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		The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts Home About the Chapter Contact Us News Room Places We Protect Field Trips and Events Government Relations Volunteer Ways of Giving

Get Involved   You can learn more and explore new places when you join the Conservancy's online community and build your own personalized nature page. Go Deeper On the State Level Our 2008 state priorities for forests, rivers and streams, coasts and oceans, and land protection & conservation strategies. Confronting Climate Change Overview of Massachusetts Climate Change State and Federal Priorities How the Conservancy is tackling Climate Change Overview of Massachusetts Overview of Massachusetts  Government Relations

From the ever-changing blues and grays of the great Atlantic, to the Berkshires’ emerald hillsides and the sun struck grasslands of the Massachusetts Islands, the range of hues and shades in Massachusetts is as diverse as our landscapes and seascapes themselves.

For more than 45 years, The Nature Conservancy has conserved and restored thousands of miles of forests, rivers and coastal areas across the Commonwealth. Together with our partners, we have made tremendous progress. Forests that were once largely cleared for agriculture are now recovering. Moose, fisher and bobcat are returning and community economies are benefiting from sustainably managed woodlands. Our rivers are beginning to bounce back from decades of industrial pollution and dam-building.

Still, our lands and waters face threats greater than ever before — habitat loss, fragmentation, invasive species and climate change chief among them. Only by transforming the scale and pace of conservation and investing in science can we ensure nature’s continued ability to meet our needs. And because Massachusetts stands at a connecting place — where northern forests meet Appalachia and where Labrador and Gulf Stream currents come together off our coast — our actions here will help the balance of nature return across the entire region.

Land Protection & Restoration

Secure funding to complete a comprehensive Landscape Connectivity Study for Massachusetts
The Nature Conservancy and the University of Massachusetts secured $196,000 in FY08 through the federal transportation budget to analyze how roadways in Massachusetts impact wildlife. Increased funding for this pioneering study will help the Conservancy, UMass and other partners determine the best locations for connecting terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems—a critical strategy as animals move in response to a changing climate. Get facts about our plan to keep habitats together.

Increase federal investment in the Land and Water Conservation Fund
The LWCF has been responsible for protecting some of America’s greatest national treasures, including the Great Sands Dunes National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the Everglades. Increased funding for this program would stimulate state and local conservation of open space and wildlife habitat by providing matching federal funds for qualifying projects. Visit the National Park’s Service Land and Water Conservation Fund page.

Forests

Complete Weed It Now and launch Keep It Clean in the Berkshires
This year, the Conservancy will complete Weed It Now, a five-year, $1 million effort to remove invasive plants from 9,000 acres of critical forest habitat that has become a national model for large-scale restoration. Increased funding to complete the program and launch a complementary monitoring program called Keep It Clean will help protect the Berkshires’ forests as human activity and changing weather patterns threaten to carry invasives further into our forests.

Fresh Water

Secure funding to complete a study of 14 major dams on the Connecticut River
Increased federal funding for the Conservancy’s basin-wide model of flow in the Connecticut River watershed will enable the Conservancy to help the Army Corps of Engineers determine how best to maintain important uses like flood control and hydropower generation while improving conditions for species like Atlantic salmon and shortnose sturgeon and bolstering the River’s health and recreational value. Learn more about the Connecticut River.

Designate the Taunton River as a National Park Service Wild & Scenic River
Uninterrupted by dams or obstructions, the Taunton River is southern New England’s most intact coastal river ecosystem. The designation of 40 miles of the Taunton as a National Park Service Wild and Scenic River would provide legal protection and funding and catalyze land protection efforts throughout the watershed.

Secure $1.5 million in federal funding to remove three dams on the Mill River
Where appropriate, dam removal can eliminate threats to public safety, restore aquatic habitat and enhance fish passage. The Conservancy is working with legislators and local partners to fund the Mill River Restoration project in Taunton, which is proposed to remove three dams and add a fish passage on a fourth, restoring access to migratory fish blocked for generations and alleviating public safety concerns about the aging structures. Explore dam removal and other strategies in our latest report, A New Way for Water.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Jerry and Marcy Monkman (A wood frog, Rana sylvatica, is camouflaged against leaves on the forest floor); Photo © Jerry and Marcy Monkman (Autumn view of the west branch of the Westfield River on the Connecticut River tributary in Chester, Massachusetts.)