Gather around your laptop on World Water Day (MONDAY MARCH 22nd from 7-9pm) and see Wareham Land Trust (WLT) President Kathy Pappalardo and other local leaders speak at a FREE WEBINAR.  

Click here to register to attend this virtual event!  It only takes a moment and a link to join the webinar will be e-mailed to you.

INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES AND RELATIONSHIP TO THE EARTH,THE CHANGES HAPPENING AROUND US, AND HOW WE CAN ACT HERE & NOW FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE 

SPEAKERS:
* Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe
* Melissa Harding Ferretti, Chairlady, President, Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, Plymouth
* David Weeden, Mashpee Wampanoag, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer
* Joe Falconeiri, Land Steward, Northeast Wilderness Trust
* Meg Sheehan, Attorney, Volunteer
* Kathy Pappalardo, Wareham Land Trust
* Warren Winders, Trout Unlimited, Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter, a founder of the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition

BACKGROUND
In the 1990s, the Community Land & Water Coalition’s regional planning agencies launched “Vision 2020: A Partnership for Southeastern Massachusetts" to address development in the region that “alarmed our citizens.” Today, inappropriately sited projects such as the NOTOS rezoning plan for East Wareham and land-based solar projects clearing pristine Pine Barren forests threaten our land and water.

Mass Audubon's 2020 study, Losing Ground: Nature’s Value In A Changing Climate shows Plymouth and Wareham with the state's highest development rates. Wareham has permanently protected only 16% of its natural lands and currently ranks close to the bottom in protecting forests. The Wildlands and Woodlands initiative advises keeping at least 70% of land as forests and at least another 7% in agriculture to ensure a healthy future.                      

Between 2012 and 2017, one quarter of all land conversion in Massachusetts was from large-scale ground-based solar arrays. Massive earth removal operations being done in the name of solar energy or "agriculture" are also underway.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Our region’s precious forest and water resources face new potential threats by unsustainable development such as the NOTOS rezoning proposal in Wareham, every growing land-based solar installations, and other causes of deforestation of the Pine Barrens (a unique ecosystem only found in Southeastern MA, NJ and parts of NY).  Local environmental organizations have joined together in opposition to these projects as planned; the current coalition against the rezoning proposal includes The Trustees of Reservations, Community Land & Water Coalition, Buzzards Bay Coalition, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, SE Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance, Trout Unlimited, Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition, Northeast Wilderness Trust, and the Wareham Land Trust.

Please attend the SPECIAL TOWN MEETING on Saturday April 10th at noon outside of the Wareham High School.  You, the voters, will decide on the proposed zoning change to create a Hospitality, Recreation and Entertainment overlay district that would affect 963 acres off Glen Charlie Road, north of Route 25.  We urge you to consider protecting this incredibly valuable natural resource in our town.  Together, we can achieve economic growth and development in our town without endangering such a wide swath of land that protects unique ecosystems, watersheds and our drinking water supply.