Here Comes Cape Ann MARCH
We are pleased to announce that TownGreen is evolving its core mission. In 2025, TownGreen will launch Cape Ann MARCH (Mitigation, Adaptation, Resilience Climate Hub) – a working group that will engage Cape Ann municipalities, community-based organizations, academic institutions, and other community stakeholders to accelerate climate resilience. We are still in the planning stages of our newest program, but we are on our way to launching later this year.
What is Cape Ann MARCH? It’s a working group that TownGreen will convene and facilitate, offering representatives from municipalities and community-based organizations (CBOs) the opportunity to communicate on climate and coastal resilience projects, find ways to collaborate and receive helpful and necessary capacity-building services like assistance with identifying grants or aligning with academic researchers.
Just over a year ago, TownGreen’s Board, staff, and several Advisory Council members started meeting to map out how to accelerate climate resilience on Cape Ann. We began by asking several questions:
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What if Cape Ann municipalities could regularly communicate and collaborate to prioritize climate change adaptation and mitigation by building on climate resilience best practices?
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How do we bring community-based organizations to the table for decision-making, learning, and input?
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What grant writing expertise is needed to identify and win grants (government and others) that fund new climate adaptation projects?
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How can we engage academic partners to envision and participate in local research and impactful coastal adaptation projects?
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What education programs are most needed to inform municipalities and CBOs about climate adaptation, climate science, and community engagement?
We decided on a tried and true working group approach that has been successfully implemented in other communities, such as the New Hampshire Coastal Adaptation WorkGroup (NH CAW), the Resilient Mystic Collaborative, and several working groups coordinated by Senator Bruce Tarr: Merrimack River Beach Alliance and the Northeast Coastal Coalition.
So far, feedback has been strong, positive, and encouraging – so we’re going for it! TownGreen is in the early stages of a fundraising effort to support the launch and add staff. We’re focusing on foundations and philanthropic institutions, assistance through state grants, and funds from private donors. We originally planned to apply for several federal grants; however, climate resilience and adaptation federal funding is in limbo. We hope that the path becomes clearer soon. We are actively monitoring the federal funding situation and will share what we learn during TownGreen’s quarterly Open Forums. In the meantime, TownGreen will continue to prepare grant applications and launch the working group.
TownGreen believes that Cape Ann MARCH will be a valuable platform that will serve as a model for other regions in Massachusetts. Our region is already experiencing significant and costly impacts from coastal flooding caused by storm surge, sea level rise, groundwater rise, coastal erosion, and extreme precipitation events. Our area is also vulnerable to high wind events, extreme heat, drought, and woodland fires. Economic damage to local economies, loss of biodiversity essential to economic development, public health impacts, increased social vulnerability, and issues of equity all result from extreme weather events fueled by climate change. It’s vital that our Cape Ann communities ready themselves for the threats that are already here and will accelerate over time. We must confront the ever-changing and complex issue of climate change by working together regionally to explore and share needs, ideas, and resources.
In other exciting news, TownGreen is working on its 2025 climate awareness programming. This year we will offer several new programs, such as citizen science projects that focus on the Good Harbor Marsh and Wingaersheek Beach Marsh, plus emergency preparedness workshops and volunteer opportunities. Find more news on these initiatives in our March newsletter.
Finally, thank you to all who donated to TownGreen’s Annual Appeal. We exceeded our goal by successfully raising $55K that will fund TownGreen’s climate programming and the work to launch Cape Ann MARCH. Your financial generosity allows TownGreen to produce climate programs that reach hundreds of people every year – and work to make Cape Ann climate resilient.
To a climate-ready future,
Dick Prouty
TownGreen Board Chair
