Do you care about forests, land and water in your community?

                      Are you concerned about threats from unsustainable development                                                                          proposals such as rezoning in East Wareham, MA?

                Do you want to help protect New England's precious cold water streams like                                                                                 Red Brook for fish and wildlife?

                                                       JOIN US ON MARCH 22

                                                        WORLD WATER DAY

                                                          FREE WEBINAR

                INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES AND RELATIONSHIP TO THE EARTH,

                            THE CHANGES HAPPENING AROUND US AND

                  HOW WE CAN ACT HERE AND NOW FOR  A LIVABLE FUTURE                                                                  

SPEAKERS:

Melissa Harding Ferretti, Herring Pond Wampanoag

Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag

Darius Coombs, Mashpee Wampanoag

Joe Falconeiri, Land Steward, Northeast Wilderness Trust

Meg Sheehan, Attorney, Volunteer

Kathy Pappalardo, President, Wareham Land Trust

Geof Day, Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition

BACKGROUND

In the 1990s, our regional planning agencies launched “Vision 2020: A Partnership for Southeastern Massachusetts"  to address development in the region that “alarmed our citizens.”                                                                                                                                                  

Today, inappropriately sited projects such as the NOTOS rezoning plan for West Wareham and land-based solar projects clearing pristine Pine Barren forests threaten our land and water.

Mass Audubon's 2020 study, Losing Ground: Nature’s Value In A Changing Climate shows Plymouth and Wareham with the state's highest development rates. Wareham has permanently protected only 16% of its natural lands and ranks close to the bottom in protecting forests. The Wildlands and Woodlands initiative advises keeping at least 70% of land as forests and at least another 7% in agriculture to ensure a healthy future.                      

Between 2012 and 2017, one quarter of all land conversion in Massachusetts was from large-scale ground-based solar arrays. Massive earth removal operations being done in the name of solar energy or "agriculture" are also underway.

                                                ALL WELCOME

This is the first of our three-part series -- each one hour long.

March 22, 2021 at 7 p.m. World Water Day: Land is disappearing in our region and waterways are threatened. What can we do?

April 22, 2021 at 7 p.m. Earth Day: Plymouth Carver Sole Source Aquifer from a hydrologist's perspective and inspiration from youth activists and the book, "We Are Water Protectors."

May 22, 2021 at 4 p.m. International Biodiversity Day: Globally rare plants and animals are right outside our doors here in Southeastern Massachusetts: learn about them from the experts and traditional knowledge keepers.