Welcome to The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts blog, your inside look at our efforts to tackle climate change, ensure a healthy ocean and coasts, and protect our land and freshwater across the state. We’ll share stories from the field, at the State House, behind-the-scenes and more, highlighting our latest projects and progress.
October 2024
Securing the Health and Resilience of Our Coasts
TNC in Massachusetts is celebrating receiving two grants this fall that will support our coastal ecosystems and communities!
The coastal team recently received a five-year award of nearly $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The funds will support coastal restoration in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Cape Cod Conservation District and other partners. The project is focused on shellfish, salt marsh and eelgrass restoration using natural solutions that improve the function of these coastal habitats while supporting farmers, communities and economies.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Office of Coastal Zone Management also recently announced an investment of $5.2 million in coastal community resilience projects across Massachusetts to address climate impacts. TNC, the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston and Communities Responding to Extreme Weather will receive $265,928 to support Massachusetts communities in proactive, equitable planning for relocation away from high flood risk areas. The work includes: (1) launching a coastwide peer learning network, (2) hosting public events to hear and learn from people facing extreme flooding, and (3) developing a database of best practices and resources.
We look forward to carrying out the work this funding makes possible and sharing updates in the future.
October 2024
Celebrating 100,000 Acres: The Impact of the Family Forest Carbon Program
As of fall 2024, the Family Forest Carbon Program has enrolled 100,000 acres, including 400 acres in Massachusetts belonging to five landowners committed to climate-smart forestry practices on their land for the next 20 years. The program was created by the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and TNC and provides annual payments to enrolled landowners for implementing these climate-smart practices, in addition to providing access to professional foresters for assistance with forest management plans.
The carbon generated by these lands is measured and verified to meet an approved forest carbon accounting methodology. The FFCP then sells the verified carbon credits to companies interested in going beyond what they can do to reduce emissions through their business processes and supply chains. TNC and AFF continue to collaborate closely on promoting the program, as well as climate-smart forestry practices in general, to broad audiences in Massachusetts and other applicable states.
This success was made possible through high-impact partnerships, iterative science and accounting, and the relentless commitment of family forest owners to caring for their lands. We are proud to have supported AFF on their journey to 100,000 and we look forward to more Massachusetts landowners enrolling soon to further this program that brings us closer to our climate mitigation goals.
September 2024
Training Future Foresters to Support our Forests
On a hot July afternoon, Miles Plitt and Phoebe Weinberg, two college-age forestry apprentices, and their mentor, forester Otis Wood, are hard at work implementing climate-smart forest management techniques. They apprentices are a part of the NextGen Forest Project, a collaboration between TNC and the Forest Stewards Guild aimed at supporting training and development for the next generation of foresters.
Forest management techniques like removing and treating invasive species and using plastic tree shelters to protect vulnerable hardwood species improve the health of forests and increase the amount of carbon pollution removed from the atmosphere and stored in the forest. It’s essential work, but it has a high skill requirement and a shortage of people to do it.
With funding from TNC, the Guild worked with Long View Forest Management to train three forestry apprentices to protect seedlings from deer browse and remove invasive plants at 10 privately owned forest parcels in Massachusetts and Vermont this summer. From June through August, they treated nearly 40 acres of land. Now that the pilot summer has wrapped up, the team is discussing how to carry the program forward into the future.
August 2024
Continued Funding for Community Resilience
In August, the Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded $52 million in action grants for the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program—the most funding ever allocated to the program. MVP action grants support priority climate adaptation measures that municipalities identify during the MVP planning process or similar assessment planning.
TNC in Massachusetts is proud to join communities and partners on several of the 71 projects that were awarded grants in this round, including Boston and Revere’s work at Belle Isle Marsh, the Town of Washington’s Depot Brook Flood Resilience project, North Adams’ Flood Resiliency efforts, Mashpee’s Santuit Pond project, and Island End River Flood Resilience in Everett and Chelsea. Many of these efforts to strengthen communities in the face of climate change will use nature or natural systems to address challenges. Stay tuned for further project updates!
TNC helped the Executive Office of Energy and Enviornmental Affairs launch the MVP initiative in 2017. The model for the program’s community planning workshops is based on a Community Resilience Building framework developed by TNC. Since then, we have supported a number of projects that have received MVP grants, and in a few cases, provided matching funds for municipalities’ action grants.
June 2024
Funding Appalachians-Scale Protection
This spring, The Nature Conservancy announced $1.2 million in awards for the first round of the Connectivity, Climate and Communities Fund (CCCF), a program established to provide funding opportunities for conservation efforts in the Appalachians.
The program, which is part of the Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant program, will fund 27 projects totaling more than 10,000 acres across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. In Massachusetts, four partner organizations were awarded $196,000, which will help protect 900 acres in the state. The organizations include the Berkshire Natural Resources Council, Franklin Land Trust, Kestrel Land Trust and Mass Audubon.
In addition to connecting a network of lands and waters in the Appalachians, in support of the people, plants and animals that inhabit those regions, the program will help to ensure healthy forests that can store significant amounts of carbon.
The Appalachians touch down in Massachusetts for an expanse of over 90 miles from Mouth Greylock in the northwest to Mount Everett in the southwest region of the state.
May 2024
Celebrating the High Street Dam Removal
Last fall’s removal of the High Street Dam in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, opened up 10 miles of river habitat, mitigated flood risk and improved the water quality of the Town River. And while the dam took just a few short days to dismantle—in coordination with the Town of Bridgewater, and with the support of many local and federal partners—the project was many years in the making.
In May, over 70 partners, community members, and dignitaries, including Congressman William Keating (MA-09), Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Tom O’SHea, and Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz gathered to celebrate this big step forward, and the collaboration it took to get there. Learn more about the story in this great recap from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
October 2024
Gathering with TNC North America Policy Colleagues
Our Massachusetts Policy & Partnerships Team spent a week in New Orleans, Louisiana in October at TNC’s North American Policy and Advocacy Conference. Steve Long, Emily Myron, Tara Christian, and Leslie Pond joined TNC policy staff from across the continent to share efforts and learn from each other's experiences. Session and workshop topics included model advocacy and projects, centering environmental justice in policy, tips for engaging with decision makers, building capacity, and balancing policy requests in times of great political change.
Steve, Emily, and Leslie presented at sessions, sharing examples from our work on more efficient and equitable renewable energy siting and permitting, building strong relationships with our elected leaders, and fostering equitable community-based solutions for climate change policy—well-attended and appreciated sessions that showcase Massachusetts’ valued thought leadership.
The team also had a wonderful time exploring a different (much warmer) state, learning about local longleaf pine restoration efforts, seeing the diverse ways TNC policy staff engage with their regions, and strengthening connections with colleagues. It was especially great to have in-person time with the other folks from the Northeast states and to get to know colleagues beyond Zoom screens. We are grateful to the North America Policy team for organizing this experience and look forward to more opportunities like it in the future!
September 2024
Celebrating 60 Years of Funding for Conservation
On Thursday, September 5, The Nature Conservancy joined partners at the recently renovated Amherst Town Common to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Thanks to Congressman Jim McGovern, the Town of Amherst, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Connecticut River Watershed Partnership, and all of our other wonderful partners for coming out to celebrate with us!
Since its establishment in 1964, LWCF has been responsible for preserving some of Massachusetts’ most iconic natural and historic places, like Cape Cod National Seashore, Minute Man National Historical Park and Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge; as well as countless state and local parks, trails and playgrounds. Massachusetts has received over $250 million from LWCF over the years, leaving a legacy of public lands for future generations. This funding is critical for uplifting the Commonwealth’s $16 billion outdoor recreation economy and ensuring that everyone has access to these resources.
TNC has been a lead advocate in support of this program for years, helping to ultimately secure its permanent reauthorization in 2019 and full funding at $900 million per year in 2020. We have also worked with partners to bring LWCF funds to the Conte Refuge and to increase the number of applicants to the Stateside LWCF program, particularly from environmental justice communities.
Here’s to many more years of preserving and enhancing our natural treasures.
August 2024
Climate and Energy Legislation Updates
The Commonwealth is facing a paradigm shift with the amount of land needed to build distributed renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure to meet increased energy demand from the transition away from fossil fuels and electrifying our transportation and buildings sectors, with the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
Governor Healey established the Massachusetts Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting and charged it with developing recommendations to make the siting and permitting process more efficient and equitable for renewable energy infrastructure. The governor appointed representatives of diverse sectors along with our own Steve Long, director of policy and partnerships. We made sure that the recommendations provided better outcomes for people and nature by requiring science to inform site suitability and community engagement to provide people’s lived experiences and combine the two to inform the location, design, and operation of energy infrastructure. TNC ensured that site suitability includes forest carbon, biodiversity, resilience and environmental justice – and a sequential analysis and hierarchy to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts.
In order for the Commission’s recommendations to take effect, a new law would need to be enacted. The Commission, administration and the legislature collaborated on drafting legislation which moved through the House and Senate. Unfortunately, despite having reached consensus on the bill, the legislature failed to pass the broader climate change bill in which it was included before the end of the session. While this is extremely disappointing, there is a chance that the legislature could pass a stand-alone siting and permitting bill before the end of the calendar year during its “informal” portion of the session, though it would need unanimous consent.
May 2024
Increasing the Cap on Massachusetts’ Conservation Land Tax Credit
Massachusetts’ popular and heavily oversubscribed Conservation Land Tax Credit program, which provides up to $75,000 to landowners if they donate their land to conservation, was recently featured in an article on NPR’s Marketplace. Programs like this are important tools to advance conservation of our natural resources and to meet the state’s climate change goals, as these natural and working lands store and sequester carbon pollution. But with a lengthy waitlist, and only $2 million in annual funding, landowners have found themselves having to wait longer than expected to conserve their properties.
This news piece tells the story of some of the generous landowners stuck on the waitlist, and makes the case for why that is also bad news for the state’s climate goals. Laura Marx, Climate Solutions Scientist for TNC in MA, was quoted in the story: “All of their projections forward kind of fall apart if we don’t have that land base to continue to sequester and store carbon year after year.”
TNC has been leading the effort to increase the cap on the Conservation Land Tax Credit program for years, working alongside over 40 environmental and municipal organizations, bipartisan legislative champions, and the Administration. Unfortunately, despite unanimous support in the House, the FY25 budget conference committee did not include an increase to the annual cap in their final bill.
October 2024
Protecting the Summit of Stacy Mountain
As you drive west on Route 2 across the iconic French King Gorge Bridge in Gill, Massachusetts, a small mountain is visible on the left side of the gorge. This is TNC’s 155-acre Stacy Mountain Preserve, which rises from the Connecticut River to 550 feet at the top of Stacy Mountain. TNC has owned most of the land around the mountain since the late 90s—a special place overlooking the Connecticut River, with diverse terrain that includes ledges, rich mesic forests and vernal pools. It’s also home to many rare species.
Recently, TNC was able to protect one of the last two inholdings within the preserve, a two-acre tract at the top of the mountain. It had been owned by the Plante family, who sold us their surrounding property back in 1996 for protection. The tract includes a small cabin that the family built in the 1960s and had wanted to hold onto. Over the years the cabin fell into disrepair and became subject to vandalism. In September, with the help of a local company, Renaissance Builders, TNC was able to remove the cabin and rewild the mountain summit.
August 2024
Shrinking From the Sea
TNC manages and restores several properties across Cape Cod and the Islands that are some of the last-remaining parcels of unique ecosystems, like sandplain grasslands. Unfortunately, climate change is putting pressure on these special places.
In August, TNC staff Chris McGuire, Alison Bowden, Steve Kirk and Bekah Myers embarked on an annual monitoring trip to Tuckernuck Island, just off the southwest coast of Nantucket. Monitoring the lands that we steward is an important activity to keep track of changes to the property, check its boundaries and make note of any maintenance that needs to occur.
Several properties TNC looks after are on the shore and eroding right before our eyes—this year’s data show 50 feet of erosion since last year. The rate is somewhat variable year to year, but our stewardship team has observed that it has been more consistent in recent years with the larger storms. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute estimated a 42-foot per year erosion rate average from 1995 to 2012.
May 2024
Celebrating 50 Years of Hawley Bog as a National Natural Landmark
In 1974, the National Park Service declared Hawley Bog—one of TNC in Massachusetts’ preserves and a beautiful example of a southern New England level bog—a National Natural Landmark. In June, TNC and the Five Colleges Consortium, who co-own the land, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the designation with a gathering and walk through the bog. Community members, staff and supporters from both organizations, plus staff of a local lawmaker attended to celebrate this unique ecosystem that supports rare plants and animals, as well as serves as an easily accessible green space and outdoor classroom for exploration and research.
Plan your visit to Hawley Bog preserve today to see it for yourself!
July 2024
TNC's 2024 Trailblazer Awards
The Massachusetts Chapter is thrilled to congratulate two staff members for being recognized for their extraordinary leadership at The Nature Conservancy.
Congratulations to Jessica Rice Healey, senior associate director of development, on her nomination for TNC’s 2024 Trailblazer “One Conservancy” Award, which recognizes an individual who values the strength and vitality that comes from working together as one organization in local places and across borders to achieve our global mission. Jessica contributes to building a strong culture at TNC and inspires others to do the same!
We would also like to congratulate Meg Connerton, director of operations and culture, on her well-deserved nomination for TNC’s 2024 Hidden Gem Trailblazer Award. She also celebrated her 25-year anniversary with TNC this summer! Meg’s hard work, given without any expectation of recognition, is truly extraordinary. We couldn’t do what we do without you, Meg!
There is a saying that TNC folks come for the mission and stay for the people, and Jessica and Meg’s valuable contributions to our chapter are a part of what makes TNC such a special place to work.
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