October 1, 2025: Massachusetts Blue Carbon Program

Hear insights on the creation of the new Blue Carbon Program in Massachusetts and an overview of preliminary findings from an ongoing feasibility study. Massachusetts is home to more than 45,000 acres of salt marshes, many of which are degraded and increasingly threatened by sea-level rise. Restoring and conserving these critical ecosystems can significantly enhance their ability to sequester carbon while delivering co-benefits for biodiversity, coastal resilience, and marine fisheries. In early 2025, the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game launched a new Blue Carbon Program to advance the Commonwealth’s vision for carbon sequestration and coastal resilience. As part of this effort, the Department initiated a feasibility study for a Blue Carbon Financial Incentive Program designed to accelerate salt marsh conservation and restoration. This study, expected to conclude in early Fall 2025, will help inform strategies for leveraging financial incentives to protect and restore these vital coastal landscapes. 

• Annalee Tweitmann, Blue Carbon Program Director at Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game, is a coastal ecologist with a background in ecological restoration and coastal resilience. Prior to her role with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she worked for US Fish and Wildlife Service as an IPaC biologist and for Mass Audubon as a restoration ecologist. Annalee received her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Cornell University and her master's degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida, where her studies focused on oyster restoration.

Moderator: Helena Tatgenhorst (The Nature Conservancy in Maine)

September 2, 2025: Virginia Coast Reserve Seagrass Blue Carbon Project

Restoration practitioners from The Nature Conservancy share about the world’s first seagrass blue carbon market project at the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve including a brief overview of the eelgrass restoration project, the process of developing a verified blue carbon market project, and the valuation of eelgrass restoration co-benefits. 

• Susan Bates, Coastal Science Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy in Virginia, leads the Coastal Resilience Program for the Virginia chapter's Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve (VVCR). Her work involves engaging with partners to develop tools and strategies for informing coastal resilience decisions and projects, demonstrating the value of nature-based solutions and building community relationships. 

• Jill Bieri, Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve Program Director at The Nature Conservancy in Virginia, brings more than 30 years of experience in marine science and environmental education to her role as director of the Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve (VVCR). Jill joined TNC in 2013 and leads a staff of 12 professionals working to protect, restore and sustain the barrier islands, coastal lagoon and bayside ecosystems of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. 

• Stefanie Simpson, Senior Blue Carbon Manager at The Nature Conservancy, supports regional teams globally to scope out and develop blue carbon market projects, including blue carbon offsets and resilience credits. She works directly with regional teams to build local awareness and capacity for exploring market potential, building up local science, and developing market projects to generate conservation finance for climate mitigation and adaptation benefits. She leads blue carbon discussions, develops outreach products and market tools, and supports the inclusion of coastal wetlands into national inventories and climate strategies.

Moderators: Devin Domeyer (Maine Coastal Program) and Helena Tatgenhorst (The Nature Conservancy in Maine)

April 4, 2022: Blue carbon habitat mapping in Maine and the Gulf of Maine Region

• Kristen Puryear, Maine Natural Areas Program, is an Ecologist who works statewide with public and private landowners to provide rare plant and natural community information for conservation, restoration, and management planning. Kristen reviewed the methods MNAP has used to map Maine’s 22,000 acres of tidal marsh and compare the outcomes, benefits, and data gaps with other remote-based tidal marsh mapping data available for the state. View Kristen's slides. 

• Jamie Carter, NOAA Office of Coastal Management, is a geospatial analyst with NOAA's Office for Coastal Management and works on land cover and marsh habitat mapping efforts throughout the Northeast region and United States. Jamie presented on NOAA’s national land cover mapping and monitoring activities through its Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). This work uses remotely sensed data and artificial intelligence to map a wide range of cover types across the country, with a particular emphasis on wetlands. View Jamie's slides.

• Angela Brewer, Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection, is a Biologist within the Division of Environmental Assessment of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Her presentation outlined the history and anticipated future of coastal seagrass and salt marsh mapping in Maine and potential applications for and challenges associated with new technologies. The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) mapped intertidal and subtidal eelgrass along Maine’s coastline during the 1990s and 2000s using plane-acquired orthoimagery. Since 2013, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has continued efforts to inventory eelgrass on a more focused geographic scope, predominantly in Casco Bay. View Angie's slides.

• Nichole Price, Bigelow Laboratory, is a benthic marine ecologist with interest in how global change phenomena, like ocean acidification and warming, can alter bottom-dwelling species interactions, community dynamics, and ecosystem function in shallow coastal regimes. Nichole presented information about the blue carbon potential of seaweed. Macroalgae, or seaweeds, are garnering much media attention as an overlooked opportunity for carbon capture, but robust protocols for quantifying carbon storage rates and longevity for farmed seaweeds are still in development. New environmental DNA (eDNA) tools may allow for rigorous measurement and evaluation of species-specific sequestration rates to elucidate when, where, and under what conditions seaweeds could become part of blue carbon accounting.

Moderator: Jeremy Gabrielson (Maine Coast Heritage Trust)