Save The Bay has a new director as organization goes through a growth spurt

PROVIDENCE – A familiar face is taking the reins of one of Rhode Island’s biggest environmental groups.

Topher Hamblett was named executive director of Save The Bay this week, ascending to the top position of the organization he joined as an intern 36 years ago.

Hamblett, 63, of Barrington, is taking charge at a time of growth for Save The Bay, with a slew of new staff members coming on board and a new aquarium to open in Newport in the next couple of months.

“There’s an energy throughout the organization for what’s to come,” Hamblett said.

Who is Topher Hamblett?

Hamblett, longtime director of advocacy at the nonprofit, took on the executive director’s position on an interim basis last June when Jonathan Stone left after 15 years in the job. The group’s board of directors announced Hamblett’s permanent appointment to the position on Monday. He becomes the fifth executive director of Save The Bay since its founding in 1970.

“For over five decades, Save The Bay has led the community’s efforts to protect and improve Narragansett Bay,” board members George Shuster and Robin Boss said in a joint statement. "Anyone who takes the helm needs a unique skill set, complete with an understanding of how to move the needle on policy issues, how to unite people around a common cause, and how to communicate complex topics – as well as an ethos of hard work and integrity. Topher brings all this and more to the position.”

A Barrington native, Hamblett is the son of Stephen Hamblett, publisher of The Providence Journal from 1987 to 1999. He’s married with two adult daughters.

From Sierra Leone to Save The Bay

Hamblett joined Save The Bay after serving in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone from 1985-87. Within a few years, he started leading its advocacy work, becoming a public face of an organization that has helped lead the fight to clean up Narragansett Bay, improve water quality and protect the marshes and other critical habitats along its shoreline.

After going back to Sierra Leone following the end of a decade-long civil war there, he decided to leave Save The Bay in 2004 to establish a nonprofit dedicated to helping the West African nation rebuild. Through The Foundation for West Africa, he helped set up independent radio stations as a way of fostering dialogue and bringing people together.

After Stone took charge of Save The Bay in 2008, he reached out to Hamblett, who was still based in Rhode Island, and asked if he was interested in returning to his old job. Hamblett went back part-time at first in 2009 and then started working full-time on environmental advocacy in Rhode Island again. (The Foundation for West Africa is still operating and expanding its network of radio stations.)

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Save The Bay is in a growth spurt

Flush with new funding from foundations and government agencies, Save The Bay has added eight staff members in the last year, bringing its workforce to 40 people. The new hires include educators to expand the team that teaches school groups about environmental issues, operations staff to work at the soon-to-open Hamilton Family Aquarium in Newport, and habitat-restoration specialists.

When the organization’s current strategic plan was being drawn up, habitat restoration was brought up time and again as a top priority. With sea levels rising and extreme rainstorms becoming more frequent, salt marshes and other fragile coastal habitats are threatened with inundation. Save The Bay is working with other groups to shore up marshes like the one at Jacob’s Point in Warren and reduce the threat of flooding on the Kickemuit River, also in Warren, by taking out two dams that no longer serve any purpose.

More: Race against time: Rising seas push the saltmarsh sparrow to the edge of extinction

“As a steward of Narragansett Bay, we feel like we need to get specific and focus our work,” Hamblett said. “In places, there are opportunities to do adaptation work, to restore the connectivity of river systems, and secure land so salt marshes can migrate inland.”

Advocacy at the State House

At the legislative level, the priorities for Hamblett remain the same. Save The Bay is a big supporter of a bottle bill that would aim to improve the recycling rate in Rhode Island and reduce litter.

Reform of the Coastal Resources Management Council is also key, he said. The powerful state agency that has authority over offshore wind power development, oyster farming, dredging and other coastal activities has been plagued with controversy and has been targeted for restructuring by a number of lawmakers. Hamblett said the final touches are being put on legislation that will be introduced soon in the General Assembly.

Save The Bay’s profile will soon be raised with the opening of the aquarium in Newport, which is located in the Gateway Transportation and Visitors Center on America's Cup Avenue. The 7,500-square-foot facility replaces a much smaller aquarium that has been in the Easton’s Beach Rotunda since 2006. It will still include plenty of marine creatures found in and around Narragansett Bay, and Bowser the snapping turtle will be there, too.

“Bowser will be there as long as Bowser’s alive,” Hamblett laughed.

But the center also includes classrooms that will allow Save The Bay to offer more summer and afterschool programs and a meeting space for community events.

“This isn’t just about entertainment,” Hamblett said. “It's about inspiring people and connecting people with our mission.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Save The Bay has a new leader and ambitious goals for 2024