Additionally, climate resilience impacts will be discussed. The workshop will include the regulatory framework, recent MassDEP decisions under the state Wetlands Protection Act, and specific recommendations from the Town of Arlington’s Artificial Turf Study Committee.

Cities and towns are grappling with the pros and cons of siting artificial turf fields in and around wetlands and related bodies of water. The workshop is one of several at the MACC Annual Environmental Conference (AEC) at Holy Cross College in Worcester on March 2, 2024. It brings to conservation commissions, their agents, and environmental science consultants and engineers who work for municipalities, landowners, and litigants in appeals and court the teachings of the Town of Arlington’s Artificial Turf Forum held in May 2023.

Susan Chapnick, M.S., President & Principal Scientist, NEH, Inc. Ms. Chapnick is President and Principal Scientist of New Environmental Horizons, Inc., an environmental chemistry consulting firm specializing in the planning and evaluation of environmental data to support cleanups of hazardous waste sites and human health and ecological risk assessments.  Ms. Chapnick also champions science-based policy in her role on the MassDEP Waste Site Cleanup Advisory committee and as the current Vice-Chair (and former Chair) of the Conservation Commission for the Town of Arlington, MA.  She was an expert-panelist in Arlington’s Artificial Turf Forum, which was a town-wide forum on the pros and cons of artificial turf fields in terms of health, safety, and the environment, held in May 2023. Ms. Chapnick holds a Master of Science degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Barnard College, Columbia University, New York.

David Morgan, Environmental Planner & Conservation Agent, Town of Arlington. Mr. Morgan is Arlington's Environmental Planner and Conservation Agent.  Mr. Morgan has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Tufts University. Mr. Morgan previously worked as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and as an Education Research Fellow for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he investigated ecosystem-based climate change adaptation and policy, especially related to New England’s wetlands and coastal ecosystems. Prior to his graduate study, he developed small, worker-owned businesses and led economic justice policy initiatives. Mr. Morgan received his Bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Nathaniel Stevens, Esq., McGregor Legere & Stevens PC. Mr. Stevens is a Partner at McGregor Legere & Stevens PC in Boston. He handles a broad range of environmental and land use matters for diverse clients in multiple forums, including conservation commissions and MassDEP. He has written for legal and environmental publications, including MACC’s Quarterly Newsletter, on Massachusetts court cases, MassDEP regulatory reforms, Home Rule and preemption, and state and local wetlands protection law. He serves on his Conservation Commission of which he was chair for many years and on the MACC Board of Directors. Prior to law school, he worked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Wetlands Division on policy issues. Mr. Stevens is a graduate of Vassar College and Suffolk University Law School (cum laude), with a Master’s of Science in Natural Resource Policy and Planning from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources.