Climate Vulnerability Assessment

The Trustees manages over 100 special places spread across 27,000 acres throughout Massachusetts. More than 30 of our reservations lie along the coast, and include recreational beaches, wildlife refuges, dune and marshland habitats, barrier beaches, as well as several historic estates. With over half a million visitors each year, our coastal properties are among the most visited and beloved of our special places.

In all, The Trustees manages 120 miles (8%) of the state’s coastline, 75 miles of which are accessible to the public.

Today, The Trustees faces a unique challenge of managing these properties to protect individual but interconnected assets from the far-reaching and uncertain potential impacts of climate change. To continue to “preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value” in the face of challenges such as sea level rise and increasingly severe storms, The Trustees will select and implement adaptation projects that build resilience. The acreage and unique features of the properties and habitats means this is no small task. In order to make data-driven decisions about the path forward, The Trustees partnered with Woods Hole Group to complete this climate vulnerability assessment (CVA) of our coastal properties, which includes a risk-based vulnerability assessment for individual assets and an evaluation of potential wetland/coastal habitat migration/loss due to sea level rise over the coming decade and 50 years into the future.

For more information on the CVA and The Trustees’ work on the coast, please contact Cynthia Dittbrenner, VP of Conservation and Resilience, at cdittbrenner@thetrustees.org.