Mayor Menino at the 2nd year launch of Hubway. Photo Credit: City of Boston.

In a major city like Boston, the mayor plays a pivotal role in advancing transportation innovation and improvements. After all, few things show off a city better (or worse) than its transportation systems. To help the public understand where Boston’s mayoral candidates stand on this key campaign issue, CLF is co-sponsoring a free forum on Transportation and Livable Communities on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 from 6pm to 8pm at the Boston Public Library.

During Mayor Thomas Menino’s twenty years in office, the City of Boston has advanced many transportation projects, including the modernization of the Blue Line, the rehabilitation of old and opening of new stations on the Fairmount Line, the launch of the Hubway bike share system, and the completion of the Big Dig. Around the country, Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, and Michael Bloomberg in New York all have successfully put new transportation ideas, policies and investments at the center of their administrations.

For CLF and everyone who lives and/or works in Boston, it matters that the next mayor of Boston, whoever it is, understands the importance of its transportation systems to the city: the ability to walk and bike safely and easily, the need to assure that public transit is affordable and accessible to all, and the foresight to consider how good transportation planning can help the city reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage through the challenges presented by a changing climate. With the right mayor, Boston can and will continue to lead in this area.

Four Corners/Geneva Avenue Station on Fairmount Line. Photo Credit: Patrick D. Rosso, pdrosso @ flickr

The forum on Transportation and Livable Communities will give each of the candidates an opportunity to address the vital transportation issues impacting Boston’s communities. CLF is co-sponsoring the event with a group of non-profit organizations, planners, and advocates who have been working to make Boston, and other Massachusetts communities, more livable.  As a group, we have provided all of the candidates with extensive information on policies related to transportation and livable communities. Now, on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 from 6pm to 8pm,  you can learn how more about how each candidate will improve Boston’s streets and public transportation. The event is free and  open to the public and the media. Register here to get your free ticket. We hope to see you there.

Photo by Phyllis Toomey

The entire ocean seemed to be falling from the sky Tuesday night as people dashed through the rain from the parking lot of the Seacoast Science Center into the warm, dry lobby. We were waiting for them with hot coffee, cookies, and lots of information about ocean planning.

The film Ocean Frontiers is “an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country where we meet industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, commercial and sport fishermen, and reef snorkelers—all of them embarking on a new course of cooperation to sustain our oceans and the economies that rely on them.”

About 60 people joined us to watch the film, and stayed for a conversation about ocean planning in New England. Among the many concerns people had about our ocean’s health, the one we heard most in New Hampshire was about the nitrogen pollution in Great Bay. People were inspired by the movie to think about how ocean planning could help better manage this and other long-standing problems in New England’s ocean.

We encouraged them to attend the public meeting on June 25^th in Portsmouth to talk to the Northeast Regional Planning Body members about their concerns and ideas, as they relate to the goals this newly formed, first-in-the-nation planning body has drafted. If you are interested in being part of this important conversation, you should come, too. There are public meetings taking place all throughout New England, and will be a full meeting of the regional planning body in the fall, so now is a great time to get involved.

When asked what the most important takeaway message from the film was for them, these are a few of the comments we got:

“To see different groups working together toward a common goal was inspiring.”

“Everyone has to be at the table for ocean planning to work.”

“The most important takeaway for me was how interconnected we all are to the ocean. It isn’t just important for those who directly interact with the ocean to preserve it. We all need to do our part to take care of our resources.”

Once person simply said: “There’s hope.”

There has never been a more important time to care about the health and management of our oceans than now. If you are interested in learning more about ocean planning in New England and across the nation, consider hosting your own screening of Ocean Frontiers. Keep up with the latest news here, or on the Northeast Regional Planning Body’s website.

There has never been a better time to care about the ocean than now. The ocean provides us with so many things – half of the air we breathe, an amazing variety of things to eat, a place of beauty and refuge and sometimes fury. This year the New England coast line was pummeled by tropical storms and Northeasters, reminding us yet again that our glorious ocean is powerful, relentless and unforgiving. Despite our ingenuity and technical know-how, we live in a natural and changing environment and need to better plan and protect our ocean ourselves going forward.

We used to think that the ocean was so big, and life in it so abundant, that nothing we did could harm it or exhaust its resources. But now, because of us, the ocean is changing fast and in dramatic ways. It is getting warmer, more acidic, and ever more crowded – as we consider new uses like tidal and wind energy development in addition to our historic ones like fishing, shipping, sailing and other recreation. The fabric of New England’s ocean ecosystems is changing, too. Previously depleted populations of sharks and seals are on the rise, while other species like Atlantic cod and yellowtail flounder have plummeted. And there’s evidence that the changing ocean chemistry will profoundly affect the entire food chain, from tiny plankton on up.

The time to care is now. With climate change affecting our oceans in ways we are only beginning to understand, now is the time to restore the health of our ocean so that it can be as resilient as possible to the changes that are coming. Ocean conservation has been part of our work at CLF since the mid-1970s when we were a scrappy little organization on Beacon Hill fighting the federal government and the oil industry over oil and gas drilling on Georges Bank – New England’s most important fishing grounds. We won that case, then won it again and again as the oil industry kept knocking on New England’s door. Ocean conservation is part of our history and is embedded in our DNA, and we are still working hard to  protect our ocean and keep it thriving for future generations of New Englanders in many ways:

• Keeping vital habitat protected – special places like Cashes Ledge, a breathtakingly beautiful underwater mountain range 80 miles off the coast of Cape Ann, home to the largest coldwater kelp forest on the North Atlantic seaboard. Cashes Ledge provides rich habitat for many of our most amazing and iconic sea creatures – Atlantic cod and wolffish to bluefin tuna and North Atlantic right whales. Some of these species are on the brink of existence in our waters, and truly need places of refuge to sustain and rebuild their populations. CLF has recently gone to court to keep current protected habitat areas, including Cashes Ledge, closed to destructive trawl and dredge fishing gear.

• Working for an end to overfishing – all the habitat protection in the world won’t help a species recover if the fishing pressure is too high. CLF has been fighting for sustainable New England fisheries for decades, and we still aren’t there. Cod numbers are currently at a very small fraction of what a healthy population would be. We have asked for a moratorium on directed cod fishing until their numbers recover – in opposition to the current political push to increase catch limits. Can you imagine New England without cod? Neither can we – which is why we have gone to federal court against fisheries managers to stop them from increasing catch limits on cod and other imperiled groundfish until the populations are better recovered.

• Supporting our nation’s first regional ocean plan – New England is leading the nation in ocean planning. With the increasing pressures on our rapidly changing water, we need to better coordinate all of our uses to minimize conflict and make decisions based on the whole ecosystem, as opposed to individual uses. CLF has been involved in ocean planning from the start, advising and supporting our states on the Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan and Rhode Island Special Area Management Plan. And now we are actively supporting  development of the nation’s first regional ocean plan by the Northeast Regional Planning Body – made up of state, federal, and tribal representatives and convened pursuant to the National Ocean Policy.

• Celebrating our beautiful ocean – Our New England Ocean Odyssey campaign is all about showcasing the amazing, breathtaking, important, and often strange things that lie beneath our waves. We have one of the most productive, diverse ocean ecosystems on the planet right off our shores, and we hope that by bringing you the gorgeous photography of Brian Skerry and others, and engaging stories, you will be inspired to help us protect it.

• Restoring historic river herring runs – After 18 years, ocean-going alewives (also known as river herring) can return to their ancestral spawning habitat on the St. Croix River in northern Maine and eventually make the St. Croix the largest river herring run in New England once again.  CLF fought for this right on two fronts.  First, we successfully filed suit against the EPA last year to enforce water quality standards, successfully arguing that a 1995 law excluding alewives from parts of the St. Croix river conflicted with the river’s Class A water quality designation under the Clean Water Act. Second, CLF worked with other environmental organizations and the Passamaquoddy Nation to support emergency legislation in Maine to repeal the alewife exclusion law. The alewife, is a “keystone species” that provides food for many animals, birds and larger fish species native to Maine’s marine and fresh waters, and restoring it to its native river habitat is a wonderful reason to celebrate.

We will continue to fight these battles for a healthy ocean so we have more to celebrate next World Oceans Day, and the one after that, and beyond. Please stay with us on our voyage and be part of a better ocean future in New England.

Originally posted on New England Ocean Odyssey.

If you are like me, you will take just about any excuse to go to the New Hampshire Seacoast – but we have a really great reason for you to head there next Tuesday evening:

Ocean enthusiasts and the community are invited to join the screening of Green Fire Productions film, “Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship.” This event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 from 7:00-9:00PM at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.

The evening will begin with a reception including coffee and cookies, and will feature educational materials from the event hosts. After the screening, there will be a Q&A discussion session moderated by Jennifer Felt, Conservation Law Foundation’s Ocean Planning Outreach Manager.

This event is free, however we request you RSVP online: http://www.ocean-frontiers.org/seacoast

This event is hosted by the Seacoast Science Center and Conservation Law Foundation, both members of the New England Ocean Action Network, a diverse group of organizations, individuals, and industries working together to promote new approaches to ocean management in our region based on collaboration, cooperation and sound science, and by Green Fire Productions.

Ocean Frontiers is an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country where we meet industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, commercial and sport fishermen, and reef snorkelers—all of them embarking on a new course of cooperation to sustain our oceans and the economies that rely on them.

Green Fire Productions’ Executive Director and producer of Ocean Frontiers, Karen Meyer stated, “We are excited to present Ocean Frontiers to the New Hampshire Seacoast community. This film clearly conveys that win-win solutions are possible when industry, scientists, fishermen, conservationists, and government groups work together.”

“Ocean Frontiers wonderfully illustrates how very different stakeholders can come together and cooperatively make good decisions for our vital ocean resources,” said Priscilla Brooks, CLF’s Vice President and Director of Ocean Conservation. “If we are going to be more active and responsible stewards of our ocean, we will need robust public involvement, access to good scientific data, and better coordination between the many government agencies that manage our use of the ocean. CLF is very happy to be part of a growing movement to promote awareness of these important issues and collaboration in designing a comprehensive plan for the future of our ocean.”

Wendy Lull, President of the Seacoast Science Center, said, “We are proud to host New Hampshire’s premiere screening of Ocean Frontiers. As a non-profit marine science education organization, we want everyone to understand that a healthy ocean drives our quality of life. As so beautifully shown in the film, no matter where you live, what you do every day influences the health of the ocean, and ocean health impacts our daily lives–from weather, to what we eat, where we live and how we play. Ocean Frontiers heralds a new era of stewardship, and we hope you will join us for the film, for the discussion, and for the future of our seacoast and sea.”

A reception will precede the screening and will feature information and opportunities to learn more about what New Englanders can do to help support improved management of their ocean and coast. Online registration is requested: www.ocean-frontiers.org/seacoast

With warming seas and ocean acidification putting unprecedented pressure on our already heavily fished, shipped, and polluted coastal areas, adding the extreme pressures of seismic testing and offshore oil drilling, which we keep hearing are supposed to be safe and foolproof, but never really are, seems like a foolhardy move.

There are plenty of other options for developing offshore energy that will not put us at such high risk of horrible toxic spills and deadly-to-wildlife noise. We don’t want dead or deformed fish, whales, and dolphins in our ocean, and tar balls on beaches where our kids build sand castles. We have some of America’s most beautiful coastal areas and amazing ocean life here in New England, and we need to keep them that way.

What can you do to help? Be part of a global campaign by joining one of your local Hands Across the Sand events this Saturday, May 18^th, 12 PM local time, to say “No” to dirty fossil fuels and “Yes” to clean, renewable energy. Hands Across the Sand started in Florida in 2010, and has rapidly grown into a major global campaign. The idea is simple – join your fellow ocean champions on the beach, lock hands, and unite in opposition to dirty energy.

Have someone take a picture and post it to the Hands Across the Sands Flickr page (and, if you’re in New England, please share your photos with us, too!), and send it to your elected officials for even greater impact. Visit the Hands Across the Sand page to find a local even or organize your own.

Fishermen, beach-goers, surfers, and conservation groups agree – oil drilling has no place in New England’s ocean. So take a stand and put your Hands Across the Sand!

This was originally posted on New England Ocean Odyssey on May 14th, 2013.

Under the Ice. Photo by Zach Whalen.

I’ll be honest with you – I tend to stay on top of the water when I’m in the ocean. Or, I try, anyway. As a surfer the goal is to spend as little time underwater as possible. Especially in the winter. But I’m starting to think I’m missing out on something by avoiding the chilly depths of our Gulf of Maine.

The Boston Sea Rovers, one of the oldest underwater clubs in the nation, hosted its 59^th annual show this past weekend, and I was lucky enough to be there with some fellow CLFers. We went to talk about the importance of preserving valuable habitat, like Cashes Ledge, for protecting our fragile ocean ecosystems and helping our dwindling groundfish stocks recover.

We hoped that by showing people Brian Skerry’s beautiful photographs of the gorgeous kelp forest and amazing animals of Cashes Ledge, the divers would be inspired to help us protect it. They were – we got hundreds of signatures on our petition to ask our fisheries managers to protect essential habitat in the Gulf of Maine. And, while we may have gone there to talk, we ended up doing a lot of listening as well. Here are just a few things I learned after spending two days talking with divers:

• The Gulf of Maine is an excellent place to dive. There are so many wonderful animals to see here.
• But visibility often stinks. This is partly due to the very productive nature of our waters. As phytoplankton bloom and the food chain gets going, it gets a little harder to see. Or, poor visibility can be due to human activities in the water (see next bullet).
• The ocean floor looks pretty bad after a bottom trawler comes through. I heard this dozens of times this weekend. “It looks like a freshly plowed field,” said one diver, and you can see the sediment plume from miles away.
• The next time I want to talk to divers about the amazing beauty of Cashes Ledge, I’d better bring a map so they know how to get there and see for themselves.
• The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Discovery Channel have partnered to develop a robot that can follow a white shark. Seriously. I saw the footage. More on this later in the month (yes, I am totally geeking out on this).

I also learned that, in spite of difficulties equalizing my ears underwater, there may be ways I can still get down below, if I take things very slowly. I’m pretty stoked to find out if that’s true. My 10 year old son, who was with me this weekend, wants to learn also. Even more motivating!

I’m not sure I’ll be as hardy as diver Zachary Whalen, who took this awesome picture under the ice, but maybe I can at least go down below on a warmer day and watch the seals that I usually only see when they pop their heads up next to me while I surf.  But if there are waves – I’m bringing my board.

Today marks the launch of the Coal Free Massachusetts Coalition Campaign to Phase Out Coal, Protect Public Health, and Transition to 21st Century Clean Energy. Across the state, in communities where the remaining coal plants operate, local residents and supporters have joined to call for the end of coal. The campaign issued the following statement:

It’s time to end reliance on coal-fired power plants in Massachusetts according to a new state-wide coalition of environmental, public health, faith and community groups, and elected officials. Citizens gathered in coordinated events across the state in Somerset, Holyoke, and Salem to announce a new Massachusetts campaign to protect public health and communities, renew efforts to make the transition to energy efficiency and clean renewable energy sources, and revitalize local economies to create more jobs.

Coal Free Massachusetts announced the following platform:

• Phase out all of Massachusetts’ coal-fired power plants by 2020;
• Advance energy efficiency and clean renewable energy like responsibly sited wind and solar to
  support the transition from coal electricity generation in Massachusetts
• Partner with and empower community leadership and vision for clean energy and clean-tech
  development for our host communities, including:
• Robust transition plans focused on the long-term health of the community
• Innovative opportunities for growing the green economy
• Support for workers and municipal revenues

Coal burning is highly polluting and devastating from a public health perspective. The coal burning plants in Massachusetts – Salem Harbor Station, Mount Tom (Holyoke), and Brayton Point Station (Somerset) – are the largest air polluters in the Commonwealth. In 2011, coal only provided 8% of the total energy in New England but still emitted more than 8 million tons of CO2 in Massachusetts alone. One in 10 New Englanders suffer from asthma and MA ranks 20th in mortality linked to coal plants. A 2010 Clean Air Task Force report showed that pollution from coal-fired power plants causes 251 deaths, 211 hospital admissions, and 471 heart attacks in Massachusetts every year. Nationwide more than 112 coal plants have announced retirement under pressure from local communities and efforts to protect public health. MA spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually – $252 million in 2008 alone – importing coal from other states and countries, including some places that are hostile to the US.

CLF has long worked to clean up dirty, polluting power plants, and is proud to be part of this continued effort to move Massachusetts away from reliance on coal and towards clean energy resources such as efficiency, conservation and renewable generation.  Click on the links to find out more about what CLF and the Coal Free Massachusetts coalition are doing and how you can join!

For more than a decade, the rock band Phish has been a strong supporter of CLF’s work to make all of New England’s inland and coastal waters safe for swimming, boating, and fishing.  Through the band’s phan-funded charity, the Waterwheel Foundation, Phish has supported CLF’s Lake Champlain Lakekeeper and other CLF-led clean water campaigns.

Recently, Waterwheel has funded CLF’s work to advocate for climate change adaptation strategies. This work will ensure that we learn the lessons about how to minimize and recover from flooding after extreme weather events like Tropical Storm Irene. 

Waterwheel foundation supports charities like CLF with the proceeds from sales of exclusive Phish merchandise, including rare autographed posters, organic tee shirts, and hoodies. CLF is honored to have been invited by Waterwheel to help work the merchandise table again on this year’s tour.

We’ll be at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA for this Thursday evening’s concert. There are still a few tickets left. While you’re at the show please consider drop by the Waterwheel table inside the concert to say hi to me and the other CLF volunteers who are teaming up with Waterwheel to ensure that we have enough clean water for people and fish alike.

Earthfest at Boston's Hatch Shell in 2006. Photo: Monkeyatlarge @ flickr.

If you love the Earth, free music and great food, you should be at Earthfest on the Hatch Shell this Saturday!

This annual event, presented courtesy of Radio 92.9, features hundreds of environmentally-friendly vendors and sponsors along with local non-profits doing work right in your backyard, such as your favorite non-profit, CLF! Stop by our booth for a face painting of your favorite oceanic creature or fill out a ticket for a chance at a great prize or just chat with one of our many dedicated staffers about the work we’re doing across the region. We’ll be located in the non-profit exhibitor area between the Main Events area and the Vendor Cafe.

The event will also feature free music from some great groups such as Eve 6, Third Eye Blind, Switchfoot and more. For the complete list of musical acts, please see here.

Details:

Radio 92.9 EarthFest
Saturday, May 19
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Hatch Shell, Boston, MA

Directions

So come out and show your support for CLF and New England’s environment this weekend! Hope to see you there!