Nature Wins Podcast Episode 8: Cape Ann MARCH

Host Maureen Aylward is in conversation with Greg Federspiel, Cape Ann MARCH Director, and Brendhan Zubricki, Town of Essex Town Administrator, to discuss the launch and details of the new municipal working group.

Description: In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward is joined by guests Greg Federspiel, Cape Ann MARCH Director, and Brendhan Zubricki, Town of Essex Town Administrator, who discuss Cape Ann MARCH, a new municipal working group launched by TownGreen in September 2025. This episode provides listeners with an overview of how Cape Ann municipalities, community-based organizations, and academic institutions are convening to look at regional coastal adaptation projects and the possibilities of what they can achieve together. 

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward discusses coastal relocation with Emma Gildesgame from The Nature Conservancy, and Leigh Meunier and Lexi Lafferty from CREW (Communities Responding to Extreme Weather). Across the New England coast and the Eastern Seaboard, coastal relocation and retreat are difficult but necessary topics for communities to tackle. This episode provides listeners with an overview of how communities are thinking about relocation, how they’re talking about it, and examples of where it's working. 

Brief Bios

Host Maureen Aylward is in conversation with Ann Molloy from Neptune’s Harvest about the spring planting season and Bart DiFiore, a core crew member of Gloucester Land and Sea Together. 

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward speaks to Ann Molloy from Neptune’s Harvest about the spring planting season and discusses how Neptune’s Harvest fish fertilizer builds organic matter to retain moisture so a garden needs less water, plus it will sequester more carbon.

In Segment 2 we will hear from Bart DiFiore, a core crew member of  Gloucester Land and Sea Together. Gloucester SaLT is a group of farmers, fishermen, scientists, educators, and community members passionate about increasing understanding for how food is grown and harvested from local lands and waters. Its goal is to increase access, promote education, and support professional training programs related to local food harvested from both land and sea. Since fall 2022, SaLT has offered community courses during the fall and spring seasons. Typically, courses are offered weekly for 3-4 weeks, culminating in an celebratory evening preparing the "fruits" of your labor. Previous topics have covered optimum growing conditions for your farm or garden, introduction to fish species, ecology of the Gulf of Maine, and fish fileting and preparation.

BIOs

Ann Molloy, Neptune’s Harvest 
Ann Molloy was born and raised in Gloucester, MA. After several years of traveling around the country and world, she settled back there and has been helping run her family business. For almost 25 years, Ann has overseen the marketing and sales for the Neptune’s Harvest division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, which came about to fully utilize 100% of the fish, by turning the gurry (everything that’s left after you filet a fish) into an organic fertilizer. She has a wide knowledge of organic fertilizers, and the fishing industry. She also loves to paint, write, and see live music.

Bart DiFiore, Gloucester Land and Sea Together
Bart is currently finishing a PhD in marine ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before deciding to pursue a career in the marine sciences, Bart managed diverse vegetable and fruit farms in Massachusetts and Hawaii for six years. He is a licensed captain with the USCG and has worked on and around the waterfront in Gloucester since he was 14. He currently lives in Gloucester.

Notes and Resources

Resources for Neptune’s Harvest Segment

Resources for Gloucester Land and Sea Together

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Want to discover more about climate change and what difference you can make!?

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#naturewins #climatechange #saveourplanet #capeann #sustainability #lovecapeann #saveourplanet

This is Cape Ann’s climate story. Nature Wins is exploring the climate adaptation journey of this storied coastal region of Massachusetts. Gloucester, Rockport, Essex, and Manchester-by-the-Sea are communities of people who know their way around a storm. Yet, the region and its people face serious climate change impacts – and the mitigation, adaptation, and acceptance work that needs to happen is slowly making progress.

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward speaks to members of climate groups on the North Shore about their organizations and program offerings. Listeners will hear from Dean Berg from Green Beverly , David Smith from Hamilton/Wenham Climate Action Team, and Louise Bullis Yarmoff of Sustainable Marblehead.

Dean Berg is Green Beverly’s executive director. The organization’s mission is to help all Beverly residents and businesses lead more sustainable lives through actionable information, inspiration, and education.

David Smith from the Hamilton/Wenham Climate Action Team will explain the group’s success over the last several years with climate mitigation initiatives and provide a history of the organization. Its mission is to protect and preserve the environment for future generations and work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving natural resources, and promoting sustainable living practices.

Louise Bullis Yarmoff former Executive Director of Sustainable Marblehead, is an educator and communicator. Louise has a long-held interest in sustainability. She previously taught English as a second language at Pathways Adult Education in Lynn and served as project manager for an educational exchange program for French young professionals.

========================================

Want to discover more about climate change and what difference you can make!?

Subscribe, Follow and Like us on all of our channels to stay in touch, it also helps us out!

Connect with us!

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/towngreeninc

Follow us also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/towngreeninc/ 

Come see some of our important webinars, talks and watch all the other informative and useful content we have!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi4yhC3sUXM29xHZH4sha2A 

____________________________________

Come watch The Nature Wins podcast on YouTube! 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdhv6InnwkKUMnmI3ngTFYzOnVhuTQwD4 

You can also listen to us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nature-wins-podcast-a-climate-adaptation-journey/id1710371497

If you want to learn more check out our website to subscribe to our newsletter, see updates and have access to resources!

https://towngreen2025.org/

========================================

Thanks for listening to Nature Wins Podcast, we appreciate your support!

#naturewins #climatechange #saveourplanet #capeann #sustainability #lovecapeann #saveourplanet

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward speaks to Cape Ann-based waste professionals to learn more about Cape Ann’s waste story. Listeners will hear from Sharon Byrne Kishida, solid waste and recycling expert, who advocates for better waste policies across Cape Ann. Conor Miller and Andrew Brousseau talk about their inspiring composting business – Black Earth Compost.

Segment 1: Host Maureen Aylward interviews municipal waste expert, Sharon Byrne Kishida.

Segment 2: Maureen Aylward speaks to Conor Miller, CEO, and Andrew Brousseau, Compost Manager, from Black Earth Compost.

Notes and Resources

Nature Wins Episode 4: Sharon Byrne Kishida, Massachusetts Product Stewardship Council

Sharon Byrne Kishida is a planning committee member for the Massachusetts Product Stewardship Council (MassPSC) that advocates for product stewardship legislation for mattresses and paint and extended producer responsibility legislation for packaging. A long-time resident of Rockport, Sharon recently retired from MassDEP where she served 23 years as the regional waste/recycling coordinator for the Northeast District 3 (39 cities and towns North of Boston). She is a municipal solid waste consultant and member of the Cape Ann Climate Coalition Legislative and Interfaith Climate Justice Committee.

Segment Resources

Black Earth Compost’s Conor Miller and Andrew Brousseau

Conor Miller, Partner, CEO, started Black Earth in 2011 after moving east from Jackson Hole, WY where he worked for a recycling collection company. A once avid backcountry skier and surfer, he now finds running Black Earth to be the greatest adventure, focusing on the collection side of the company and capital allocation. Having been the truck driver, welder, salesman, and many other hats in the beginning due to necessity, Conor has a strong foundation in all aspects of business that you only get from experience.

Andrew Brousseau, Partner, Compost Manager

Black Earth Compost was founded in January 2011 in Gloucester, MA. Originally a one man, one truck, Cape Ann company, it has steadily grown to become the leading full service compost company in New England. With over 35 trucks, it is dedicated to collecting food scraps from residents, schools, supermarkets, colleges, and more, all across eastern MA and RI. It is also the only vertically integrated company that composts the material too, returning it to customers and selling it in garden centers across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.

Segment Resources

Nature Wins:

Nature Wins: JoeAnn Hart

JoeAnn Hart is the author of Highwire Act & Other Tales of Survival, a collection of short fiction from Black Lawrence press released in September 2023. Her most recent book is Stamford ’76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s (University of Iowa Press, April, 2019), a crime memoir that weaves together the personal and public threads of a friend’s 1976 bow-and-arrow death. Her novels are Float (Ashland Creek Press, 2013) a dark comedy about plastics in the ocean, and Addled (Little, Brown, 2007) a social satire that intertwines animal rights with the politics of food. Her work, which also includes articles, essays, and drama, often explores the relationship between humans and their environments, natural or otherwise.

Segment 1 Resources

Nature Wins: Kim Radochia

Artist Kim Radochia's creations capture movement and energy to immerse viewers in the moment. Her intense process of making, exploring materials and connecting to place has led to inventive, vibrant artworks that convey fragility and strength. Highlights of Radochia’s career include an invitation from the Cape Ann Museum to create a community sculpture for the opening of their Sculpture Green in 2021, titled Heart in the Haystack. Kim has lectured throughout the country on creativity, art, and sculpture.

Segment 2 Resources

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward speaks to NOAA Biologist Eric Hutchins (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/meet-eric-hutchins-habitat-restoration-biologist).

Nature Wins: Losing the Beech Trees and Biodiversity Loss on Cape Ann

In this episode of Nature Wins, host Maureen Aylward speaks to Dick Prouty, TownGreen Board Chair, and Candace Wheeler a member of Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission, about #decarbonization and mitigation actions in Gloucester and why these actions are important. In Segment 2, Maureen interviews Gemma Wilkens, City of Gloucester Sustainability Coordinator, about her role, progress on the City’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan, how residents can take climate action, and the Energy Savings Fair.