conservation

The annual conference of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions is one of the largest environmental conferences of its kind in New England.

A foundation on the island has been focused on land acquisition for 60 years. Now that it owns some 9,000 acres of land — about a third of the island — it wants to add more restoration to its agenda.

The bait fishery and biomedical industries are likely to be most impacted by harvest reduction measures, but conservationists say the efforts don’t go far enough to protect the "prehistoric" bottom-dwellers.

Land trusts from across Cape Cod are cooperating this spring to bring a message to state legislators.

Barnstable Land Trust, the Friends of Herring River, and Chatham Conservation Foundation, among others, are hosting 11 free, guided walks, talks, and hikes on Sunday. The goal is to encourage locals to explore Cape Cod’s parks, trails, and natural resources.

For the first time, the native Blazing Star will be planted in Edgartown as part of coastal habitat restoration. The plant attracts bees and butterflies.

Local conservation leaders urged the audience not to consider the development a done deal, and to take action against it.

The Cape Cod Sea Camps property in Brewster, at 120 acres, is one of the largest properties preserved on the Cape in years. And it’s not the only sizable piece of land whose fate could be decided in the near future.

Brewster voters said yes to the purchase of the Cape Cod Sea Camps yesterday, a more than 100-acre property with beach-front views. Over 3,000 residents cast a ballot in Brewster yesterday; that's about 40 percent of the town's registered voters.

Eugenics, which got its start in the 1880s, is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population. It was the…