Our nonprofit is small, but our purpose is big. We are a young organization, but our impact will last a very long time.
MUC is committed to restoring and creating natural ecosystems and biodiversity in our state’s urban communities – our cities and towns, where most people live. Urban areas are lacking biodiversity, and steadily losing what species diversity they have. If left unchecked, this trend, which echoes in cities around the world, could have calamitous impacts on all species – humans certainly included – by limiting food, medicine and raw supplies, polluting air and water, and reducing life-sustaining resources.
We aim to help reverse this disastrous trend.
Why Cities?
It’s a fact: Living among nature provides numerous benefits for physical and mental health. It’s more pleasant, of course. But importantly, it also leads to increased social activity, a lower cost of living and stronger economy, improved grades and test scores…the list is long.
Most people live in cities and towns, worldwide and in Massachusetts. An essential aspect of our work at MUC is raising biodiversity awareness among urban residents, enlisting their engagement and empowering their ownership in building and sustaining the biodiversity of their home environment.
MUC History
MUC was launched in 2024 with the unique idea of concentrating our biodiversity restoration initiatives and advocacy on behalf of cities in Massachusetts. Cities and urban residents will have to participate if we are to reverse global biodiversity loss.
We are growing our team, and embarking on a series of small, low-cost projects [link: projects] in partnership with urban residents, teachers and biodiversity professionals.
Who Are We?
Eric Weld, President
Eric Weld has been a lifetime advocate for a cleaner, wilder environment; a nature and adventure writer for more than 20 years; and a lover of and participant in nature and the outdoors since early childhood. Throughout his lifetime of adventures – circumnavigating the globe twice, living on four continents, summiting Mt. Fuji, bicycling across the USA, thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail – he has sought out and spent countless hours in nature: forests ancient and new, among animals wild and domesticated, at high elevation and well below sea level. He aims to maximize his time spent outdoors, with an inherent and deeply ingrained interest in biodiversity. As a father of two, he also has personal interest in fortifying earth’s environment and livability for the sake of generations to come. Weld lives in Easthampton, Mass., in his idea of the perfect location: a wildlife preserve abutting his back yard and a bike path across the street.
Doug Quattrochi, Treasurer
Doug Quattrochi has known his place in the natural world since his early childhood days exploring the woods behind his parents’ house, having been twice treated for Lyme Disease. He has actively maintained extensive gardens or houseplant collections every place he ever lived. Quattrochi has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to public service and education by co-founding the nonprofit MassLandlords in 2014, where he has personally participated in educational events, serving more than 10,000 landowning event attendees, with special emphasis on decarbonization. He is excited to lend time and expertise to MUC as a needed complement to his main work of helping real estate know its place on our shared earth. He is a resident of Worcester, and a member of the Native Plant Trust.
MUC Mission
Our mission is to prevent, forestall and mitigate the impacts of climate change by supporting urban areas to become denser and wild areas to become wilder. To sustain support for this work, we prevent invasive species taking root in urban land, plant native plants and trees using scientifically validated approaches, and give school districts in environmental justice communities access to nature to learn about biology, ecology and science.
Contact Us
We want to work with you. MUC partners with a diverse array of volunteers, educators, property owners and experts in sustainability, horticulture, land management and much more.
Please contact us if you have an idea, a comment, or want to be involved in MUC projects:
MUC email:
MUC telephone:
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