[SEMCO] ACEC Workshop

[Sheri DeRosa]

YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND… A WORKSHOP FOR CAPE COD ACECs on April 9,
2002

Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) are places in
Massachusetts that receive special recognition because of the
significance of their natural and cultural resources.  However, people
living in these areas are often unaware of what having an ACEC
designation means for their community.  For example, ACEC towns receive
higher priority when they apply to certain state funding programs,
residents have more opportunity to give input to environmental reviews
for state funded or permitted projects, and the community learns more
about the sensitivity of natural resources in an area.

To help communities capitalize on these opportunities, a NEW INSIGHTS
FOR CAPE COD ACECs workshop is being sponsored by the Massachusetts
Office of Coastal Zone Management and the Department of Environmental
Management’s ACEC Program.  This workshop will provide examples of how
an ACEC designation can be used as a framework to develop exciting new
stewardship initiatives in coastal areas.

THE WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD ON APRIL 9th FROM 4:00 - 6:30pm AT THE WEST
BARNSTABLE COMMUNITY BUILDING located on the corner of Rte. 149 and
Lombard Ave., just north of exit 5 off Rte. 6.

AT THE WORKSHOP, LOCAL OFFICIALS AND INTERESTED RESIDENTS WILL BE ABLE
TO:
  1.  Learn what an ACEC designation means to a community,
  2.  Explore the potential and need for an ACEC grant program,
  3.  Receive information about relevant technical assistance and state
grants,
  4.  Discover outreach efforts, resource inventories, and management
plans underway in ACECs,
  5.  Ask questions of state agency staff,
  6.  Obtain new outreach materials produced for each ACEC on Cape Cod,
and
  7.  Register for ACEC tours led by Dennis Murley, naturalist at the
Audubon Wellfleet Sanctuary.

ANYONE WHO LIVES OR WORKS IN THE FOLLOWING ACEC COMMUNITIES IS INVITED
TO ATTEND THE WORKSHOP.
  -  Pocasset River (Bourne)
  -  Bourne Back River (Bourne)
  -  Sandy Neck/Barnstable Harbor (Barnstable and Sandwich)
  -  Inner Cape Cod Bay (Brewster, Eastham, and Orleans)
  -  Wellfleet Harbor (Eastham, Truro, and Wellfleet)
  -  Pleasant Bay (Brewster, Chatham, Harwich, and Orleans)
  -  Waquoit Bay (Falmouth and Mashpee)

THE WORKSHOP IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; REFRESHMENTS WILL BE
SERVED.  TO REGISTER BY MARCH 30, CONTACT Katie Lund at
katie.lund@state.ma.us or (508) 289-2889.