MVPC is thrilled to announce that we have received funding through Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) National Estuary Program Watershed Grant Program to advance coastal restoration efforts in the Great Marsh!  

Eelgrass, a marine plant that grows in subtidal coastal waters, provides a huge range of ecosystem services that benefit our communities! Growing in dense beds, they stabilize sediments and provide coastal protection. They also help to combat climate change by sequestering and storing carbon, while producing oxygen. Additionally, eelgrass helps to improve water quality and provides critical habitat for some of our most loved and valued species. While historically, eelgrass was abundant across the Great Marsh, degraded water quality, climate change, and environmental stressors have reduced its span in the region by 50% (~19,000 acres) over the last 30 years.  

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program (MassBays), MVPC submitted an application aimed at advancing eelgrass restoration techniques in Massachusetts. Through working across the MassBays region, various seed-based restoration approaches will be identified, implemented, and assessed to explore the viability of  eelgrass restoration approaches in Massachusetts’ waters.  

Work will kick off this spring (2026), with MVPC focusing on a restoration location in Gloucester, MA. This location represents the most northern eelgrass bed in Massachusetts. By focusing our efforts on this site, we hope to find successful seed-based restoration techniques that can be applied more broadly, bringing back this vital resource to the Great Marsh system as a whole. To achieve this goal, MVPC will partner locally with scientists at Boston University, municipal staff in Gloucester, and with local community groups in the area. 

MVPC is well positioned to support and advance coastal resiliency work, through hosting the MassBays Upper North Shore Regional Coordinator. Through collaborating with  Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership (MassBays), MVPC, will work with the other MassBays Regional Coordinators based at Salem Sound Coastwatch, Northeastern University Marine Science Center, and North and South Rivers Watershed Association to complete this project. 

Stay tuned for more updates as work kicks off this spring! 

To learn more about MVPC’s ongoing eelgrass restoration efforts, click here.