Mass Audubon has announced that Bernard Creswick of Raynham took top honors in its 2017 Picture This: Your Great Outdoors statewide photo contest, for his impressive photograph of a ruby-throated hummingbird. Eleven other winners in specific age and subject categories were also chosen.
Mass Audubon has officially broken ground for its state-of-the art Environmental Learning Center at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln. When it debuts next spring, the 3,700 square foot building will serve as the hub from which all of the wildlife sanctuary’s environmental education flows. The Sunday, October 15 groundbreaking celebration brought together Mass Audubon leaders and Drumlin Farm friends and supporters of the exciting new sanctuary resource.
Climate change could impact many Bay State birds—including familiar species such as the Black-capped Chickadee— over the next 30-50 years, according to Mass Audubon’s State of the Birds: Massachusetts Birds and Our Changing Climate. The report is the third in the respected conservation organization’s State of the Birds series, which monitors the status of birdlife in Massachusetts.
Mass Audubon’s popular photo contest, Picture This: Your Great Outdoors, is entering its final month. That means photographers have until Saturday, September 30 to submit up to 10 images that reflect the natural beauty of the Bay State.
Mass Audubon’s Shaping the Future of Your Community program has received a grant from the Foundation for MetroWest to assist Hudson and other local communities with protecting and restoring natural water balance and water quality through resilient landscapes.
The Baker-Polito Administration and Mass Audubon today announced the re-opening of the new boardwalk located at Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in the Town of Norfolk, and will host a special celebration and ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, August 26, 2017, at 11:00AM.
Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln will mark its new status as a waypost on the 230-mile Bay Circuit Trail with a celebration and ribbon-cutting on Saturday, July 15. The event will feature a volunteer stewardship party focusing on a section of a trail at the wildlife sanctuary that will now be shared with the Bay Circuit, which links the North and South Shores in an wide arc through eastern Massachusetts.
Mass Audubon’s annual statewide photo contest, Picture This: Your Great Outdoors, is now underway and running through September 30. The friendly competition attracts hundreds of photographers representing all abilities, ages and backgrounds, encouraging them to record the natural beauty and biodiversity of the Bay State.
More than 750 volunteers showed up Saturday, April 29 for Mass Audubon’s annual Statewide Volunteer Day, which again inspired hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds to join in "spring cleaning" projects that help prepare our wildlife sanctuaries for the busy visitation season ahead.
Mass Audubon is inviting the public to experience the remarkable restoration of a former Plymouth cranberry bog to its original freshwater wetland and free-flowing stream habitat, in a series of free guided walks taking place at Tidmarsh Farms Thursday evening, May 18, 6-8 pm; and two Saturday mornings, June 3 and June 17, both from 9-11 am.
Mass Audubon has collaborated in a National Wildlife Federation (NWF) habitat restoration project on the North Shore, the Great Marsh Resiliency Partnership, which was selected by the New England office of the US Environmental Protection Agency to receive a 2017 Environmental Merit Award. The Merit Award annually recognizes outstanding environmental advocates and organizations for their significant contributions toward preserving and protecting natural resources.
Bird-a-thon, Mass Audubon’s biggest annual fundraiser, takes place Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, when teams of birders will compete to identify the most species over a 24-hour period. Hundreds of competitors comprising 24 teams will focus their binoculars and scopes on birds they spot from the Cape and Islands to the Berkshires.
Mass Audubon continues to close in on its goal of raising $3.6 million by June 30 to secure land for a new wildlife sanctuary at Tidmarsh Farms, a former 600-acre cranberry operation in Plymouth. The statewide conservation organization has already raised $3 million and, thanks to an anonymous foundation, all new donations will be matched dollar for dollar up to $350,000.
Mass Audubon is again expecting to attract hundreds of members and supporters to its annual Statewide Volunteer Day. This year’s event takes place Saturday morning, April 29, at 15 of the conservation organization’s wildlife sanctuaries from the Cape and Islands to the Berkshires.
Mass Audubon supports a strong and unambiguous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit for the cleanup of PCB contamination in the Housatonic River, caused by the General Electric complex in Pittsfield. In particular, we commend the Agency for requiring removal of large amounts of contaminated material from the Housatonic River Valley.
Mass Audubon is pleased to announce the creation of the Tracy Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, newly protected land in Richmond that will support biodiverse wildlife corridors in the Berkshires. Tracy Brook is Mass Audubon's 100th wildlife sanctuary statewide.
Mass Audubon is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the region’s largest annual gathering for birders of all abilities on Sunday, March 19, when its Birders Meeting returns to UMass Boston’s Campus Center Ballroom on Dorchester Bay. The conference, which takes place from 8 am to 4 pm, will again feature authoritative speakers and presentations that are informative, engaging, and even inspiring.
Mass Audubon camps have won in the “Best Summer Camp” category of the 2016 Boston Besties Guide, published by the popular online parent resource Mommy Poppins.
In response to cuts in the Massachusetts state budget by Governor Charlie Baker, Mass Audubon has found it necessary to reduce services and personnel at the Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton. Effective the weekend of February 18-19, free education programs will no longer be offered and the restroom in the north parking lot will be closed. One full time staff position as well as part-time staff hours have been cut.
Jon Atwood, a Bird Conservation Fellow at Mass Audubon since 2014, has been appointed Director of Bird Conservation. In his new role, Atwood’s responsibilities will include setting the overall direction of Mass Audubon’s bird conservation program and identifying and pursuing partnerships and funding opportunities to advance its work.
Massachusetts and federal land conservation grants totaling $2 million have bolstered Mass Audubon’s effort to acquire the recently restored Tidmarsh Farms—a former commercial cranberry operation in Plymouth—and create a 479-acre wildlife sanctuary. The “Campaign for Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary – Welcoming Nature’s Return,” is more than halfway toward its $3.6 million fundraising goal but is facing a June 30, 2017 project deadline.
Alex Shure of Melrose was named 2016 Grand Prize Winner in Mass Audubon’s annual statewide photo contest, Picture This: Your Great Outdoors, for his photograph of a harbor seal placidly regarding him beneath the waters of Massachusetts Bay. In the seven years that the contest has been engaging hundreds of photographers of all ages and abilities, it has catalogued a remarkable pictorial record of Massachusetts’ natural beauty, its rich biodiversity of plants and animals, and the people who cherish them.