Advocacy Press Releases

Mass Audubon’s Shaping the Future of Your Community program has received a grant from the Foundation for MetroWest to advance conservation and climate-smart development in local communities. This grant will highlight successes in the City of Framingham, which updated its local regulations to better promote cost-effective, nature-based solutions to climate change.

Mass Audubon and our partners met with Senator Edward J. Markey to brainstorm strategies for working with the incoming Presidential administration and new Congress on critical environmental issues.

Mass Audubon, the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center, and the Natural Capital Project recently received a $560,636 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop information on the human benefits provided by the Narragansett Bay watershed. This three-year project will determine the economic value of these “ecosystem services” received from conserved land and clean water.

In an exciting move forward for climate change adaptation, Governor Baker has signed an Executive Order directing state agencies to take action to make Massachusetts more resilient.

Mass Audubon has received a $25,900 grant from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust (MET) for our work educating children and adults throughout central Massachusetts on improving water quality and habitat, focusing on the use of cost-effective Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development.

We’re always looking to learn more at Mass Audubon and now we have a new resource to share with you! In addition to our land protection specialists at headquarters, our Shaping the Future of Your Community program recently enhanced our capacity to support communities and landowners with forestland conservation and stewardship as well.

Mass Audubon has submitted an amicus brief to the Berkshire Superior Court in support of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office for their defense against the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Connecticut Expansion, a proposed natural gas pipeline project that is trying to remove protections on state land designated for permanent conservation.

The magnificent beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore provide important nesting and migration habitat for the threatened piping plover and endangered roseate tern along with other species. The current management plan is being updated - see the new plan along with our comments on the draft.

As part of Mass Audubon’s ongoing work in the Blackstone River Watershed, five communities have been selected to receive technical assistance for local Low Impact Development (LID) and land use planning projects to improve water quality and stormwater management.

© The 300 Committee Land Trust

In Massachusetts, about 25 percent of land is protected and 22 percent is developed, which means the other 53 percent is still up for grabs or will be at some point in the future. One powerful tool for ensuring that more of that remaining land ends up protected is the state’s Conservation Land Tax Credit.

Mass Audubon supports the permanent protection of New England’s offshore treasures: Cashes Ledge and the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts Area. Protecting these special ocean places from current and future threats will help ensure the health and biodiversity of the region’s ocean waters for generations to come. 

The release of Losing Ground: Planning for Resilience, the fifth edition in Mass Audubon’s report series on land development patterns in Massachusetts, has been getting some attention from the media.

We are happy to report in response to a lawsuit filed against the Commonwealth's regulatory use of priority habitat screening to protect endangered species, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled unanimously to affirm the state's authority under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA).

Last week’s press conference on Mass Audubon’s priority climate change adaptation bill was a great success! The bill would require the state to generate a comprehensive, statewide plan to prepare for extreme storms, weather events, and other unavoidable consequences of climate change.