From May 1999 to June 2003, Walter Bickford was based at the Urban Harbors Institute conducting a project, funded by the EPA and Massachusetts EOEA, to assess the level of sustainability with respect to practices, research, teaching, and outreach, and to foster the implementation of programs of Education for Sustainability (EFS) at the four non-medical school campuses. The two goals of EFS are: 1) assuring that all graduates are environmentally literate and responsible, and 2) institutions of higher learning foster regional sustainability.

Walter earned a BS, Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1968. He completed the Executives Training at the J. F. Kennedy School of Government in 1983, and studied at the school of Wildlife Management, University of Alaska, 1960-1963.

Walter has twenty-three years of experience in elected and appointed public service positions with a focus on developing conservation-oriented fish, wildlife, land, water, hazardous waste and energy local by-laws and state environmental laws, regulations, policies and programs.

1993 - 1999: Director - Department of Environment, Health & Safety, Malden Mills Industries, Inc., Lawrence, Massachusetts. His responsibilities included developing and implementing policies, procedures, programs and systems to help assure that Malden Mills, the largest textile mill in New England, continuously exceeded compliance with OSHA, EPA, and DEP regulations, and projected Malden Mills as an international leader in environmentally and socially responsible business practices and sustainable production

1990 -1993: First Executive Director of the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition, Inc. He was and is widely considered a lead spokesperson for the so-called "watershed-approach" to natural resources management and restoration. He greatly influence the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs to refocus, reorganize and align its numerous, narrowly focused agencies around a holistic, watershed-based approach to resource management.

1983 - 1990: Commissioner of the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Law Enforcement, accountable for overseeing and leading the Divisions of Fisheries and Wildlife, of Marine Fisheries, of Law Enforcement, and of Marine and Recreational Vehicles, and the Public Access Board. He led the Department in developing and implementing a habitat acquisition and protection strategy based on the vision of a conservation safety net of interlinked ecosystems in each major watershed. He developed and implemented strategic river protection program dedicated to educating and empowering local grassroots watershed associations, and authored an atlas of Massachusetts rivers and strategies for their protection. He initiated the Atlantic coast boat theft conference, the Massachusetts boat theft unit, and co-authored and managed the successful passage of law banning jet skis in certain areas.

1977-1983: Massachusetts House of Representatives where he served on the committees on Energy, Natural Resources & Agriculture, and Federal Financial Assistance. During his tenure, he was the only legislator to receive 100% cumulative voting record from the Massachusetts League of Conservation Voters.