MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Much of the discussion at Tuesday's public forum on developing a strategy to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay centered upon "carrots" needed to entice cooperation and not the "sticks" of enforcement.

In welcoming public comments from about 25 people attending a meeting at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg, Jeffrey Lape, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's bay program, said the "federal family" of agencies tethered to developing a new strategy ordered last year by President Obama need to do a better job of "empowering what's happening on the ground (locally)."

Public comments on the draft strategy may be submitted until Friday on the Internet at http://executiveorder.chesapeakebay.net.

A final strategy is scheduled to be released in May.

Jefferson County Commissioner Lyn Widmyer suggested the federal agencies' engagement with communities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed could come in the form of hands-on teams to provide direct feedback on what needs to be done to improve pollution reductions and how to go about obtaining funding for the projects.

"We in Jefferson County don't even have an environmental planner," Widmyer said. "It's tough ... there's this wealth of information and this wonderful stuff, but there's no sieve to get it to us at the very local level."

From an agricultural perspective, Truman R. Wolfe, executive director of the West Virginia Conservation Agency, said programs and outreach efforts that are already in place to help farmers are limited by lack of funding and staff.

"The system is in place, it just needs to be enhanced," Wolfe said.

And while the exploration of establishing a "Chesapeake Conservation Corps" is a "very positive" concept, Wolfe said existing watershed protection groups and other successful initiatives should be inventoried and supported before a new initiative is launched.

Brent Walls of Potomac Riverkeepers Inc. was critical of the lack of uniformity among the states in the bay watershed on enforcement issues, citing a lack of staffing in the Eastern Panhandle for inspecting stormwater projects.

"They should all be on the same page and they're not," Walls said.

Tuesday's gathering was the last of seven public hearings on the issue.