Working beside and on behalf of 60 town planning and conservation commissions has been challenging work, but the rewards are manifold for Manomet's
Regional Conservation Planning. Manomet has helped cities and towns in southeastern Massachusetts plan for open space and wildlife issues as they
confronted some of the most intense growth and development pressures in the country. Tools developed here are readily transferable and will continue to
help people all over New England better combat sprawl.
During the program's duration, director Paul Cavanagh, his project staff, and a team of enthusiastic summer interns dove into the dirty, sweaty, prickly, itchy, yet immensely gratifying business of exploring Southeastern Massachusetts' diverse ecological landscape. They scoured pitch pine-oak woods, heathlands, mixed hardwood forests, cranberry bogs, and coastal estuaries, to name a few. By summer's end they had explored, photographed, and catalogued key natural features at over 400 sites. The fruits of their labors were incorporated into ConservationMapper and used to complete the Conservation Scorecard, The online Conservation Mapper has become an invaluable tool easily accessed by anyone in the region seeking information about local habitats; Conservation Scorecard applies this information to assessing and prioritizing the conservation value of open space.
Manomet's Southeastern Massachusetts Natural Resource Atlas, a partnership with Boston University's Department of Geography, provides the first holistic look at the cultural and natural history of the area. "Many people realized for the first time, from the information in the Atlas, the commonalities shared between neighboring towns in this region," says Cavanagh. Developing a regional identity and lowering barriers between 60 towns is an important step to conserving both its natural and cultural features.
Cavanagh critically reviewed local open space plans to identify ways they could be improved. He saw their tremendous potential and recognized the dedication of people on local committees doing them. He published Planning for Wildlife, a listing of resources that towns can use to develop better plans. It was distributed to the 60 towns in the RCP area and on Manomet's website.
Manomet also trained local conservationists to become better field ecologists. In a series of 16 workshops held during the May - October 2004 growing season, local land trusts, watershed associations, and "Friends of" groups gained practical hands-on field identification of plants and animals.
The tools Manomet produced in the Regional Conservation Program continue to be available to towns. Testimony to the program's effectiveness came in the form of a major conservation achievement of which all of southeastern Massachusetts can be proud. A 241-acre farm property in Carver was put on the market for $2.6 million. RCP director Cavanagh took the Conservation Scorecard his program developed and found that the property ranked very high in conservation value, providing habitat to 15 rare or regionally significant species of plants and animals. "When I ran it through the Conservation Scorecard, it came up with the highest score we've seen in southeastern Massachusetts," says Cavanagh. "We had to help Carver protect this property - it is important from a regional perspective."
Cavanagh sent the filled out scorecard to every conservation agency, nonprofit, and land trust to bring them to the table to talk about how they could help Carver preserve the Cole Farm. "The scorecard became persuasive to other groups to demonstrate that this parcel was worth protecting," says Cavanagh.
Carver Town Planner Jack Hunter agrees. "One of the key components that the Town used in determining the value of the Cole property was the Manomet Conservation Scorecard. Not only to convince the Town leaders, but also the local and regional conservation groups as well," says Hunter.
As protecting this parcel became increasingly important, the Carver Selectman voted unanimously to exercise their right of first refusal on the Cole property. The town and partner organizations continue to work toward the preservation of this parcel.
"While the final verdict is not in yet, it's a great story," says Cavanagh. "We were instrumental to bringing interested groups to the table and starting the ball rolling to protecting this significant property to benefit the whole region."
Note: You can still reach Paul Cavanagh at Manomet, where he continues to work on wetlands and wildlife projects.
Good News for Waterbirds
Help is on the way for the 74 species of waterbirds in the Mid-Atlantic/New England/Maritimes region. Our wading birds, seabirds, coastal waterbirds,
and marsh birds each face their own challenges and threats.
Manomet's Kathy Parsons is leader of the conservation planning effort in this region. Regional plans compile technical information on species: their status, threats, sites, and information needs. They also strategize ways to target conservation efforts, collaborate on opportunities, and set priorities and responsibilities, in an effort to sharpen the focus of conservation and maximize the efficient use of resources. Over 200 conservation partners helped to develop the northeast regional plan.
Partly because of its size, the Mid-Atlantic/New England/Maritimes region includes a wide variety of habitats. Northern New England and Canada's maritime provinces have rocky or muddy intertidal shorelines; southern New England has its sandy shores. Mid-Atlantic barrier islands shelter estuaries and embayments, while Chesapeake and Delaware Bays provide abundant tidal habitats. Inland, freshwater ponds, lakes, and rivers provide habitats for numerous freshwater-loving residents and migrants.
In some areas of this sprawling eastern region the main priority is simply determining waterbirds' status. Especially problematic are birds that are so secretive in their habits (rails) or are so hard to find (pelagic seabirds) that even crude estimates of their populations don't exist. The plan calls for stepped-up monitoring to fill in some of the gaps.
Primary threats? That depends on the category of waterbird: seabirds (such as wintering loons and shearwaters) might have more interactions with fisheries, threatening their feeding and posing danger of entanglement in nets. For wading birds the primary threats are human disturbance and invasive predators. Inland waterbirds (like the bitterns, rails, and glossy ibis) are threatened by habitat degradation from invasive plants and contaminants and wetland loss.
This region hosts tremendously dense human populations, especially in its southern end, and development pressure, overexploitation of coastal resources, and contamination are key threats.
"This [Plan] lays out regional threats to these species," says Manomet's Stephanie Schmidt. "It also lists conservation projects, that agencies and organizations in each state would like to see to help meet the research, monitoring, or education needs around these waterbird species."
Cool Cities - Not Just For Winter Anymore
Is your city Cool? As fall slowly chills down this may seem an obvious question, but consider the big picture, and whether your town is doing its part to curb global warming:
- Is your city doing all it can to curb emissions of greenhouse gases?
- Is the vehicle fleet running hybrid or low-emissions vehicles?
- Are drafty city buildings fitted with money-saving, energy-efficient technologies?
- Does town hall invest in clean and safe renewable energy?
The non-partisan National Mayor's Association passed the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement unanimously on June 13, 2005 to focus local efforts on bringing down greenhouse gas emissions at the local level. By signing, U.S. city mayors pledge to meet or beat the U.S. emissions reduction of greenhouse gases target in the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty that took effect on February 16, 2005 in the 141 countries. (The US has not ratified it). In just over a year, 319 mayors representing over 51.4 million Americans in 46 states have signed on as Cool Cities, and there are at least a dozen Cool Counties (as of mid-October, 2006). Leadership in 35 New England cities have signed the Climate Protection Agreement:
- Massachusetts Boston Cambridge Hull Malden Medford Melrose New Bedford Newton Pittsfield Somerville Worcester
- Maine Belfast Biddeford Portland Saco
- New Hampshire Dover Hanover Keene Manchester Nashua
- Vermont Burlington
- Connecticut Bridgeport Easton Fairfield Hamden Hartford Mansfield Middletown New Haven Stamford Stratford
- Rhode Island Pawtucket Providence Warwick
Brand has seen the positive and far-reaching consequences of local action in his travels throughout the US. "Real change is happening locally, and it's going to build political support for action at the state level, and eventually action at the federal level," says Brand. "When you have a movement that gives context and shape and purpose to individual action, then it makes sense. It breaks down the stale barriers between environmental and political movements. It's delightfully positive what's happening. Because Greens are not going to solve this by themselves."
Cool Cities has stepped into the leadership vacuum, making it perhaps the most important movement available right now to move forward on global warming solutions. Because it reinforces positive solutions already available, Cool Cities has succeeded in places where other environmental efforts have failed. One example: Mayors of Cool Cities in Texas reacted in unison to proposals to build coal-fired power plants there. Because burning coal is bad for global warming and air pollution, the mayors jointly renounced the plants, stating that if the plants are built, they can't make their climate initiative goals. Odds are, the mayors would not have been brought together to fight these coal plants unless they had been co-signatories of the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.
More is going on at the state level, too. Seven Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states (so far: CT, DE, ME, NH, NJ, NY, and VT) have joined in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to cooperatively reduce carbon dioxide emissions. More are signing on, too: Maryland becomes a full participant in June 2007. "Reggie" as it is called, created the first mandatory cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions in U.S., using credits or allowances to limit the total amount of emissions.
RGGI will generate significant new investments in innovative and cleaner technologies and energy efficiency, resulting in lower electricity rates and clean air. In participating states, electricity producers are required to reduce CO2 emissions. The District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, the Eastern Canadian Provinces and New Brunswick are observers in the process, with a possible eye to joining.
If you feel frustrated about how to address global warming because "It seems too big for one individual to make a difference", try initiating a local Clean Cities movement in your town! For more information visit: www.CoolCities.us.
Jeff Parrish, Manomet's Vice President for Conservation Sciences
Manomet welcomes its first Vice President of Conservation Sciences, Jeff Parrish. The position is a high priority in Manomet's strategic plan. "Manomet
has a distinguished record carrying out science that catalyzes new conservation action. This institutional history and momentum positions us well for
addressing the significant conservation and social challenges that lay ahead," said Manomet president Linda Leddy.
As Vice President of Conservation Sciences, Jeff will lead the science team in shaping and undertaking science and conservation initiatives that address some of today's and tomorrow's most urgent environmental issues.
His education and experience provide superb foundations for this important leadership role. For the last several years he served as technical director of The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Global Protected Areas strategy helping partners around the world create representative and effective protected areas. His expertise in conservation planning, ecological monitoring, and evaluating conservation efficacy are skills that will transfer to his oversight of Manomet's own science programs.
Previous positions within TNC include Latin American Conservation Ornithologist, Terrestrial Protected Areas Ecologist for the Caribbean, Director of International Site Conservation, and Director of Conservation Science for the Rocky Mountains. He is fluent in Spanish, received a Ph.D. from Brown University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and graduated from Tulane University Magna Cum Laude. Antigone, his wife, is an ob/gyn physician. They have a two-year-old daughter Annika. The Parrishes are moving to southeastern Massachusetts from Denver.
As Jeff observed at a welcoming dinner this fall, Manomet feels like a family - a close-knit group of scientists and professionals working cooperatively toward a common objective. We welcome Jeff, Antigone, and Annika as the newest members of Manomet's family, and look forward to the next exciting phase in Manomet's evolution.
