Downtown Landscapes: Introduction

This case study explores Cape Ann's downtown landscapes through municipal downtown sites. The analysis is informed by existing reports and resources that have been written to describe and understand the downtowns.

The research consists of an analysis of municipal downtown habitats as interconnected systems, a list of existing species, and an exploration of the landscape's changes over time.

The analysis informs the recommendations made in the next section, Downtown Scenario Plans.

Habitats

“If this land not be rich, then is the whole world poor.” —Thomas Morton, 1637, Colonist¹

Each of the downtown areas across Cape Ann are comprised of several habitats. Each of these habitats hosts flora and fauna that have evolved to survive in these environments and adapt to human habitation of the area. One habitat that is particularly applicable is explored in relation to each municipality.

Downtown Case Study: Gloucester

Impervious Surfaces

The municipality of Gloucester has the highest rate of impervious surface compared to the other three municipalities on Cape Ann. These surfaces include roads, parking lots, and driveways. These surfaces do not allow water to permeate into the soil. Stormwater, pesticides from lawns, and polluted runoff flow across these surfaces degrading surrounding habitats.

Downtown Case Study: Rockport

Rocky Intertidal

Rocky Intertidal Zones surround Rockport's downtown area due to the development of Bearskin Neck and Breakwater. Rocky intertidal habitat is globally scarce, and includes several zones based on salt water inundation: the splash zone with limited vegetation, the high tide zone with barnacles and periwinkles, the black-green algae zone with rockweed and bladderwrack, and the low-tide zone with kelp and benthic invertebrates.

Downtown Case Study: Essex

High Marsh

Essex is the southernmost area of the Great Marsh System. The town was developed to maximize access to the marsh and river. The surrounding high marsh areas are dominated by saltmarsh hay (Spartina patens), which formed the backbone of the colonial agricultural economy. In high marsh areas, the accretion of dead grasses rapidly accumulates to form peat banks. The borders of high marsh areas are host to invasive phragmites in areas with limited salt water flow due to tidal obstructions, including culverts. High marsh is home to critical bird species including Saltmarsh Sparrows, which are obligate species, meaning they breed and feed in saltmarsh habitats.

Downtown Case Study: Manchester-by-the-Sea

Beach

Species

These species spend all or part of their life cycles in the Downtown areas of Gloucester, Rockport, and Manchester-by-the-Sea. This is not an exhaustive list. Rather, these species are a lens to understand the interspecies relationships, habitat degradation, and challenges for stakeholders to pursue restoration ecology projects in these areas.

Fish
Black sea bass (Centropristis striata)
Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)
Long-finned squid (Doryteuthis pealeii)
Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)
Witch flounder (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus)
Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus)
American plaice (Hippoglossoides platessoides)
Short-finned squid (Illex illecebrosus)
Yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea)
Monkfish (Lophius americanus)
Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)
Whiting (Merlangius merlangus)
Summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus)
Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix)
Pollock (Pollachius pollachius)
Winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus)
Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus)
Windowpane flounder (Scophthalmus aquosus)
Acadian redfish (Sebastes fasciatus)
Scup (Stenotomus chrysops)
Red hake (Urophycis chuss)
White hake (Urophycis tenuis)
Ocean pout (Zoarces americanus)

Birds
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
Common Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
Great Black-backed Seagull (Larus marinus)
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Crustaceans
Jonah crab (Cancer borealis)
European green crab (Carcinus maenas)
Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus)
American lobster (Homarus americanus)\

Reptiles
Garter snake (Thamnophis spp.)
Wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)

Insects
Mosquito (Aedes vexans)
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Mollusks
Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
Common periwinkle (Littorina littorea)
Blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)
Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus)
Barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides)
Surf clam (Spisula solidissima)

Mammals
Eastern Coyote (Canis latrans var.)
Humans (Homo sapiens)
Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis)
House mouse (Mus musculus)
White tailed-deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
White-footed deermouse (Peromyscus leucopus) Raccoon (Procyon lotor)
Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus)
Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)\

Vascular Plants
Fir (Abies balsamea)
Norway maple (Acer platanoides)
Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)
Aborvitae (Arborvitae sp.)
Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii)
Paperbark birch (Betula papyrifera)
Gray birch (Betula populifolia)
Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
Witch hazel (Hamamelis spp.)
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
Oriental honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
Crab apple (Malus sp.)
Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginica)
Norway spruce (Picea abies)
Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus)

London plane (Platanus × acerifolia)
Cherry (Prunus sp.)
Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana)
Chanticleer pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Chanticleer')
White oak (Quercus alba)
Northern red oak (Quercus rubra)
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina)
Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.)
Stewartia (Stewartia sp.)\ Littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata)
American elm (Ulmus americana)
Black swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum nigrum)
Pale swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum rossicum)

Changes

“All of our low-lying roads are vulnerable… there’s a lot for us to worry about with regards to sea level rise in Rockport. Frankly, we are struggling to keep what infrastructure we have going as is.” —Jim Gardiner, 2023, Rockport Director of Public Works²

Cape Ann’s city and towns have developed and urbanized around their working waterfronts. Gloucester emerged as an internationally-recognized fishing port due to its sheltered harbor. Rockport’s quarry industry relied on its ocean-facing port to ship granite. Manchester-by-the-Sea was built on filled tidelands in close proximity to fishing grounds. Essex gained recognition for shipbuilding in the sheltered estuary of the Great Marsh. Each community’s relationship to the sea determined that dense development was built alongshore, near the ocean. Four hundred years after colonial settlement, the opportunities drawn from Cape Ann's ocean-side development faces new threats from climate change. Coastal flooding will be greatest in the most developed areas of each municipality: their downtowns.

While each community's demographics and microclimates are unique, all three municipalities have priority restoration challenges: filled wetlands, impervious surfaces, and tree canopy cover.

Observed Changes in Downtowns

While Cape Ann’s underlying geology is granitic bedrock, each municipality was developed partly on filled tidelands and wetlands. These areas flooded before they were filled, and are likely to flood in the near future. This risk is exacerbated by sea level rise, increases in seasonal rainfall, and more intense storm events due to climate change. In addition to filled areas (including the Emerald Forest in downtown Gloucester and Manchester-by-the-Sea's Village Core) most of each community's urbanized areas are paved or covered with impervious surfaces. Impervious surfaces are hard areas such as concrete paved areas, roofs, and parking lots that do not allow water to seep into the ground. Instead, water runs off these surfaces, picks up pollutants and materials, flows and the deposits them into nearby watersheds. While a significant portion of rainfall is absorbed into forests and stored in groundwater, or buffered by marshland in coastal areas, in areas where development replaces vegetation, there is less area where water can infiltrate into groundwater. This increases the amount of stormwater infrastructure: curbs, culverts, storm sewers, and ditches, that must collect this water to carry runoff to a treatment plant before it is released back into the watershed. In developed watersheds, as water arrives in rainfall or down streams, there is an increased likelihood of more frequent and severe flooding. This can further cause erosion and the accumulation of pollutants that are carried from higher elevations.³ Reducing impervious surfaces by depaving areas and introducing permeable paving that allows water to infiltrate in parking lots and sidewalks can reduce flood risk.

In addition to filling and paving, each municipality’s canopy cover has dramatically changed over time since the region was largely deforested in the 1700s by colonists logging timber. Canopy cover measures the amount of area that is covered by trees in an area. This includes municipally owned trees on streets and in parks, and vegetation on private properties and businesses. Trees provide shade that allow for people to comfortably linger in front of stores as well as enable public safety by cooling paved areas that are hotter due to the urban heat island effect (UHI). The urban heat island effect refers to urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures due to buildings and roads that absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than forests or water bodies.⁴ Trees reduce this effect, and also help improve energy efficiency for buildings, reduce air pollution, mitigate pollutants in stormwater, and sequester carbon.

Not all urban trees provide the same benefits. While all trees provide shade and habitat, a diverse canopy with many different species can provide additional benefits. Trees that are already adapted to conditions on Cape Ann, often referred to as native species, provide habitat connectivity for birds, insects and small mammals that find homes and food in urban trees. These trees have evolved with these animals for thousands of years, and are more likely to be resilient to Cape Ann’s seaside environment, including salt spray and northeast winds. Healthy trees that are pruned are likely to live longer because they avoid entanglements with powerlines and breakages under snowfall. A diverse canopy with many different species helps to avoid the canopy being deforested in the emergence or diseases or pests.

Both tree species and planting location are important. Tree canopy must be planted equitably, focusing on areas with significant heat impacts due to large swaths of asphalt, including transit corridors like rail stations and bus stops. Historically, areas with lower income and minority populations have seen less investment in urban tree canopy, resulting in less shade, less efficient energy use, and less habitat in these areas. These areas are designated as Environmental Justice populations by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Downtown Case Study: Gloucester

Downtown Gloucester is the most densely urbanized area of Cape Ann. It is also home to an Environmental Justice communities. Environmental Justice populations are designated to acknowledge and reckon with longstanding health inequities for historically marginalized communities that are the result of discrimination based on race, color, income, or national origin. Environmental justice is “based on the principle that all people have a right to be protected from environmental hazards and to live in and enjoy a clean and healthful environment. Environmental justice is the equal protection and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies and the equitable distribution of environmental benefits.”⁵ In Massachusetts, an Environmental Justice (EJ) population is defined by specific criteria. In Gloucester, the Environmental Justice populations meet one or two of these criteria: the annual median household income is 65 percent or less of the statewide annual median household income and minorities make up 25 percent or more of the population, and the annual median household income of the municipality in which the neighborhood is located does not exceed 150 percent of the statewide annual median household income. The Environmental Justice communities in downtown Gloucester are centered in Wards Two and Three.

Wastewater Infrastructure

These benefits include clean water and adequate wastewater disposal. Gloucester’s wastewater treatment plant is the nation’s last primary treatment plant. In 2023, the City of Gloucester reached a consent decree with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to resolve violations of the federal and states Clean Water Acts for the wastewater treatment plant discharging under-treated sewage with bacteria and pollutants into Massachusetts Bay. The Plant has been operating without secondary treatment since 2001. The new plant is proposed to built in the same location along the western bank of the Annisquam River behind the Cut Bridge.⁶ Adding secondary wastewater treatment capacity is a critical issue. Flooding or spills from the plant could decimate shellfish beds and destroy fish habitat in Gloucester Harbor, exacerbating longstanding pollution issues and further contaminating the harbor ecosystem.⁷ Gloucester Harbor is designated as essential fish habitat. The Harbor is home to twenty-five species managed by the New England Fisheries Management Council, including Atlantic cod, haddock, pollock, hake, flounder, and mackerel.⁸ Eggs, larvae, juveniles, and adults are impacted by dredging operations for navigation in the harbor, which maintain depths of fifteen to twenty feet along navigable channels. These operations impair water quality, suspend sediments, and can smother and destroy existing habitat.⁹

Filled Wetlands

Inland, Gloucester’s downtown areas are built on filled lands that have been armored with seawalls. Stacey Boulevard, the primary roadway leading from west Gloucester into the downtown area, is built on filled tidelands, making the area vulnerable to future flooding. Upland, the Emerald Forest is a wetland area that has been filled and degraded. The Emerald Forest is a buried stream and wetland extending from the Babson Reservoir to the harbor.¹⁰ The area includes Burnham’s Field and Harbor Swamp, which was filled for development in the 19th century.¹¹ Today the area is unmanaged, and many non-native species have taken over the Swamp. These issues are not limited to Harbor Swamp: managing downtown Gloucester’s urban forest for invasive species, pests, and disease is an ongoing task.

Urban Forests

Gloucester’s urban forest is composed of public shade trees along Gloucester’s twenty-six miles of roads. The City does not have a forestry department, but does employ an arborist and a Planting Committee.¹² The head of the Department of Public Works also serves as its tree warden.¹³ The Planting Committee coordinates a robust volunteer network that work in seventy locations across the City. Many of these gardens are tended by Generous Gardeners, which maintains a map of their planted gardens, including highly visible areas in downtown Gloucester and along Stacey Boulevard.¹⁴ Backyard Growers, a non-profit organization based in Gloucester works in eleven community gardens and nine school gardens to educate the community about food security and growing their own produce. These community gardens are located in various Gloucester Housing Authority properties and Burnham’s Field, located in central downtown Gloucester, and was formerly a municipal vegetable garden.¹⁵

Ecological Restoration

Gloucester has a wealth of proposed restoration projects in aquatic areas, including downtown areas behind Blynman’s Canal and the Fort. These projects are detailed in the 2003 report City of Gloucester Comprehensive River and Stream Habitat Restoration Report by Mass Audubon on potential aquatic restoration sites, including ten projects in Downtown Gloucester.¹⁶ Further projects are identified in a 2018 report by Wyntin Goodman and Eric Hutchins that documents potential eelgrass restoration, marine debris reduction, and oyster reef restoration in Gloucester Harbor.¹⁷

This work builds on a survey of essential fish habitat conducted by the Office of Coastal Zone Management in 2003, which describes the species that live in Gloucester Harbor for part or all of their life cycle. This study is based on the work of W.C. Jerome in 1969, which was the first comprehensive study of the harbor’s fish life, and a secondary study by Normandeau Associates in 1999 for a Dredged Material Plan.¹⁸ There has not been a comprehensive survey of other species, including mammals and insects in Gloucester’s downtown, or a comprehensive tree canopy inventory, which may provide a baseline for terrestrial restoration projects.

Downtown Case Study: Rockport

Downtown Rockport comprises three areas: the Rockport Station of the MBTA Commuter Rail line surrounded by closely spaced homes, a historic commercial center, and Bearskin Neck. The Downtown area includes the majority of retail, commercial, government, and fisheries employment in Rockport, as well as buildings owned by the Rockport municipal government and non-profit groups.¹⁹ These areas have limited pedestrian connections and wayfinding information.

Urban Forests

Though the historic commercial center and Bearskin Neck have narrow, walkable streets with limited sidewalk area and limited tree cover. Rockport’s urban tree canopy was once planted with large shade trees, many of which disappeared due to Dutch elm disease. The most dominant tree in Rockport is the Norway maple, a non-native species that was planted at one time. Today, these maples are reaching the end of their lifetime, and may be replaced with native trees. Rockport’s canopy has been further affected by spongy moth and drier summers that have increased stress on trees, leaving larger trees, particularly oak species, weakened.²⁰ There are several open spaces used for public recreation throughout Downtown Rockport. These include Sea Fencibles Park, White, Lumber, T and Bradley Wharfs, the Old Harbor public park, Bearskin Neck Breakwater, Millbrook Meadow, Front Beach, Harvey Park and Barletta Park.²¹

Flooding Vulnerability

TRockport's waterfront public spaces are armored with granite cut in the nineteenth century, when Rockport was dotted with commercial quarries. Bearskin Neck is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and fire due to the closely clustered wood-framed buildings, including historic fish shacks.²² Bearskin Neck is located within FEMA Zone VE, with a one percent or greater chance of flooding and an additional hazard associated with storm waves. The residences and businesses along Front Street are in FEMA Zones AO, VE, and AE, making Rockport’s ocean-facing downtown area extremely vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge.²³ The Bearskin Neck breakwater was completely rebuilt in 2015 after being damaged by storms. The residential and commercial properties on Front Street are built on a barrier seawall behind Front Beach. This beach limits the ability of the beach to retreat, and it will eventually be drowned by sea level rise. Overflow from sewer pump stations in Downtown Rockport have been periodically released into Rockport’s Inner Harbor. The Dock Square Pump Station overflowed in 2023, other pump stations in the Downtown area at risk of flooding are the Back Beach Pump Station, and Pier Avenue Pump Station.²⁴

Downtown Species

The Mill Brook Watershed empties into Rockport’s Sandy Bay under Front Street on the western edge of Front Beach.²⁵ The Watershed includes Mill Pond Park, dammed by the colonial era Mill Pond Dam that was rehabilitated in 2011. Restoration of the pond through dredging to eliminate sediments and replanting aquatic habitat is ongoing.²⁶ Mill Brook Park includes a diadromous fish run for rainbow smelt. However, limited flow along the brook is barely sufficient to attract spawning adults and protect the eggs. Mill Brook also supports an active eel run.²⁷ The fish and eels that rely on Mill Brook for part of their life cycle form the basis of the aquatic ecosystem in Rockport’s harbors.

Fishing Industry

There are over one hundred commercial fishing vessels in Rockports harbors. Lobstering is the primary type of commercial fishing in Rockport, as well as fishing for groundfish and shrimp. Sandy Bay is closed to shellfishing due to pollution and contamination from diesel fuel and potential sewage contamination.²⁸²⁹ Despite these issues, Rockport's Downtown and offshore islands are a designated Important Bird Area (IBA) by Mass Audubon, and support many species of seabirds and neotropical migrants, including species of Petrels, Common Loons, and a pair of Least Bitterns, among others. These birds rely on coastal and marine habitat that is fringed by downtown development, with threats from pollution, as well as house pets like cats, which can prey on birds when allowed to roam outside.³⁰

Planning

In 2011, a Plan for Downtown Rockport explored a vision of Rockport in 2030. The Plan focuses on integrating the three areas of Downtown Rockport, with a focus on improving infrastructural systems and coastal defensive systems. This work is further developed in the town’s 2011 and 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plans, which identify discrete projects to reduce vulnerability in Rockport’s downtown areas. The Hazard Mitigation Plans identify the aging wastewater and sewer infrastructure as major concerns for the towns, as well as budget limitations to repair existing infrastructure. The 2020 Open Space and Recreation Plan also identifies the lack of a Town Arborist, and limited funding to support tree replacement or an official shade tree program. Instead, volunteer groups with private funding have taken on the responsibility for planting and stewarding the canopy.³¹ Moving forward, Rockport will need to devote resources toward grant applications and funding for restoration projects that include volunteer efforts in collaboration with the town government.

Downtown Case Study: Manchester-by-the-Sea

Downtown Manchester-by-the-Sea, referred to as the “Village Core,” lies directly inland of Manchester Harbor. Manchester-by-the-Sea is characterized, like much of Cape Ann, by rugged topography and exposed bedrock which have limited site preparation and development, particularly access to wsatewater treatment. The main thoroughfare through town, Central Street (Route 127), crosses a tidal gate built in 1900. The restricted tidal flow created Central Pond, a saltwater pond in the center of the Village Core. The MBTA Commuter Rail runs through the harbor on elevated tracks that separate the Manchester Inner and Outer Harbor. Directly behind the Village Core lies Powder House Reservation, a town-owned reservation with hiking trails and mixed deciduous and coniferous forest that is maintained by the Conservation Commission. Management at the Reservation prioritizes vista pruning to open views from the highest points toward the Village Core and harbor. Additional management to remove hazardous trees and brush and control erosion have been recommended, as well as adding trail markers and benches for visitors.³²

Flood Risk

The Village Core has flooded frequently in the past. Coastal flooding impacts low-lying areas adjacent to the coast with inadequate drainage due to soils that do not infiltrate, undersized culverts and channelized streambeds, and filled wetlands.¹⁸ Coastal downtown areas flood due to storm surge from nor’easters, as well as high tide events. These impacts will be exacerbated by future sea level rise. Manchester’s Wastewater Treatment Plant lies directly behind the MBTA Commuter Rail Tracks in FEMA Zone AE. The plant is a secondary extended air treatment facility that has an outfall in Massachusetts Bay 8,700 feet off Manchester Harbor. The results of storm surge that create a spill from the treatment plant would devastate the Harbor’s ecology.³³

Ecological Restoration

The largest ongoing restoration effort in Manchester-by-the-Sea is the Sawmill Brook Central Pond project. Sawmill Brook and its tributaries drain central Manchester. Stormwater infrastructure including the Central Street tidal dam, culverts, and bridges criss-cross the Brook. Some of these structures are over one hundred years old, many of which contribute to flooding downtown.³⁴ Eight projects within the watershed that would directly impact flooding in the downtown area are identified in a 2016 Report by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management. Engineering firm Tighe & Bond has worked with the town to develop a proposal to restore the stream through the highly visible Central Pond area of Sawmill Brook by reestablishing a native saltmarsh and stabilizing the shoreline with a process-based tidal channel. The project includes habitat enhancements and the re-introduction of marsh grasses and woody vegetation as part of a living shoreline.³⁵ The project will also include culvert restoration at the Centarl Street Bridge to improve the passage of diadromous fish, particularly rainbow smelt, between Manchester Harbor and upstream along Sawmill Brook.

Urban Forests

Manchester has conducted a tree inventory, which is accessible online. The inventory identifies the species of town-owned trees along streets and public ways.³⁶ Many of these trees are Norway maple trees, which have been planted across neighborhoods for decades. TThese trees have a limited life span of sixty to eighty years. They often suffer from girding roots, which grow beneath the soil in a cicular pattern that gradually strangles the tree's trunk and cuts of the flow of sap. These trees may be replaced by planting more salt-tolerant and resilient species that can endure high projected future temperatures.³⁷ The Manchester Public Shade and Town Tree Policy focuses on preserving and protecting three categories of tree: public shade trees, heritage trees, and town trees. These trees are stewarded by the Manchester Department of Public Works under the supervision of a Tree Warden.³⁸ A civic organization, Friends of Manchester Trees, funds additional tree planting, plants Commemorative Trees, and advocates for the urban canopy in Manchester’s schools.³⁹

Downtown Species

As climate change exacerbates flood risk in downtown Manchester, drainage restoration projects in the Sawmill Brook watershed can mitigate the risk of fresh and saltwater flooding while providing habitat for terrestrial and aquatic species in the downtown area.

While there have been significant changes in urban areas across the Downtown areas in each community, and biodiversity has been lost in these developed areas, urban greenspaces can and do provide ecosystem services and promote novel species. Ecological restoration in these areas will never return Downtowns to prehistoric ecosystems. Instead, we can look at other urban ecosystems around the country and the globe that incorporate programs like urban gardening, functions like water retention and regulation, and cultural values like education and recreation. The following recommendations and precedents identify a variety of these urban greenspaces that may be used as models in regenerating Cape Ann's Downtown ecosystems.

Downtown Case Study: Essex

Downtown Essex is defined by two elements, the main commercial street crossing the Essex River, and the clusters of development on either bank. The Essex landscape is dominated by the Great Marsh, which includes sixty-four percent of the open space, or 2,176 acres. While much of Essex is legally protected from development, or has been placed under development restrictions, many residential and commercial structures have been constructed in historic wetlands in the downtown area.⁴⁰

Marsh Infill

Development in the marsh has degraded local ecosystem health. Ditching in service of salthay farming or for mosquito control has also disrupted natural processes.⁴¹ Transportation Infrastructure has impeded hydrological flow, harming species of the Great Marsh as well as creating hazards during storm events.¹⁵ The ecosystem will be further effected as the Essex River is dredged for the first time in thirty-five years by the US Army Corps of Engineers.⁴² While ecological degradation is ongoing, there are several existing efforts towards restoration. A robust network of volunteers steward specific ecosystems in Essex including, Essex County Greenbelt, the Manchester-Essex Conservation Trust, and the Save the Woods campaign. In 2021, the town of Essex began work in collaboration with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to reassess zoning. Both the existing and proposed zoning include water and wetland protection areas, but neither provide protections for tidal marshes surrounding the Essex River.

Urban Forests

The town of Essex does not have an active public shade tree program or an inventory of public shade trees.⁴³ The Department of Public Works director acts at the Tree Warden by default. Essex has identified future tree plantings in the downtowns area as a medium priority and estimate costs of $25,000 to restore their urban tree canopy.⁴⁴ The town aims to increase tree plantings along public ways and in parking areas to mitigate extreme temperatures. Future urban canopy projects should consider tree species based on their durability and potential to withstand high winds. The town estimates there will be 622 tons of tree debris generated in the next fifty years due to hurricane damage.⁴⁵

Wastewater Systems

Wastewater systems are also at risk in Essex. Of the 1,662 total housing units, 800 are connected to municipal sewer while 822 are on individual septic systems.⁴⁶ The municipal system conveys wastewater from Essex to the City of Gloucester Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is currently at risk of flooding.

Conclusion

Cape Ann's municipal downtowns are within diverse habitats that are utilized by both human and non-human species. Human influence and climate change have altered the relationship between these habitats, limiting their resilience. Cape Ann's habitats will continue to change and evolve. Innovative actions and novel techniques that anticipate the way downtowns are ecologically interconnected to their surrounding landscapes can help ensure that they will continue to provide habitat and enjoyment into the future.

See potential initiatives organized into scenario plans in the next section, Downtown Scenario Plans.

Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Gloucester Open Space and Recreation Plan (Gloucester, MA: MAPC, 2022), 42-43. ↩ ↩

Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, Essential Fish Habitat Assessment Gloucester Harbor. ↩ ↩