An Initiative to Restore and Conserve New England’s Coastal Watersheds
Gulf of Maine • Cape Cod • Rhode Island
The Northeast Great Waters Coalition is an alliance of non-profit conservation organizations, business
interests, and other stakeholders committed to educating decision-makers and their constituents about the economic and environmental benefits of restoring the coastal waters, bays, rivers, and watersheds of
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Coalition members share messaging about restoration and reinforce their missions through
planning, communication, and coordination of education and outreach activities. Specific coalition
activities can include letters, phone calls, or meetings with federal agencies and elected officials to
highlight both the need and the benefits of implementing the regional restoration plans described below.
The coalition does not advocate for policy positions, but focuses on the positive benefits of repairing or
replacing essential infrastructure such as dams, road crossings, and waste and storm water systems that
impact public health and safety, and other issues such as invasive species and the region’s resource-based economy.
The coalition was convened at a meeting in Portsmouth, NH on March 21, 2012. Meeting participants represented most of the major conservation organizations in the four northeast Atlantic states.
Background: the Need for Restoration
300+ years of development and industrialization in New England has left the region with a legacy of
degraded infrastructure and compromised natural systems that are negatively impacting public health and
safety and the region’s economy. Thousands of obsolete dams and improperly installed culverts
throughout the coastal watersheds pose risks of failure and flooding, and also block prime spawning
habitat for migratory fish. Efforts to improve water quality in both rivers and the coastal environment are
hampered by aging waste and storm water infrastructure that is woefully insufficient to handle the
pressures of development and increasingly violent weather events. Rapidly increasing populations of
invasive species in near coastal waters are causing alarm among fishermen and natural resource managers.
The cost of addressing these and other problems is assessed in The US Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration and Conservation Plan and The Rhode Island Bays & Coastal Watersheds Great Water: Restoration & Conservation Overview. These two studies, released in December 2010, document an immediate and pressing need for $4 billion ($20 billion long-term) of federal investment in the four northeastern coastal states (RI, MA, NH & ME) for infrastructure repairs and upgrades to dams, road crossings, water treatment facilities, and other infrastructure that impacts public health and safety, and the region’s economy. Many of these costs are also documented in the “Infrastructure Report Card” by the American Society of Civil Engineers (http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/).
Watch this excellent show as Curtis Robinson of the Portland Daily Sun interviews Peter Alexander about the New England Coasts Restoration Initiative: http://ctn5.org/shows/usually-reserved/usually-reserved-peter-alexander-january-2012-4361
Download this fact sheet about the New England Coastal Watersheds Restoration Initiative.
A special thanks to our sponsors and supporters.