Mission

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay is a non-profit, public interest Boston Harbor advocacy organization made up of thousands of citizens as well as civic, corporate, cultural and community leaders and scientists.

As the region's leading voice for clean water and continued public investment in Boston Harbor, the region's public beaches, and the Boston Harbor Islands, our mission is to restore and protect Boston Harbor, Massachusetts Bay and the marine environment and share them with the public for everyone to enjoy.

What We Do

In 1986 Boston Harbor was a national disgrace as our waste washed up on the beach and shore from Cape Cod to Cape Ann. Today all that has changed, thanks to the extraordinarily effective advocacy of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and the hard work of thousands of people who all believe in the power of Boston Harbor to strengthen our community and improve people's lives.

In one generation we have transformed Boston Harbor from a liability into a civic, recreational, and educational asset for Bostonians and the region's residents. Today the harbor has moved to the center of civic life and emerged as an engine of economic growth for Boston's waterfront neighborhoods and the region's beachfront communities.

The beaches of South Boston are now the cleanest urban beaches in America, and new private development and public spaces have transformed the Boston Harbor waterfront into a desirable space for the regions businesses and residents.

Boston is now also home to the Boston Harbor Islands National Park, but it is seriously underutilized and too expensive for many of the region's residents to enjoy.

Our region's public beaches, which serve as the primary recreational resource for many of the region's residents, are on the rebound, though there is still work to be done on beaches in Lynn, Swampscott, and Dorchester, which still remain closed to the public as many as one out of every five days during the summer.

We are proud of what we have accomplished in the span of a generation, but are cognizant of the fact that it will take another generation -or more - to finish the job.

Today Save the Harbor/Save the Bay:

-Convenes and leads our Beaches Science Advisory Committee, which led the effort to transform the South Boston beaches into the cleanest urban beaches in America and is working to improve water quality at King's Beach in Lynn and Swampscott and Tenean Beach in Dorchester.

-Leads and manages the Metropolitan Beaches Commission for the Massachusetts Legislature, which is charged with improving the Boston Harbor Region's public beaches from Nahant on the North Shore to Nantasket on the South Shore.

-Uses our Beach Water Quality Report Card to focus attention and additional resources to address water quality concerns in communities that still face frequent beach closures.

-Strengthens Boston's waterfront neighborhoods and the region's beachfront communities by hosting and sponsoring scores of free Better Beaches Program events and programs on the region's public beaches from Nahant to Nantasket.

-Helps shape the future of the waterfront by actively participating in state and local planning efforts including the City of Boston's Municipal Harbor Plan Advisory Committee and Imagine Boston 2030.

-Leads the City of Boston's efforts to complete the South Bay Harbor Trail, a 3.5-mile long pedestrian friendly bicycle trail that will reduce automobile traffic in the Seaport District by connecting Roxbury, the South End, and Chinatown to the Fort Point Channel and the Seaport.

-Is the Boston Harbor Connection for the region's underserved and low-income youth and their families, with free STEAM-Based Youth Environmental Education Programs that have introduced almost 200,000 underserved and low-income young people to the spectacular harbor we have worked so hard to restore and protect since we began them in 2002.