2022 Annual Report
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Mass Audubon’s Action Agenda is taking flight. A year and a half ago, we committed to a hopeful, ambitious, and urgent strategy to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and wildlife. Since its adoption, we have taken great strides to advance solutions that address the three greatest conservation threats of our time—the loss of biodiversity, the inequitable access to nature, and climate change.
The Action Agenda anticipated increases in new and robust public funding, but we’ve been blown away by what policy leaders at all levels of government have done. To take advantage of this unique moment in time, Mass Audubon has been investing in our staff capacity and building a strong foundation. We doubled the size of our land conservation and conservation science teams, and completely rebooted our policy and advocacy department.
These investments are working. Mass Audubon and our partners have spent the last year and a half working to direct $1 billion of new public funding toward nature and climate solutions. The campaign has been a huge success having succeeded at driving $984 million to our nature and climate priorities. But we recognize that much more is needed.
Our land conservation and conservation science teams partnered with government agencies and local land trusts to protect more than 1,200 acres of land in 2022. We’ve achieved 30 percent of our goal to restore and manage 2,500 acres of coastal habitat, creating crucial breeding grounds for threatened Piping Plovers and Least Terns, and adding important natural lands that protect our communities from severe storms and rising tides.
We’ve scaled up our environmental education programs, and today our educators are working in every Gateway City across the Commonwealth. We’re using our wildlife sanctuaries, the heart and soul of Mass Audubon, as laboratories for necessary solutions to protect the nature of Massachusetts.
And we are deepening our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility. We’ve opened two new All Persons Trails; we launched the Environmental Fellows Program, a 14-month fellowship that expands early career opportunities for young professionals with identities that are historically underrepresented in the conservation field; and we are partnering with local organizations to protect and restore greenspaces in Cambridge, Lowell, and Boston through our new Nature in the City program.
Our agenda is full of ambition and optimism—it is making a measurable difference and resonating with our partners and supporters. Our budget and membership have grown, and record numbers continue to visit our network of sanctuaries.
Hope. Urgency. Action. These three simple words will inspire and power Mass Audubon’s work moving forward. And with all of you by our side, we can make a difference beyond our imaginations.
Beth Kressley Goldstein
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David J. O'Neill
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