The sun shines over the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay earned its highest health score since 2002 last year, according to data from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, but researchers still gave the body of water a C in its latest evaluation.

The bay received a 50 percent on its EcoHealth report card last year, up five percentage points from its 2013 health score. The improved score continues the bay’s rebound from a stormy 2011, when Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee wrought widespread damage that led to an overall health score of 38.3.

“We had a terrible year in 2011,” said William Dennison, the center’s vice president for science applications. “It really knocked the bay back a little bit, but we’ve been improving steadily since then, which is really heartening.”

The EcoHealth report card compiles data from 10 health indicators, including aquatic grasses, water clarity and nutrient levels.

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“It’s something that’s so important,” said Lindsey Ganey, a senior community health major and lifetime state resident. “Keeping the bay clean is one step better toward a safe environment.”

Researchers at the center discovered in the 1980s that excess levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous were major contributors to the bay’s failing health. When water runoff from farms and lawns carry these nutrients into the bay, it puts animal and plant life at risk by giving rise to algae that blocks needed sunlight and oxygen. Last year, the bay saw a major decrease in phosphorus levels, signaling an improvement in its overall health.

Dennison said this improvement is small but significant and that the bay still requires a lot of work.

“The reason that more people aren’t interested in saving the bay is that the problem isn’t very visible,” senior elementary education major Ann Marie Huisentruit said. “Because it’s so subtle, people aren’t as invested as they should be.”

Huisentruit said she first learned about the magnitude of the bay’s health problems in GEOL120: Environmental Geology this past spring.

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“With all this that I was learning, I realized that I really want to work to protect the bay and our watershed,” she said.

Since then, she has done hands-on work in the bay, collecting water samples, planting water filtration grasses and more with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

“I’m very happy to hear that it’s improving,” Huisentruit said. “I’d be curious about what led to those improvements.”

Dennison attributes the improved health score to farm management practices such as planting cover crops, which recycle unused nutrients and manage soil erosion.

Farmers in the Maryland Cover Crop Program planted 478,000 acres of cover crops in the 2014-15 season, breaking the 2012 record of 430,000.   

“We haven’t solved all the problems, but we certainly have cracked some of them,” Dennison said. “Even though it’s still getting a failing grade, it’s getting better.”