This matters for Cape Cod as a whole because if you love the place we live in this is something you can't ignore. We see a lot of impact of this on the front line already ...
— Steven Tupper, Deputy Director, Cape Cod Commission
Eastham Climate Mapping in Full Swing
Eastham wants to work smarter and take a comprehensive and strategic look at investments in response to impact of climate change.
Why is Eastham developing a Municipal Climate Road Map?
18 July 2025 – EASTHAM, MA – In Eastham, the Municipal Climate Road Map process is in full swing and expects to have results for the Selectboard by end of year. The effort represents the local integrated strategic analysis and planning that works hand in glove with the Cape Cod Commission’s Regional Action Plan.
“Things are changing and we’re getting coastal storms and different weather events that are affecting people, and we want to proactive and address these things,” said Shana Brogan, Eastham Projects and Procurement Director.
Eastham has just jumped into this deep planning process to look across all elements of the town and identify efforts that make the most strategic impact and offer the best return in a changing environment.
What is a Municipal Climate Road Map?
“A Municipal Climate Action plan is really a road map for communities looking to improve community resilience, identify opportunities reduce greenhouse gas emission, identify sustainable investments for their future,” explained Steven Tupper, Deputy Director of the Cape Cod Commission.
The Commission works actively with the region’s 15 towns to help connect local planning with the larger scale Cape Cod wide climate action plan. This approach enables project to happen at the scale that makes the most sense of each project: locally, collaboratively with other towns, or regionally.
How do local and regional decisions interact?
Eastham isn’t alone in facing climate-driven changes to our coastline, wildfire risk, extreme storms, increasing flooding, and the impact of all these on public safety, evacuation, routes, and everyday life. At the regional level, the larger Cape Cod Regional Action plan addresses regional actions, explained Tupper.
“When it comes down to the local level we have to be really strategic, really prioritize investments. So the development of a plan is an opportunity to have a community conversation about what are local priorities and whats within the realm of the municipality to tackle in terms of mitigating the impacts of climate change and adapting to our changing world,” he said.
What is Cape Cod doing about climate change?
Climate planning and mitigation actions are happening across Cape Cod – for example, Truro already has a plan, a part time staff member and projects underway. Chatham, Brewster, and Orleans are sharing a staff person and working on a number of overlapping project. The larger towns of Falmouth and Barnstable now have town staff focused on planning and project management for climate mitigation. And this summer, Eastham’s plan is underway. Brogan says the town is currently actively soliciting community input and expects to present results and proposals to the selectboard by the end of the year.
