Our Work
A Blueprint for the Bays
All National Estuary Programs (NEPs) are required under Clean Water Act §320 to develop a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). These documents demonstrate the NEP model of adaptive management, enabling and facilitating a continual process of integrating new data and results into ongoing decision making and actions. MassBays’ Blueprint for the Bays is our CCMP and includes details of the MassBays' goals for habitat over the next ten years.
The Blueprint for the Bays is the result of ten years of planning, public input, and stakeholder reviews. It highlights past accomplishments and recognizes areas of opportunity including a heightened focus on impacts and responses to coastal resiliency issues, and the need for greater inclusiveness in decision-making to genuinely address concerns for more robust and varied public involvement. The Blueprint also provides a detailed description of MassBays’ role in the Commonwealth’s rich and varied environmental community.
2023 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
Section 320 of the Clean Water Act requires NEPs to produce a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) that:
… recommends priority corrective actions and compliance schedules addressing point and nonpoint sources of pollution to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the estuary, including restoration and maintenance of water quality, a balanced indigenous population of shellfish, fish, and wildlife, and recreational activities in the estuary, and assure that the designated uses of the estuary are protected…
Four key companion documents that help administer the 10-year CCMP include:
- A Science Plan (Monitoring and Research)
- A Habitat Management Plan
- A Finance Strategy (Expected 2026)
- 2026 Communications Plan
Implementing the CCMP
The National Estuary Program will receive funding between 2022 and 2027 under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. MassBays will apply those funds ($909,800 per year) to advance our CCMP.
PREVIOUS MASSBAYS CCMPs
The first CCMP was published in 1996. The document was then updated in 2003.
1996 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
Appendices