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Scott Hecker is the Executive Director of the Goldenrod Foundation. He develops and manages policy initiatives, advocacy and educational programs to increase conservation of the barrier beach ecosystem.
Scott supervises seasonal staff and interns during the nesting and migratory periods of multiple species of shorebirds, including species listed under the United States Endangered Species Act and Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Please see Projects/Residency for profiles of interns and bird monitors.
Scott’s career has centered on coastal conservation at the state and national level for over twenty years. Between 1987 and 2002, he served as Director of the Coastal Waterbird Program for Mass Audubon. He played a vital role developing research, advocacy, and education efforts to protect threatened terns and plovers at dozens of beaches on the Massachusetts coast. The work of his staff and partners contributed to the state’s dramatic rebound of Piping Plovers from 126 pairs in 1987 to 530 pairs in 2002. From 2003 to 2008, Scott developed the Coastal Bird Conservation Program for the National Audubon Society to broaden the reach of Audubon’s model to a larger number of threatened coastal bird species and additional states on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
Scott is the author of “The Piping Plover as an Umbrella Species for the Barrier Beach Ecosystem”, published in Saving Biological Diversity by Springer, 2008. He is the recipient of the Massachusetts Conservationist of the Year Award (1995) from the Thornton Burgess Society, 1998 Coastal Visionary Award from the Gulf of Maine Council, 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award from Olmsted Falls High School, and the Alumni Environmental Excellence Award from Antioch University in 2011. |
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