Volunteers to Help Police Piping Plover Bird Nests in Sandwich

“Volunteers to Help Police Plover Nests on Sandwich Beach”
Cape Cod Times, July 3, 2008
By George Brennan

George Brennan reports that the town of Sandwich will host a training session on July 15, 2008, for volunteers interested in helping to protect piping plover and least tern birds at Town Neck Beach. The volunteers will educate beachgoers about the bird habitats and report infractions to natural resources officers and the police. The move comes after the town received a public scolding by state and federal environmental officials last month for failing to protect the endangered plover birds.

Related articles:

•  “Sandwich Set to Deploy Plover Police,”
     Cape Cod Times, June 14, 2008

•  “Selectmen Will Improve Protection of Endangered Species,”
     The Sandwich Broadsider, June 9, 2008

•  “Sandwich Faces Piping Plover Pressure,”
     Cape Cod Times, June 6, 2008

Association to Preserve Cape Cod Seeks Volunteers for Salt Marsh Monitoring Program

“Plant Surveying Workshop in Brewster”
GateHouse News Service, July 2, 2008

GateHouse News Service reports that the Association to Preserve Cape Cod is seeking volunteers for the sixth year of its salt marsh monitoring program. Volunteers will learn about salt marshes and monitor birds, fish, plants, and salinity at six sites from Sandwich to Orleans. Data “will be used to support state and regional programs that evaluate salt marsh conditions, identify restoration opportunities and assess restoration success.”

A training workshop on plant surveying is scheduled for July 15, 2008, at Stony Brook in Brewster. For more information, please check the Association to Preserve Cape Cod’s webpage about salt marsh monitoring.

State Launches New Park Passport Program

“MA DCR Launches New Park Passport Program”
Cape Cod Today, June 25, 2008

Cape Cod Today reports that the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is launching a new Park Passport program in 76 state parks this Saturday, June 28, 2008. The free program will provide park users with little blue passports and artist-designed stamps to let them document their park visits. The passports also include tips for safe hiking and a guide to identifying animal tracks. Part of the national No Child Left Inside initiative, the Park Passport program is being partly funded with a $36,000 grant from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust.

Participating parks include:

•  Nickerson State Park in Brewster
•  Scusset Beach State Reservation in Sandwich
•  Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich
•  Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Falmouth

Sandwich Golf Course Rooted in Green

"A Long Drive”
The Sandwich Broadsider, June 17, 2008
By Paul Babin

Paul Babin details the financial specifics of the town of Sandwich’s purchase and operation of Sandwich Hollows Golf Club. The course, formerly known as Round Hill Country Club, was purchased in 1999 as part of an $11 million land deal that was designed to prevent residential development. Approximately 200 acres were purchased as open space using Cape Cod Land Bank proceeds. About another 250 acres were purchased with a commercial loan, which the town will pay down over the next 20 years through revenue generated by the golf course.

Sandwich to Deploy Patrols to Protect Plover Birds

“Sandwich Set to Deploy Plover Police"
Cape Cod Times, June 14, 2008
By George Brennan

George Brennan reports that the town of Sandwich will spend up to $10,000 this summer to provide patrols to protect nesting endangered piping plover birds in the dunes of Town Neck Beach and Spring Hill Beach. The move comes a week after the town’s Board of Selectmen was scolded by an official from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program for lax protection of the birds, which are protected by both state and federal law. Also, a federal official has threatened to block Sandwich’s plan to restore the dunes of Town Neck Beach with material dredged from the Cape Cod Canal unless the town implements a long-term plan to protect the endangered birds.

Related articles:

•  “Selectmen Will Improve Protection of Endangered Species,”
     The Sandwich Broadsider, June 9, 2008

•  “Sandwich Faces Piping Plover Pressure,”
     Cape Cod Times, June 6, 2008

Cape Walk 2008 Unfazed by Rain

“Biennial Walk Across Cape Presses on Despite Rain”
Cape Cod Times, June 5, 2008
By Susan Milton

BREWSTER -- Charlie Manolakis could easily drive from Provincetown to Bourne in 90 minutes or less.

But every two years, the Tucson retiree takes nine days to walk an estimated 100 miles of trail between the towns. He's done Cape Walk, a hike sponsored by Cape Cod Pathways, eight times since 1995. ...

Despite obstacles, participation in Cape Walk has grown, and this year, included the most people yet ... ©

Read the full article in the Cape Cod Times.

For a participant’s account of this year’s walk and a collection of related photographs, please read Walking CapeWalk, a blog maintained by Lucy Loomis, “casual hiker, mom, and Director of the Sturgis Library in Barnstable Village.”

Also, note that Cape Cod Pathways hosts an annual Walking Weekend every October. Check the 2007 schedule for a taste of what this year's event might entail.

Cape Walk 2008: May 31st to June 8th

The seventh Cape Walk, a nine-day trek across Cape Cod with some of the region's most experienced hikers and trail walkers, starts today, May 31, 2008, at Herring Cove in Provincetown. The walk will end at Scusset Beach State Reservation in Bourne, on Sunday, June 8, 2008.

Sponsored by Cape Cod Pathways, the walk is not a fundraiser but rather a celebration of Cape Cod's many conservation areas. Participants can walk one day, join in for several days, or walk the entire distance over the nine-day event:

•  Day 1, Saturday, May 31st, Provincetown to Truro
•  Day 2, Sunday, June 1st, Truro to Wellfleet
•  Day 3, Monday, June 2nd, Wellfleet to Eastham
•  Day 4, Tuesday, June 3rd, Eastham to Brewster
•  Day 5, Wednesday, June 4th, Brewster to Dennis
•  Day 6, Thursday, June 5th, Dennis to Yarmouth
•  Day 7, Friday, June 6th, Yarmouth to Barnstable
•  Day 8, Saturday, June 7th, Barnstable to Sandwich
•  Day 9, Sunday, June 8th, Sandwich to Bourne

For more information and complete details of each day's walk, please read the six-page program booklet.

Municipal Open Space and Recreation Plans

A lengthy document governed by the Massachusetts Division of Conservation Services (DCS), a municipal Open Space and Recreation Plan is “a blueprint for how to obtain the benefits of development without losing valued environmental assets.”

A plan encompasses, among other points, a community history, environmental inventory and analysis, inventory of conservation and recreation lands, and five-year action plan. The inventory of lands is particularly valuable as it identifies land and conservation restrictions held by public, private, and nonprofit parties. A valid Open Space and Recreation Plan is a requirement for participating in DCS grant programs such as LAND, PARC, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund program.

•  Barnstable 2005 Open Space and Recreation Plan
    (8.9 MB, 395 pages)

•  Orleans 2006 Conservation, Recreation and Open Space Plan
    (10.8 MB, 110 pages)

•  Provincetown 2007 Open Space and Recreation Plan
    (6.5 MB, 255 pages)

•  Sandwich 1999/2005 Open Space and Recreation Plan
    (539 KB, 95 pages)

•  Wellfleet 2005 Open Space and Recreation Plan
    (1.8 MB, 143 pages)

•  Yarmouth 2007 Draft Open Space and Recreation Plan
    (2.3 MB, 99 pages)

For information about the status of plans of other communities, see a list or view a Map of Communities with an Approved Open Space and Recreation Plan (2008).

For details about how plans are constructed and what content they contain, read DCS's Open Space and Recreation Plan Requirements (2008) and its Open Space and Recreation Planner’s Workbook (2008).

Cape Walk 2008: May 31st to June 8th

The seventh Cape Walk, a nine-day trek across Cape Cod with some of the region's most experienced hikers and trail walkers, will journey from Herring Cove in Provincetown, Saturday, May 31, to Scusset Beach State Reservation in Bourne, Sunday, June 8, 2008.

Sponsored by Cape Cod Pathways, the walk is not a fundraiser but rather a celebration of Cape Cod's many conservation areas. Participants can walk one day, join in for several days, or walk the entire distance over the nine-day event:

•  Day 1, Saturday, May 31, Provincetown to Truro
•  Day 2, Sunday, June 1, Truro to Wellfleet
•  Day 3, Monday, June 2, Wellfleet to Eastham
•  Day 4, Tuesday, June 3, Eastham to Brewster
•  Day 5, Wednesday, June 4, Brewster to Dennis
•  Day 6, Thursday, June 5, Dennis to Yarmouth
•  Day 7, Friday, June 6, Yarmouth to Barnstable
•  Day 8, Saturday, June 7, Barnstable to Sandwich
•  Day 9, Sunday, June 8, Sandwich to Bourne

For more information and complete details of each day's walk, please read the six-page program booklet.

Fields Pond Foundation: Recent Grants

Established in 1993 and based in Waltham, Mass., the Fields Pond Foundation provides “financial assistance to nature and land conservation organizations that are community-based and that serve to increase environmental awareness by involving local residents in conservation issues.”

Over the past several years, the Foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $100,000 to a number of private conservation organizations to assist in land acquisitions on the Cape, including:

•  Barnstable Land Trust, $8,000 in 2006, toward acquisition of 23-acre forest parcel at Cordwood Road, linking Almy Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and Eagle Pond in Cotuit

•  Barnstable Land Trust, $4,000 in 2004, toward Hot Bottom Road Pathway project

•  Barnstable Land Trust, $7,000 in 2004, toward acquisition of Bone Hill Farm, a gateway parcel to Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary

•  Brewster Conservation Trust, $5,000 in 2006, toward protection of pitch pine and mixed oak waterfront parcel on Pine Pond

•  Friends of Pleasant Bay, $10,000 in 2006, toward protection of Eelman’s Point, providing public access to Pleasant Bay in Orleans

•  Harwich Conservation Trust, $3,000 in 2006, toward construction of new trail for William & Barbara Land Hacker Wildlife Sanctuary

•  Harwich Conservation Trust, $10,000 in 2003, toward acquisition of 42-acre parcel on shoreline of Monomoy River at Pleasant Bay

•  Massachusetts Audubon Society, $12,000 in 2003, toward acquisition of six acres to Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellfleet

•  The Nature Conservancy, $12,000 in 2005, toward acquisition of five parcels at Sandy Neck

•  The Nature Conservancy, $7,000 in 2002, toward acquisition of Furman Tract on Sandy Neck in Barnstable

•  The Nature Conservancy, $12,000 in 2001, toward acquisition of 18 acres at Sandy Neck in East Sandwich

•  Orenda Wildlife Trust, $6,000 in 2001, toward Dawson acquisition on Cape Cod

•  Orenda Wildlife Trust, $3,000 in 2001, toward Mercy Lowe acquisition in Mashpee

•  Orleans Conservation Trust, $8,000 in 2004, toward acquisition of Brooks Property, a seven-acre parcel connecting two freshwater ponds

•  The 300 Committee, $8,000 in 2007, toward acquisition and protection of River Bend Farm on Coonamesett River in Falmouth

•  The 300 Committee, $6,000 in 2005, toward acquisition of 8-acre parcel on Quashnet River in Falmouth

•  The 300 Committee, $7,000 in 2003, toward acquisition of Toner Parcel in Falmouth

•  Truro Conservation Trust, $10,000 in 2005, toward acquisition and protection of Poor Hill, overlooking Pamet Harbor

•  Wellfleet Conservation Trust, $7,000 in 2005, toward acquisition of Whale Bone Point, a gateway to waterfront conservation lands

All information taken directly from the Foundation’s Form 990-PF’s.

2007 Town Annual Reports

Several towns have posted their 2007 Annual Reports on the Internet. While reading these reports isn't as enjoyable as reading a Robert Finch essay, it's a great way to learn about the accomplishments of municipal conservation, land acquisition, open space, and community preservation committees.

Reports for the following towns are available in pdf format. Note that some of the files are quite large and can take a while to download.

•  Barnstable (44 MB, 236 pages)

•  Bourne (11.7 MB, 368 pages)

•  Chatham (15.1 MB, 274 pages)

•  Dennis (4.4 MB, 467 pages)

•  Falmouth (2.5 MB, 216 pages)

•  Orleans (1.8 MB, 187 pages)

•  Provincetown (668 KB, 229 pages)

•  Sandwich (2.1 MB, 160 pages)

•  West Tisbury (5.3 MB, 194 pages)