A Letter from the CZM Director

Dear Coastlines Reader,

Welcome to Coastlines, the annual magazine of the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM). This edition focuses on "Smart Growth," a concept that has gained much state and national attention over the last few years. What, exactly, is Smart Growth? Smart Growth includes many elements with the overall goal of promoting better development and land use practices that make sense from an environmental, cultural, and economic perspective. Sprawling subdivisions and roadways lined with strip malls eat up extensive tracks of land, spread people out, add to commuting times, and erode our sense of community. Throughout eastern Massachusetts these growth patterns have irrevocably changed cities, towns, and landscapes. The good news is that many people, using common-sense approaches, have found alternatives that are good for communities and the environment.

You may still be wondering, what does Smart Growth have to do with coastal zone management? Well, the number one coastal pollution problem comes from the land. It's called nonpoint source pollution—the accumulated contaminants collected when rain and snowmelt run over lawns, roadways, farm fields, and other developed surfaces, picking up soil sediments, nutrients from fertilizers and sewage, and chemicals from pesticide use and other sources. This contaminated runoff ultimately flows to the sea or another water body. Smart Growth offers tremendous tools to combat this problem, leaving forest land and fields to slow and filter the runoff, while using practical techniques to minimize contaminants introduced to the environment.

The emerging and proven solutions presented in this edition of Coastlines are truly exciting, as is CZM's opportunity to work with so many inspired individuals and organizations to meet the Commonwealth's continually growing needs for housing, infrastructure, and economic opportunity, while maintaining a sense of culture and community, a healthy environment, and clean coastal waters.

For more on Coastal Smart Growth and other CZM initiatives, see www.mass.gov/czm, or sign up for CZM's monthly electronic newsletter, CZ-Mail, at www.mass.gov/czm/czmail/currentczmail.htm [to request printed copies, call the CZM Information Line at (617) 626-1212]. And, as always, please feel free to contact us with suggestions so we can better provide you with information in the future.

Sincerely,

Susan Snow-Cotter
Director
Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management