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Urgent Land Projects

The Great Marsh Conservation Initiative

Our deadline is fast approaching! To protect the Great Marsh, we need your help to raise the funds needed to make conservation of this property a reality. If you make a gift to this campaign today, your donation will be doubled thanks to a generous $50,000 challenge match!

Help Mass Audubon seize this opportunity!

The Great Marsh Conservation Initiative is a bold and exciting effort to establish the Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Rowley, MA. The next step in creation of this sanctuary is an important one - to purchase 75 acres of land identified as “highest priority” for protection. These acres are part of the largest complex of salt marshes in New England and the most significant coastal ecosystem in Massachusetts.

The cost of protecting this beautiful mixture of salt marsh, coastal oak woodland communities, tidal creeks, and estuaries is $3 million. Thus far we have raised $2.25 million dollars.

This land is particularly important because it:

• Bridges a gap between conserved lands to create over 8,000 contiguous acres of protected habitat.
• Provides habitat for birds and other wildlife that depend on salt marshes, and their complex food chain, for survival.
• Is under direct threat of development into 10 residential lots.
• Is designated as :
  • State Area of Critical Environmental Concern
  • BioMap and Living Waters Core Habitat
  • Important Bird Area
• Allows for the inland migration of saltmarsh habitat as sea level rises.

Salt marshes are one of the most productive natural ecosystems on Earth, and provide important wildlife habitat, flood and erosion control, and improved water quality. They are also one of the most threatened habitats due to predicted sea level rise as a result of climate change. Acquisition of this property would both protect the existing salt marsh and adjacent upland where the salt marsh may eventually migrate due to sea level rise.

Please consider giving a gift to this project today, we need your support to reach our ambitious goal. To learn more about this project, please contact Liz Albert, Campaign Manager, at 781-259-2104 or lalbert@massaudubon.org.