ACEC stewardship involves a variety of public education, planning, and management approaches.  The following examples provide some publications and web sites, and offer links to organizations working to protect resources in ACECs.  These are models that can be considered to further goals of resource management and stewardship in ACECs.  Additional suggestions are described in the ACEC Stewardship fact sheet.

GENERAL INFORMATION

ACEC Resource Management Plan Guidelines, June 2004
These revised and updated guidelines are now available – click here. A related document, adopted by EOEA in 1996, Policy Guidelines for the Review and Approval of ACEC Resource Management Plans, is also available.

About ACEC Maps and Boundaries
Click here for an overview of written ACEC boundary descriptions and boundary maps, currently available digital maps, and for information about the ongoing ACEC Program boundary clarification project.

Coastal ACEC Stewardship Grant Award Descriptions
Between 2002 and 2005, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) in partnership with DCR's ACEC Program annually awarded grants to organizations in coastal ACECs. The Coastal ACEC Stewardship Grant Program provided communities with funding to implement planning, outreach, and monitoring projects. This highly successful program encouraged new approaches for municipal and regional planning in ACECs. For descriptions of past 3 years of awarded projects, click here. Please note this program has not been funded for 2007.

Coastal Zone Management's Wetlands Restoration Program
The mission of the Wetlands Restoration Program is to help people voluntarily restore the state's degraded and former coastal wetlands by working with many federal, state, and local partners. For a list of wetlands restoration publications available from WRP and other sources, see www.mass.gov/czm/wrp/education/publications_downloads.htm.

DCR's Heritage Landscape Inventory Program
The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Heritage Landscape Inventory Program builds upon previous statewide surveys identifying lands of historical and cultural value by providing towns with the tools to increase awareness and preserve these special locations. Several towns within ACECs have had survey reports created through this program. For more information please go to www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/histland/Inventoryprog.htm.

DFG's Riverways Program
The mission of the Riverways Program is to promote the restoration and protection of the ecological integrity of the Commonwealth's watersheds: rivers, streams and adjacent lands. Riverways has a variety of programs and projects to assist communities. For a description, see www.mass.gov/dfwele/river/programs/index.htm.

Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program Information
The NHESP Biomap Inventory Inventory delineates areas in need of protection to ensure biodiversity in Massachusetts is maintained. The areas specifically focus on those providing habitat for state-listed rare species and exemplary natural communities, but may also include areas rich in diverse plants and animals. The resources provided by this program can help target conservation efforts to include these critical areas.

For more information, please go to www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/nhbiomap.htm.

The NHESP Living Waters Project developed an inventory and conservation plan to identify the most critical sites for freshwater biodiversity in rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. See www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/nhbiomap.htm.

Almost all Massachusetts towns have had Core Habitat reports produced by NHESP to include the info from both of these inventory projects. Look for a town report at www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/nhconsmap.htm.

NHESP also has rare species lists and fact sheets online. See www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/nhspecies.htm.

FOR EACH ACEC

Canoe River Aquifer ACEC
Canoe River Aquifer Advisory Committee – for various links to information about the Advisory Committee and the Canoe River Aquifer ACEC, enter "Canoe River Aquifer Advisory Committee" under search at  www.google.com/

Central Nashua River Valley ACEC
Nashua River Watershed Association  www.nashuariverwatershed.org

Ellisville Harbor ACEC
Ellisville Harbor State Park Management Plan, 1993, DEM – available from the ACEC Program.

Fowl Meadow and Ponkapoag Bog ACEC
Fowl Meadow Reservation Management Plan, 2002, MDC – available from the ACEC Program.

Fowl Meadow/Ponkapoag Bog Municipal Regulatory Assessment, 1997, MAPC – available from the ACEC Program.

Great Marsh ACEC (originally Parker River/Essex Bay ACEC)
A complete planning web site that includes the two documents below, as well as a variety of maps, a brochure, public outreach material, and other planning tools – www.mass.gov/czm/prebacec.htm

Parker River/Essex Bay ACEC Resource Inventory, 2000, CZM

An Assessment of Resource Management Strategies in the Parker River/Essex Bay ACEC, 2002, CZM

Great Marsh Coalition www.greatmarsh.org

Hinsdale Flats ACEC
Ashmere Lake Diagnostic and Feasibility Study, Hinsdale, Massachusetts, 2003, ESS – available from the ACEC Program.

Plunkett Reservoir Diagnostic and Feasibility Study, Hinsdale, Massachusetts, 2003, ESS – available from the ACEC Program.

Kampoosa Bog Drainage Basin ACEC
Kampoosa Bog Resource Management Plan, 1999, Kampoosa Stewardship Committee, available from the ACEC Program.

Effects of Road Salt and Phragmites, 2001 (Wetlands Journal), J. A. Richburg, W. A. Patterson III, and F. Lowenstein – available from the ACEC Program

Kampoosa Bog Invasive Species Management Plan, 2003, M. Batcher – available from the ACEC Program

Kampoosa Bog Stewardship Committee  www.Kampoosa.org

Karner Brook Watershed ACEC
The Nature Conservancy's Berkshire Taconic Landscape Program nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/berkshire/

Neponset River Estuary ACEC
Neponset River Estuary ACEC Resource Management Plan, 1996, DEM – available from the ACEC Program.

Neponset River Watershed Association  www.neponset.org

Neponset River Reservation   www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/neponset.htm

Petapawag ACEC
Squannassit – Petapawag ACEC Stewardship Committee  www.squannassit.org

Pleasant Bay ACEC
Pleasant Bay ACEC Resource Management Plan, 1998, Pleasant Bay Technical Advisory Committee – www.pleasantbay.org/plan.htm

Pleasant Bay ACEC Resource Management Plan (Five – Year Update), 2003, Pleasant Bay Resource Management Alliance  –   www.pleasantbay.org/newplan.htm

Guidelines and Performance Standards for Docks and Piers in Pleasant Bay, 1999, Pleasant Bay Resource Management Alliance –   www.pleasantbay.org/shoreline.htm

More documents are available for download at the Pleasant Bay Resource Management Alliance www.pleasantbay.org.

Rumney Marshes ACEC
Rumney Marshes ACEC Salt Marsh Restoration Plan , 2002, EOEA – An interactive CD of this plan is available from the ACEC Program.

Saugus River Watershed Council  www.saugusriver.org/index.htm

Rumney Marsh – history, wildlife, canoe guide – www.reverebeach.com/rumneymarsh/links.html

Squannassit ACEC
Squannassit~Petapawag ACEC Stewardship Committee  www.squannassit.org

Schenob Brook Drainage Basin ACEC
The Nature Conservancy’s Berkshire Taconic Landscape Program nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/berkshire/

Waquoit Bay
The Ecology of Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 1996, DEM – available from WBNERR at the web site below

Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR) www.waquoitbayreserve.org/

Weir River
Weir River ACEC Natural Resource Inventory, 2002, UHI – www.uhi.umb.edu/publications.htm

Weir River Estuary Flow Study, 2002, ENSR – available from the ACEC Program.

Building a Vision for Our Weir River Estuary, 2003, UHI – An inventory of open space and public access around the Weir River ACEC and Summary of the Weir River Estuary Visioning Workshop – www.uhi.umb.edu/publications.htm

Weir River Watershed Association – www.weirriver.org/  – including the Straits Pond Watershed Association

Wellfleet Harbor ACEC
For information regarding the proposed Herring River Restoration Project, please go to www.wellfleetma.org/public_Documents/WellfleetMA_BBoard and click on Herring River Restoration Project Update. This website includes the project timeline, committee meeting notes, project area map, monitoring results, and other related information.

To view the Wellfleet Harbor Draft Harbor Management Plan under development by the Wellfleet Natural Resources Advisory Board please go to www.wellfleetma.org/public_Documents/WellfleetMA_BBoard and click on Draft Harbor Plan.

Weymouth Back River
Weymouth Back River ACEC Natural Resource Inventory, 1996, DEM – available from the ACEC Program.