Summary paper (125kb)

On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (Region 1) and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, the Urban Harbors Institute hosted a meeting to discuss the possibility of seeking a No Discharge Area Designation for Boston Harbor. The meeting brought together representatives from federal, state and municipal governments, as well as other stakeholders interested in protecting the waters of Boston Harbor.

Dan Hellin presented findings from the 2005 Massachusetts Marine Trades Workforce Assessment to the Massachusetts Legislative Boating Caucus at the State House.

Dan Hellin presented the preliminary finds of the 2005 Massachusetts Marine Trades Workforce Assessment Survey to the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association (MMTA). UHI collaborated with the MMTA, the South Coastal Workforce Investment Board and Massasoit Community College in developing, implementing and analyzing the results of the survey.

Dan Hellin made a presentation entitled Dispelling some of the Misconceptions associated with Working in the Recreational Marine Industry to the Massachusetts South Coastal Workforce Investment Board. The presentation focused on the preliminary findings from the Massachusetts Marine Trades Workforce Assessment Survey that was developed by the Institute.

Jack Wiggin presented the results of UHI's Feasibility Study of Renewable Energy in the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area at Coastal Zone 05 in New Orleans.

The Urban Harbors Institute was contracted by the Town of Nantucket to update the 1993 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan. In addition to UHI personnel, the project team includes John Duff, (Assistant Professor with EEOS), Sarah Oktay (Managing Director of UMB’s Nantucket Field Station), Chris Sweeney (Director of the Division of Marine Operations) and Senior Associates Rich Delaney (Horsley & Witten Group) and Steve Bliven.

The Urban Harbors Institute hosted the Boston Harbor Symposium 2005: A Tribute to the Honorable A. David Mazzone. The event was held in the University's Campus Ballroom and featured a tribute by the Hon. Richard G. Stearns (US District Judge, District of Massachusetts) and a panel entitled "Perspectives and Reflections". The panel comprised of a number of the people who had been intimately involved in the Boston Harbor Case.

The event was rounded off with a film entitled "The Boston Harbor Case: Recollections and Reflections from the Mazzone Archives", produced by the Project Archivist Jenni Matz, followed by a reception.

The event was attended by approximately 150 people including many of Judge Mazzone's family.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with the Recreation Marine Research Center at Michigan State University, the Catanese Center for Urban & Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University, the Planning & Zoning Center, Inc., Bordner Research, Inc., and Resource Economics Research LLC, was contracted to assist the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with a comprehensive statewide inventory of recreational boating access facilities, develop economic models to forecast future boater demand and document the economic impact of recreational boating for the State of Florida, as well as prepare a model for site suitability analyses of future boating facilities.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association (MMTA), was contracted to conduct a Massachusetts Marine Trades Workforce Needs Assessment. The survey of the marine industries and businesses in the South Coastal Region of Massachusetts aimed to better understand the current status of theindustry and to determine the future needs of those involved in marine trades within Massachusetts.

The Urban Harbors Institute has been contracted by The Coastal Society (TCS) to design and publish their quarterly newsletter and to develop and maintain their website. TCS is an organization of private sector, academic, and government professionals and students dedicated to actively addressing emerging coastal issues by fostering dialogue, forging partnerships, and promoting communication and education.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in partnership with Mass Audubon North Shore and Eight Towns and the Bay Committee, the State's ACEC Program, and Office of Coastal Zone Management, was contracted to initiate a regional resource management planning process to assist local officials with local and regional planning and protection efforts within the Parker River/Essex Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). Public outreach and analysis aimed to identify common issues, a needs assessment, and strategies for resource management development.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with their Senior Associate Jeff Benoit and John Ebersole of the UMass Boston Biology Department, was contracted by NOAA to assist the National Marine Protected Areas Center Science Institute in evaluating scientific issues relating to the design of MPAs. Specifically addressing to what degree benthic habitats and communities in various US marine ecosystems are linked ecologically with pelagic and other fish species swimming above them and how these linkages inform the design of restrictions on extractive uses in MPAs.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with David Terkla of the UMass Boston Economics Department, was contracted by the City of Gloucester MA, to update and revise the 1999 Gloucester Harbor Plan and to develop an expanded Master Plan for the City's Designated Port Area.

In 2001, US Federal District Judge A. David Mazzone donated his chamber papers pertaining to the Boston Harbor Cleanup Case to the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with the Archives and Special Collections Department of UMass Boston, has been archiving these and other related materials.

Jack Wiggin presented "Port and Marine Transportation Issues" at the Rhode Island Sea Grant Strategic Focus Group: Southern New England Regional Coastal and Ocean Management, September 9 in Newport, Rhode Island.

While attending the recent Coastal Zone Canada Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland, UHI graduate student Michelle Portman made a presentation entitled "Tidelands Management: Implementation of the Massachusetts Public Waterfront Act".

COASTSWEEP, the 17th annual Massachusetts coastal clean-up kicked-off on Saturday 18 September. COASTSWEEP is sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management and is co-sponsored and organized by the Urban Harbors Institute.

The Urban Harbors Institute played host to a group of delegates from the Croatian Parliament who were on a fact-finding trip to study how the US addresses issues of coastal management and coastal development.

Jack Wiggin participated on a panel focusing on linking the management of land use and offshore waters during the Mass Bays Symposium, State of the Bays 2004, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

During a visit to the Hull wind turbine, Jack Wiggin made a presentation on the Urban Harbors Institute's study of the feasibility of establishing renewable energy on the Boston Harbor Islands. The event was attended by several hundred wind power advocates and was sponsored by the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance.

The Urban Harbors Institute recently completed a report on "Improving the Links between Science and Coastal Management" for the Coastal States Organization in Washington DC. UHI developed a survey and a series of white papers to address the challenges commonly encountered when translating the results of scientific research into effective coastal resource management.

The Urban Harbors Institute, in collaboration with their Senior Associate Jim Coleman, was contracted by the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils to undertake an assessment of global and regional trends in container shipping and how these relate to a proposed expansion of the Port Botany container terminal in New South Wales, Australia.

The Urban Harbors Institute cosponsored the Coastal and Ocean Celebration. This event was hosted by The Coastal States Organization, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association, the Association of National Estuary Programs, the Sea Grant Association and the National Association of Marine Labs as part of the 2004 Annual Ocean and Coastal Program Managers Meeting.

The Urban Harbors Institute organized the Boston Harbor Islands Science Symposium. The Symposium was presented by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership and was held at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. As part of the Symposium, the National Park Service worked with the Board of Editors of the Northeastern Naturalist to produce a special edition of the journal that will be distributed to attendees, subscribers to the journal, and others.

Jack Wiggin presented the findings from the Institute's study and ongoing work on "Green Ports: Environmental Management and Technology at US Ports" at the US EPA-sponsored conference "Emerging Technologies, Tools, and Techniques to Manage our Coasts in the 21st Century," in Cocoa Beach Florida.

The Urban Harbors Institute co-sponsored a conference & workshop on Wind Energy on a Community Scale. Rich Delaney chaired a panel on the Legal Issues Faced by Coastal Communities & Islands that want Wind Power. Jack Wiggin participated in a panel on Wind Energy on Islands - What are Islands' Special Issues?

Follow this link for information on the Second Iteration of the Baseline 2000: Background Report - The Status of Integrated Coastal Management as an International Practice. Click here to access this report.

Rich Delaney was invited to address the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. The Commission is charged with investigating a range of ocean related issues and formulating a coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy. Its findings will be presented to the President and to Congress. Mr. Delaney made a number of key recommendations on coastal and ocean issues that related to the purposes and objectives of the Oceans Act of 2000. His testimony is available here as a pdf file (92kb)

Rich Delaney attended the "Second Summit Preparatory Committee (PrepCom II)" at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on January 27-29. PrepCom II continued the assessment of progress achieved with ocean and coastal issues since the Earth Summit 1992 and helped to develop new recommendations for the upcoming United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in August 2002.

UMass Boston Proposes a New Environmental Science and Technology Park. In January 2000, the University of Massachusetts Boston offered the City of Boston $1 million in full four-year scholarships for Boston residents, and acquired in return a historic building and 9.5 waterfront acres adjacent to its campus and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Formerly known as the Calf Pasture Pump Station, the castle-like granite structure was built in 1883 and once housed the equipment that pumped the city sewage into Boston Harbor.

Rich Delaney and Jens Sorensen represented the Institute at the Global Conference on Oceans and Coasts at Rio+10: Toward the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development: Assessing Progress, Addressing Continuing and New Challenges which was held at UNESCO in Paris from December 3-7, 2001 and assessed global progress on oceans and coasts in the implementation of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 and related instruments.