Salem Sound Coastwatch is a non-profit coastal watershed organization that works with government agencies, businesses, other non-profit organizations and citizens from the communities of Manchester, Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, Salem, and Marblehead, Massachusetts. Salem Sound Coastwatch is dedicated to taking cooperative action to protect and enhance the environmental quality of the Salem Sound Watershed. Salem Sound Coastwatch works to achieve this mission through municipal partnering, scientific investigation, education, and stewardship. Our top priorities are protection of coastal habitat, commercial and recreational marine resources, and water quality. Salem Sound Coastwatch, then named Salem Sound 2000, was established as an informal working group in 1990 when a handful of citizens, local officials, and businesses became concerned with the lack of attention paid to the coastal embayment of Salem Sound. In 1995, the organization became one of the five local governance committees ( LGCs ) for the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program to facilitate regional implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan ( CCMP ). Within this role, Salem Sound Coastwatch assists the communities in the Salem Sound Watershed with activities such as water quality monitoring, protective bylaw development, grantsmanship, and public education all with the ultimate goal of helping to shape and implement CCMP actions. Salem Sound Coastwatch has grown substantially in the past eighteen years and is now recognized throughout the region for its environmental programs. Salem Sound Coastwatch programs include volunteer monitoring programs ( Clean Beaches & Streams, Coastal Habitat Invasives Monitoring Program, Wetland Health Assessment Toolbox, Stream Teams ), on-the ground restoration projects ( salt marsh and anadromous fish habitat restoration and stormwater remediation ), public education ( beach water quality and stormwater education ), and municipal assistance ( technical assistance and grant writing ). For an overview of past activities, see our 2008 Year In Review. 1. Increasing the publics knowledge and appreciation of the natural resources of the Salem Sound Watershed and the immediate and chronic threats to the ecological health of the watershed.