Our Programs

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Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s programs fall into two broad categories that are designed to “Restore and Protect” Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay and keep them clean forever, and to “Reconnect” our citizens, communities, and especially our young people to the sea.

Restore and Protect:   Save the Harbor/Save the Bay continues to lead the regional effort for clean water and beaches that people can be proud to use. Over the past year we have won important policy victories on the South Boston and Dorchester Beaches, on the Fort Point Channel, and in beachfront communities around the Harbor and the Bay.

Reconnect: Over the years we have learned from experience that the best way to create new harbor stewards for today and tomorrow is to share Boston Harbor, our region’s public beaches, and the Harbor Islands with the public.

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay presently leads and manages two important initiatives designed to reconnect the region’s residents with the waterfront, the beaches, the harbor and the Harbor Islands.

Our summer youth environmental education programs are the centerpiece of our work to reconnect young Bostonians from every neighborhood with Boston Harbor and the Harbor Islands. Participants learn firsthand just how valuable Boston Harbor is, and how important it is to help restore and protect it. Since 2000, we have introduced more than 20,000 youth to Boston Harbor and the Harbor Islands. 

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay presently leads two free summer youth programs, each targeted toward urban youth who have historically been excluded from the environmental and recreational benefits of our enormous public investment in Boston Harbor and the Harbor Islands. These programs combine recreation and hands-on environmental education to bring the Harbor alive for young people and to encourage them to become stewards of the future.

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay also leads and manages the 18 member Metropolitan Beaches Commission. Co-Chaired by Senator Jack Hart and Representative Kathi Reinstein, the MBC was established by the Massachusetts Legislature in 2006 to take an in-depth look at 14 beaches owned by the Commonwealth’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in 9 communities and to make specific recommendations about how to bring these beaches back to their fullest potential as significant recreational and economic resources for our region.