Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Transformation from ‘the harbor of shame’ to a vibrant coastal resource

Boston Harbor, an urban harbor located in Massachusetts, USA, has a long history of use and environmental degradation, followed by extensive restoration efforts. The coastal resources of the region sustained native tribes for thousands of years prior to European settlement, and those resources sustained early settlers, allowing them to expand throughout the region. By the late 1600s, the city of Boston was the most influential shipping and trading city in the new colonies. Continuous growth of the region throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, however, strained those resources. Extensive areas of coastal wetlands were filled for urban development, resident wastewater was disposed of in the Harbor, and industrialization of the waterfront resulted in additional point source contamination. By the 1980s, Boston Harbor was considered among the most polluted harbors in the country. Extensive efforts in recent years, however, have restored the water quality in the Harbor and revitalized the waterfront region. Below we describe the socio-economic and ecological resources of the region, explore the current threats Boston Harbor faces, and highlight two examples of actions that helped restore the Harbor to its current conditions.