This holiday season we have much to celebrate! This was a great year for wildlife and wild lands in Massachusetts because of people like you. Here, a look at the past year by the numbers. For more on the year’s accomplishments, check out our Annual Report.
#1
is Mass Audubon’s ranking in number of volunteers on the Boston Business Journal’s list of Largest Nonprofit Organizations in Massachusetts. We’ve held this honor for 2 years in a row, and have 13,600 dedicated volunteers.
451,755
people have visited our wildlife sanctuaries across the state to explore and enjoy nature in these beautiful and varied landscapes.
120
snowy owls humanely captured at Logan Airport in Boston and released safely back into the wild by Norman Smith, Director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and the Snowy Owl Project.
Snowy Owl by David Larson
88%
of all species of Massachusetts’ odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) live on our wildlife sanctuaries. That’s 147 out of 167!
1,613
teachers from communities across Massachusetts learned and shared best practices at 106 educator training workshops.
334
acres of important land protected by Mass Audubon this year. This brings our current total of conserved acres to 35,490, securing additional habitat for a wide variety of native wildlife, including great blue herons, river otters, spotted salamanders, and many others.
Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, Rowley copyright Alan B Ward
4.5
tons of fresh vegetables were donated to food pantries and shelters from Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary and Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs.
405
dynamic and fun-loving people worked out our camps this summer, bringing exceptional programming to 9,000 campers.
70
fun and festive special events held year-round at our wildlife sanctuaries—such as South Shore’s Walk for Wildlife in May, Ipswich River’s Nature Fest in June, Wachusett Meadow’s Hey Day in September, and Arcadia’s upcoming Solstice Celebration on December 21 in Easthampton.
323,148
kilowatt hours of clean electricity were produced by our photovoltaic arrays. That’s the equivalent to the amount of energy used by 43 homes in a year!
37
feet of a long-concrete dam that was removed from Sackett Brook at Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Pittsfield, benefiting wood turtles—a threatened native species—as well as other flora and fauna dependent on a free-flowing water course.
Looking ahead, in 2015 we are opening two additional wildlife sanctuaries. Richardson Brook in Western Massachusetts provides woodland habitat for larger native mammals like bobcats. Endicott is near Cape Ann and features mature woodlands, rocky outcrops and freshwater wetlands.
Your year-end gift will support other conservation projects like these in the year ahead. Thanks again for a wonderful 2014, and we look forward to working with you in the coming year.
