American Rivers, the national advocacy group, released a list of dams today that have been removed this year or will be by December 31 - and six Massachusetts and New Hampshire dams are on the list.

Once, dams - often built for hydropower or recreation - defined many parts of New England. But today, some have outlived their usefulness and only serve as impediments to fish and wildlife migration and can also cause flooding.

Here are the list of local dams to go - and a short explanation of why, according to American Rivers.

Eel River Headwaters Restoration, Eel River, Plymouth, Mass. Seven earthen dams were once used for cranberry bogs. Three of the dams, each measuring about eight feet high and 250 feet long, have already been removed and the remaining four are slated to be dismantled next month. The removals are part of a project to restore habitat for American eel, herring and brook trout.

Lower Dam, Ox Pasture Brook, Mass: The eight-foot tall, 70-foot long dam, built for recreational reasons, will be removed in December to help American eel, Rainbow smelt and water quality.

Lower Flume and Middle Flume dams, Red Brook, Mass: These concrete and steel dams were removed in August to expand habitat for salter brook trout, help fish migrations and better allow sediments to flow.

Maxwell Pond Dam, Black Brook, N.H.: This dam on a Merrimack River tributary was removed earlier this year, restoring eight miles of free-flowing river for alewife, blueback herring, Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish. The city of Manchester is planning a major park revitalization around the flowing river.

Winnicut Dam, Winnicut River, N.H.: Built in 1957, the dam was removed in August to provide an additional 39 miles of spawning habitat for blueback herring, American eel and rainbow smelt. Boaters will also have an easier time navigating the river.

By Michael Prager

Author and activist Bill McKibben wasn’t only preaching to the choir when he addressed the annual meeting Sunday of the Mass. Climate Action Network, he was among the adoring.

Not only was he accorded several standing ovations during his closing keynote address at MIT’s Stata Center, he was approached by attendees throughout the day and thanked, not only for his leadership in the fight against global climate change but, in the words of one, just being on the planet.

McKibben split his address between reporting on last month’s worldwide day of action and assaying the next steps in the fight to stabilize atmospheric carbon content at 350 parts per million. That figure, which he said was established by rigorous science in January 2008, was the focal point of the Oct. 24 action: Under the umbrella of McKibben’s 350.org, individuals coalesced into 5,200 groups in 181 countries to send the message to climate-change delegates meeting six weeks hence in Copenhagen that they want significant action on the issue.

It could be argued that no message was ever stated more broadly. According to McKibben, CNN termed it “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.” That’s an accomplishment, certainly, but it was undercut by the news earlier in the day that President Obama had said the conference would not produce a climate treaty, as activists have long hoped and urged.

At lunchtime, meeting with a group affiliated with the Global Warming Education Network, McKibben alluded to the Obama’s comment when he said, “I got myself through the last 18 months of pushing that Copenhagen would be a natural endpoint for some of this, but it’s not true.”

During his address, McKibben acknowledged that his own carbon footprint is off the charts, having traveled extensively worldwide to organize the action. He is not paid for his 350.org advocacy work.

Brace yourself Boston: Sea level rise from climate change could jeopardize Hub assets worth $463 billion.

A new report out by World Wildlife Fund and insurer Allianz warns that sea levels could rise along the U.S. coast a whopping 26 inches by 2050 as the world warms. That would place assets worth $7.4 trillion at risk along the US coast.

“With each new study the alarm bells become deafeningly clear that climate change will have devastating consequences for our economy and way of life,’’ said David Reed, senior vice president of policy at WWF.

The report comes several weeks before the world’s nations meet in Copenhagen to work toward a binding agreement to lower greenhouse gases from power plants, cars, and factories that are warming the earth and causing sea levels to rise.

New scientific evidence shows that the pace of warming in some places is outstripping even dire projections. (The simulation to the left was done by Applied Science Associates).

In the report, Boston is cited as the city with the fourth greatest risk exposure. The top three are Miami with $2.8 trillion; New York-Newark area with $1.8 trillion and New Orleans with $753 billion.

Download the report here.

By Peter DeMarco

It was touted as the Big Dig’s greatest open-space gift to Boston: a spectacular ribbon of parks, paths, and pedestrian footbridges linking the Esplanade to both the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor. But when the Central Artery/Tunnel Project officially wrapped up two years ago, only half of what was promised had been built.

This week, state environmental officials, flush with $30 million from the federal stimulus package and a renewed political will, took a huge step toward addressing that failure.

Construction bids were opened Tuesday for the first of three promised footbridges, a 700-foot expanse that will rise over railroad tracks on the Cambridge-Charlestown line to link parklands on opposite sides of the Leonard P. Zakim Bridge. The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will pay for the entire bridge, called the North Bank Bridge, and other riverfront paths.

More important, the infusion of federal dollars will be combined with another $30.5 million left over in the Central Artery’s coffers to build the other footbridges and paths promised to Bostonians nearly two decades ago, state officials said.

Once that happens - the new goal is about four years - Bostonians will be able to walk, jog, and bike from Watertown to Charlestown to South Boston without leaving the water’s edge. The city will be opened to recreational users like never before, with multiuse trails under both sides of the Zakim Bridge to explore on any journey.

“The idea that you can walk all the way down the Charles, but not to the harbor, is frustrating for people who care about the history and recreational use of the river,’’ said Ian Bowles, secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “You’re going to finally see the Commonwealth moving forward to reclaim this last half-mile. Being able to do the North Bank Footbridge with the recovery funds has unlocked the whole rest of the deal.’’

While the Big Dig spent $100 million on parks - including North Point Park in Cambridge, Paul Revere Park in Charlestown, and Nashua Street Park in Boston - it failed to build the all-important links between the parks, the Esplanade, the Greenway, and the Harbor. As a result, the parks have seen little use.

Those missing links all lie in the so-called lost half-mile of the Charles River, officially known as the New Charles River Basin. The area extends from Monsignor O’Brien Highway between the Museum of Science and Leverett Circle to the Charlestown Bridge, where the dam sits.

When the Central Artery/Tunnel Project officially closed on Dec. 31, 2007, most parks and recreation advocates figured the missing links would remain missing for a long time. The recession further sapped any hope of the state’s covering the full $60 million in remaining construction costs. And there was no guarantee that $30.5 million left over from the Central Artery, even though it was earmarked for parks, would not be siphoned off to pay other state debts.

Now, those advocates say they are both shocked and full of joy.

“These are really difficult economic times, and things are dropping right and left, so people have been disappointed about many things,’’ said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association since 1991. “But this is really good news. I’ve got a big smile on my face.’’

Dan Wilson, a longtime volunteer member of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the New Charles River Basin, praised Bowles and the governor for their renewed commitment to finishing the work. But Wilson cautioned that promises to complete the missing links have amounted to little in the past, and budgets that were thought to be more than enough have fallen far short.

“My concern is that we may repeat the same mistake,’’ Wilson said.

Bowles and Rick Sullivan, commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, said that this time the work will be done. State Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan is also supporting the effort.

“We intend to keep every commitment we’ve made,’’ Mullan said.

The North Bank Footbridge, which will link North Point Park in Cambridge to Paul Revere Park in Charlestown, should be built within two years, Sullivan said, as will a multiuse path on Beverly Street Extension connecting the Rose Kennedy Greenway to the Charles River.

Bowles and Sullivan said they intend to revive plans to attach a second footbridge to an existing railroad bridge across the Charles. That footbridge, which Sullivan estimated would cost $5 million, would link North Point Park in Cambridge to Nashua Street Park in Boston.

A third missing bridge, estimated at $12 million, is expected to rise over railroad tracks on the southern side of the Charles near the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Noah Bierman of the Globe staff contributed to this report

The University of New Hampshire’s Center for Ocean Renewable Energy will receive $700,000 in federal stimulus money to test the nation’s first floating deepwater wind turbine off the Isle of Shoals.

The money is part of $8 million in stimulus funds for a University of Maine-led consortium to develop three deepwater wind energy test sites in the Gulf of Maine.

If the floating turbines work – and sustain the harsh weather of the western North Atlantic - it may forge new public support for offshore wind farms. The nation’s first proposed offshore wind farm – the 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound – has been stalled more than five years largely over aesthetic concerns because it can be seen from land.

The University already has an offshore aquaculture program that has permanent mooring lines in 170 feet of deepwater, making it easier – and quicker - for them to test a floating turbine.

“This is a really exciting project because we’re pushing the envelope,’’ says UNH’s ocean center director Ken Baldwin, professor of ocean and mechanical engineering.

As early as next autumn, Baldwin and others will install a wind turbine on a 60-foot tower about six miles off the mainland and close to the Isles of Shoals. The 10-kilowatt turbine will measure wind, wave and temperature on the turbine itself, the platform and the mooring lines that anchor it to the fall.

Two other. larger, floating wind turbines will be tested off Maine.

But Baldwin cautions it won’t be easy: Computer models of offshore wind turbines on floating platforms exist but they’ve never been tested in a deepwater environment. The team’s first step will be to test small models, developed by UNH seniors in an undergraduate ocean research projects course in UNH’s indoor wave tank.

Scituate selectmen have approved a contract to allow a private company to build a wind turbine on public land, a move expected to save the town up to $300,000 a year and reduce the town’s carbon footprint by 3 million kilowatt hours per year.

Selectmen last night granted a 15-year contract to Solaya Energy, a Woburn company, to construct a 390-foot windmill on town land on the Driftway next to the sewer plant.

Read more of this story from Boston.com/scituate right here.

The Framingham water project is officially dead.

The community ran into controversy this fall after officials there attempted to rush an environmental review of a plan to reactivate old drinking water wells and build a water treatment plant in order to get federal stimulus funds.

Late last month, state Energy and Environment Secretary Ian Bowles said the project needed far more study before he would sign off on it. He also questioned the overall wisdom of it. Here's a link to that post.

On Nov. 2, Framingham's public works department released a short note: This notice shall serve to inform all interested parties that the above referenced project has been placed on hold, indefinitely. Therefore, procurement number PW160 has been officially cancelled. There are no plants to re-activate this procurement in the near future.

I meant to post this earlier, but forgot.

Those climate campers are in trouble again.

Scores of university students are spending each Sunday night camping out on Boston Common in hopes of convincing Governor Deval Patrick to introduce a bill to re-power the state with 100 percent clean electricity by 2020.

But camping in Boston Common is apparently illegal. So last night, for the second week in a row, the campers were told they would receive summons to appear in court, according to a spokesman from the Leadership Council. Climate activist Bill McKibben was among the group. In all, 122 people received summons, according to the group. The Boston Police Department had no report yet on the incident when I called.

Tomorrow the group is meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick to try and convince him to file that climate bill.

Here's my previous post: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/11/climate_campers_on_common_to_g.html

What do instant noodles, baby formula, some biofuels, French fries, lipstick and ice cream have in common?

Palm oil.

It’s often the “vegetable/oil fat” listed in the ingredients of about half of the products you encounter in the supermarket. The oil's use is dramatically increasing in the U.S. as manufacturers steer away from other oil that contains trans fats. Worldwide, use increasing around 8-10 percent a year according to industry statistics.

Land being cleared for an oil palm plantation next to a forest(Greenpeace)

But long-simmering concerns over the environmental harm from oil palm tree plantations are elevating.

A 2009 United Nations report notes that some forms of palm oil production is done on low-lying, carbon-rich peat land, which can result in the release of enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, the key culprit in global warming. Old tropical forests are often cut down to make room for massive palm oil plantations, but the new trees do not sequester the same amount of carbon as the original forest.

“If you are cutting down tropical forests and replacing them with trees that don’t (capture) the same amount of carbon, you are exacerbating climate change,’’ said Margaret Swink of the Rainforest Action Network. “(It’s) an emissions burst.”

In addition, orangutans which live in the lowlands of Borneo and Sumatra where plantations are often built are losing their living space as land is cleared to make room to capitalize on oil demand. Some estimates place the loss of orangutans at 30-50 a week because of palm oil plantations.

We all know the economic crisis is hitting every aspect of many people’s lives and the state budget for the environment is no exception.

Now, hoping to figure out how to make do with a lot less money, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has scheduled six “listening sessions” in coming weeks to hear the public’s ideas on how to make structural changes to meet environmental goals despite budget cuts.

“Governor Patrick and I have worked hard with EEA agencies to manage our budgetary challenges to date so as to have the least impact on our environmental mission,” said EEA Secretary Ian Bowles. “But the time has come to think bigger. In that, we need the help of everyone who cares about our parks, beaches, rivers, streams, and forests.”

Bowles is researching three areas:
• Public-private partnerships to help manage state parks and other Department of Conservation and Recreation properties.
• New regulatory models to figure out ways to protect the environment through innovative means such as the state’s privatization of the clean-up of hazardous waste sites.
• Reorganization/consolidation of state agencies to help clarify missions and reduce duplication of effort.

Already, concern is growing among environmental groups about stripping away protections for wetlands, water and park upkeep. But state environmental officials say they are only in a listening mode now.

Here is a list of the sessions and how to comment:

The National Marine Fisheries Service has determined that the ever so ugly Atlantic wolffish is not in danger of extinction and should not be placed on the endangered species list.

A face only a mother could love? (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Bird)

Last year, the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation petitioned the federal government for listing, noting that Wolffish numbers have severely declined since the 1980s. They also hoped that the wolffish's plight would draw attention to its neighborhood - the rocky, boulder-strewn sea floor, which can be disrupted when fishermen drag a net or trawl across the bottom.

The federal government did say the Atlantic wolffish will continue to be classified as a species of concern that will funnel research dollars to ensure it doesn't become listed.

Here is the press release.

And here's a story staffer Carolyn Johnson did on the fish last year.

In a few weeks, the Gosman Center at Brandeis University will be the site of one of the largest solar panel arrays in Massachusetts.

The 277 kilowatt solar system is part of the university’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to eventually make the campus carbon neutral and educate students and the surrounding community about energy use.

Construction on the solar system is set to begin this week and to last about three weeks, according to Janna Cohen-Rosenthal, the sustainability coordinator at Brandeis.

Read more of the story on the Globe's Your Town Waltham site here.

Connectivity is a key word in the conservation movement these days: As land becomes more fragmented because of roads or subdivisions, environmental groups are looking to ensure large tracts of protected land are linked together.

(AMC photo)

And today, with the announcement that the Appalachian Mountain Club has purchased 29,500 acres of beloved Maine Woods, hikers, skiers and backpackers now have a 63-mile long corridor to enjoy the wild from near Greenville north to Baxter State Park. The purchase ensures almost 650,000 contiguous acres of conservation land is open for public recreational use.

The Roach Ponds purchase from Plum Creek for $11.5 million is the first milestone in a planned 400,000 acre conservation effort.

The purchase, buffering more than 20 miles of the Appalachian Trail corridor, also permanently protects the headwaters of the West Branch of the Pleasant River, beloved by fishermen for brook trout.

“Today marks an incredible step forward for land conservation and outdoor recreation in Maine,’’ said AMC Deputy Director Walter Graff, who helped broker the deal. “This parcel has been the missing link in a corridor of protected land.”

The area is in what is known as the 100-mile wilderness conservation corridor of the Appalachian Trail. AMC has donated a conservation easement on the property to the state to ensure it is protected for ever.

For more information, go to http://www.outdoors.org/about/newsroom/roach-ponds-event.cfm

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Although U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey is chair of a congressional climate change committee and a co-sponsor of clean energy legislation, he’s never explicitly come out in favor of the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.

Yet today, Markey wrote a strongly worded two-page letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urging him to approve the Cape Wind project before next month’s international climate talks in Copenhagen.

“Approving the Cape Wind project as the nation’s first commercial offshore wind project before the start of the U.N. conference would send a strong message to international negotiators about the United States’ commitment to developing sources of clean energy and reducing global warming pollution,’’ Markey wrote.

Markey has long indicated support, but said he was waiting to give his okay on the proposed 130-turbine wind farm until it went through a full environmental review. Eight years after the project was first proposed that final, favorable review was issued by the U.S. Minerals Management Service earlier this year. But Salazar has yet to issue the final permit.

So why did Markey write the letter now?

Environmentalists say he may have been motivated by a new delay to the project that Gov. Deval Patrick has labeled “ridiculous”: A ruling by Massachusetts' top historical officer that Nantucket Sound is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two Wampanoag tribes have called for the listing because in part they say their sun salutation would be disturbed by the spinning turbines.

With U.S. legislation on reducing greenhouse gases stalled in Washington, observers say, there is a growing belief the U.S. needs to attend the talks with some green promise in hand – even if it's only approval to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm.

“We’re grateful,’’ said George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. “We think it’s an important step forward for Cape Wind.”

"The timing is odd,'' given it comes a week after the state historical ruling, said Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the main opposition group to the project.

Still, Sue Reid of the advocacy group Conservation Law Foundation said “we are really buoyed by it. It comes at a crucial time for the project.”

Here is the letter.

Who knew caring about climate change would mean a court summons?

For the last three Sunday nights, a group of more than 100 college students from across Massachusetts have camped out on Boston Common to call on Governor Deval Patrick to introduce a bill to re-power the state with 100 percent clean electricity by 2020. International climate talks are scheduled next month in Copenhagen, and the students are part of a growing grassroots chorus to get the U.S. to pledge to meaningful greenhouse gas reductions.

But this morning at 1 a.m. around 150 activists – including Jim Hansen, the outspoken NASA climate change scientist – were woken up by Boston Police officers to be told they were trespassing on the Boston Common. They were given a few minutes to leave or face summons.

About half the group temporarily left to the nearby Church on the Hill while 67 stayed to face the trespassing charges.

“It was cordial,’’ said Dan Abrams, a spokesman for the Leadership Campaign, which has organized students on 24 campuses. The students sleep outside on their college or university property during the week and come to the Common on Sunday nights to be ready to lobby in the Statehouse Monday mornings.

“Regardless of the cause, we have to enforce the laws of the city,’’ said Boston Police spokesman Joe Zanoli. He said Boston Common is closed after 11 p.m. “We can’t allow one group to voice their opinion and overlook laws.”

After police took down campers information, the entire group – including those that went to the church - continued camping. They woke this morning to attend a hearing sponsored by Sen. Marc Pacheco on their proposed legislation.

And they’ve already given the police a heads up: They’ll be back next Sunday.

You’ve probably heard by now about the dreaded Asian longhorned beetle wreaking havoc – and forcing the cut down of some 25,000 trees in the Worcester area.

Female Asian longhorned beetle (Jennifer Forman Orth/Massachusetts DAR)

Now it’s your turn to make sure they don’t make it to Springfield or Boston by participating in a Springfield survey Monday or a Boston one Saturday, Nov. 14. Details below.

The invasive Asian longhorned beetles have no known predators in the United States and attack many kinds of hardwood trees, from maple to birch. First discovered in 1996 in Brooklyn, they have shown up in other parts of New York, as well as in Chicago and New Jersey. The Department of Agriculture estimates the beetle has the potential to cause $41 billion worth of damage to the nation’s lumber, maple syrup, nursery, and tourism industry.

The shiny black bug has irregular white spots, and has antennae at least as long as its 1- to 1 1/2-inch body. It kills a tree by essentially cutting off its circulation: The female beetle lays eggs in the bark and worm-like larvae then bore into the healthy tree, feeding on tissue during the fall and winter before emerging through bark holes.

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Massachusetts' top historic preservation officer has dealt a setback to the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, ruling today that the body of water is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because of its cultural significance for two Native American tribes.
In a letter released late in the afternoon, State Historic Preservation Officer Brona Simon said she believes that Nantucket Sound is so culturally important to two Wampanoag tribes, it should be listed on the National Register as a traditional cultural property. Her decision conflicts with an earlier conclusion by the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that led the environmental review of the Cape Wind project.

Now, the head of the National Register will have to determine if the property is eligible to be listed, a process that could ultimately delay the project's approval by up to a year, federal and state officials have said.

A listing would not necessarily stop the project, but would make permitting much more cumbersome. If the National Register head determines that the 560-square mile sound is eligible, Cape Wind would then have to go through a lengthy review process to actually be listed. The project has already undergone eight years of government reviews and a final federal decision on the 130 wind turbines was expected this year.

Simon’s letter states that her office found "considerable archaeological, historical and ethnographic information that substantiates Nantucket Sound is historically significant." A 21-page explanation followed her short letter.

Gov. Patrick criticized the decision released in a statement tonight.

"I respect the Wampanoags, but this decision is ridiculous," Patrick said. "We are going to have to get serious about alternative energy installations where they make sense, and every environmental and regulatory review has concluded that Cape Wind makes sense."

The two Massachusetts tribes have claimed for five years that the turbines in Nantucket Sound would disturb their spiritual sun greetings and submerged ancestral burying grounds. That's in part because during the last ice age, so much of the world's water was locked in glaciers, New England's coast extended more than 75 miles farther from today's shore. Native Americans likely hunted and lived on that exposed land, the tribes say.

While archaeological excavations in Nantucket Sound have found evidence of a submerged forest six feet under the mud, there have been no signs of Native American camps.
A Wampanoag officer said that Simon's decision underscored the validity of the tribes' claim and that she hoped it would lead to long-term protection of Nantucket Sound.

“It’s heartening. What this is about is where this is being placed -- take it out our (view)," said Bettina Washington, tribal historic preservation officer for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe on Martha's Vineyard. "We are not against wind power."

By Beth Daley

After months of speculating, Curt Spalding, the longtime executive director of Save the Bay in Rhode Island, has just been named New England’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief.

Curt Spalding (Save The Bay photo)

Spalding was considered a strong candidate, but pundits were placing bets on Charlie Lord, who helped found Boston College’s Urban Ecology Institute or David Cash, Massachusetts assistant secretary for policy at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Months have gone by without an appointment and the decision is being met at the EPA with relief there is a new leader at the helm. Former Bush-era New England EPA chief Robert Varney left for the private sector months ago.

This from an EPA announcement: “Spalding has extensive experience as an advocate, policy analyst and administrator. For almost 20 years he served as Executive Director of Save the Bay Rhode Island, a 20,000 member environmental advocacy and education organization. He established the Narragansett BayKeeper and Habitat Restoration programs which reconnected Save The Bay to ecologically important Bay issues and oversaw the successful completion of the $9 million Explore The Bay Campaign and construction of the Save The Bay Center at Fields Point in Providence, RI. Prior to joining Save the Bay, Spalding was an Environmental Protection Specialist and Presidential Management Intern at EPA’s offices in Boston and Washington, D.C. Spalding received his bachelor’s degree from Hobart College and an M.P.A. from SUNY at Albany in Albany, NY.”

"It is an honor to be selected by President Obama and I look forward
to working with Administrator Jackson as we help our communities and
build a green economy,’’ Spalding said in a prepared statement. “Years ago, I had the choice of any federal agency to work for, and I chose EPA. My passion for EPA's mission is no less today than it was then. As Regional Administrator I look forward to working with the dedicated EPA New England team in confronting the environmental challenges currently before us. I am proud to serve the people throughout New England at this time of great promise in protecting human health and the environment."

A draft report from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection calls for cutting annual phosphorous levels by 49 percent along the 70-mile upper and middle stretches of the Charles River. The state agency is accepting written public comments on the plan through Nov. 30.

The report urges waste-water plants to cut back the amount of phosphorus contained in treated water before it is discharged, a move that could lead operators to pass on the procedure’s higher costs to residents. It also targets businesses, which could see their costs rise if cities and towns adopt regulations to better manage storm water. Agencies responsible for major roadways would also have to clean up their act if the report’s limits go into effect.

Read the rest of Lisa Kocian's Globe West story here.

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Governor Deval Patrick announced a truce with environmental groups late today in a battle over how to protect the state's 11,000 miles of rivers and streams from being drawn down too low by mounting development pressures.

Last month, four conservation groups abruptly resigned from a state waterway advisory panel, alleging that a new state policy removed ecological considerations from decisions about how much water could be removed from river basins for industry, agriculture, lawn watering, and other household uses. The organizations said the policy could allow some waterways to run dry.

State officials disagreed, saying that the policy would instead help waterways and that environmental concerns would still be weighed, even if they weren't specifically detailed.

Late today, however, Patrick and representatives of the Conservation Law Foundation, Charles River Watershed Association, Ipswich River Watershed Association and Clean Water Action said that they had agreed to work together to develop a new water-withdrawal policy and that the groups would rejoin the advisory panel.

"I am pleased to announce these important voices are back at the table participating,'' said Patrick in a conference call with reporters and the environmental representatives. "We share common goals ... for Massachusetts to lead in water conservation and water management."

A statement issued by the state made clear that environmental groups persuaded state officials to their way of thinking. The state agreed to suspend the controversial policy and meet regularly with the groups to come up with a new one that explicitly has environmental protections built in.