. Steny Hoyer has led the fight to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent, Potomac, Anacostia, and St. Mary's Rivers. He has been a strong supporter of the oyster recovery project and helped secure over $23 million to replenish the oyster population of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. He has also been dedicated to preserving our natural resources by working to ensure that we are able to preserve our parks and open green space. He helped to secure federal funds to add 8,000 acres to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge making it one of the largest areas in the Mid-Atlantic region dedicated to land-wildlife research. He worked to expand Piscataway Park, which protects parklands along the Maryland shore to keep the river view shed from Mount Vernon looking the same as it did when President George Washington lived there, and helped acquire 6,000 acres in Charles County for the Douglas Point Project. Hoyer also secured funds to support the Alice Ferguson Foundation/Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center in Accokeek that teaches environmental education and preservation to more than 10,000 students per year by introducing students to the ecology and geography of the Potomac River.