All around Buzzards Bay, coastal communities are seeing vital salt marsh ecosystems shrink, erode, and flood, due to the combined effects of pollution and sea level rise. Over the next two years, a new project between the Coalition and researcher Alice Besterman will tackle this problem from two angles: analyzing how fast we are losing Bay salt marshes, and testing a potential solution to help them.
There’s lots to love about composting: it reduces food waste, creates all-natural fertilizer, and even helps fight climate change by storing carbon in the soil and reducing methane emissions created by food decomposing in landfills. Yet some composting practices on the South Coast are having a negative impact on Bay waters by increasing the discharge of nitrogen into local waterways.
The Bay’s capacity to adapt to climate change recently received a boost. This month, the Mattapoisett Land Trust (MLT) purchased 120 acres of woods and wetlands around Pine Island Pond, a partially enclosed bay off Mattapoisett Harbor surrounded by expanses of salt marsh. This project, a partnership led by the MLT and supported by the Buzzards Bay Coalition and the Town of Mattapoisett, was the first land conservation project to receive funding through the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program, which supports towns’ efforts to become more resilient to climate change.