Isle Of Wight Bay
Watershed Restoration Action Strategy


This Plan provides a strategy for policies and actions to meet current and anticipated challenges in the Isle of Wight Bay Subwatershed (IOW). This 74 square mile watershed contains the County’s most intense development both in terms of type and amount, substantial water and land based recreational assets, and over 24,000 acres of productive forest and farmland.1 The Isle of Wight Bay subwatershed is the most complex subwatershed in the Coastal Bays drainage due to its physical configuration, existing land uses and expected future development pressure. The Isle of Wight area so far has received the bulk of Worcester County’s recent growth. The future certainly will bring even more development and change.

The Isle of Wight Bay along with the Coastal Bays four other bays (Assawoman Bay, Sinepuxent Bay, Newport Bay and Chincoteague Bay) and our ocean beaches provide the bulwark for tourism, the County’s economic engine. Additionally, the subwatershed contains significant agricultural and forestry resources. These land uses have provided the long standing economic, cultural and social backbone for the County. Protecting these assets while providing for their use is paramount to the County’s quality of life and economic future.

Note: (Documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com)