Truro Conservation Commission Seeks Details on Ryder Beach Plan

“ConCom Seeks Details on Ryder Beach Plan”
The Provincetown Banner, July 10, 2008
By Kevin Mullaney

Kevin Mullaney reports that the Truro Conservation Commission is awaiting a formal proposal about how best to address concerns about erosion and access to Ryder Beach. There has been some discussion about an elevated walkway, as Ryder Beach is a barrier beach with a wetland behind it.

Related article:

•  “Elevated Walkway Proposed at Ryder Beach,”
     The Provincetown Banner, June 6, 2008

Cape Cod National Seashore: a Gem at Risk

“A Cape Cod Gem at Risk”
The Boston Globe, June 22, 2008
By Mike Gildesgame

Mike Gildesgame, Southern New England policy manager of the Appalachian Mountain Club, writes in an op-ed piece that in order to conserve and prevent the privately-held 57-acre North of Highland Camping Area within the Cape Cod National Seashore from being sold to developers, the National Park Service, in partnership with the Trust for Public Land, needs a final $2 million in funding from the federal Land and Conservation Fund. One of the challenges: President Bush’s FY 2009 budget slashed the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 75 percent, providing only $43 million, even though the program is not funded by tax dollars but by lease fees from offshore oil and gas drilling.

For more information on efforts to purchase and preserve the camp area, please read the Association to Preserve Cape Cod's press release of May 5, 2008: "APCC Seeks Federal Assistance for National Seashore Land Purchase."

Big Homes Unstoppable in National Seashore Park

“Big Homes Unstoppable in Seashore”
Cape Cod Times, June 8, 2008
By Doug Fraser

EASTHAM -- George Price, superintendent of the Cape Cod National Seashore, is worried that the battle to retain the park's rural character is being lost cottage by cottage. ...

The Seashore mission -- to keep the park looking like it did when it was created in 1961 -- has become more difficult as property owners within the park want to enlarge their summer cottages to full-sized homes, or as new owners want to maximize their property values by building as much house as zoning allows. ... ©

Read the full article in the Cape Cod Times.

Walkway Proposed at Ryder Beach in Truro

“Elevated Walkway Proposed at Ryder Beach”
The Provincetown Banner, June 6, 2008
By Kevin Mullaney

TRURO -- Walking up the public access path through a cut in the dune at Ryder Beach in Truro is quite a chore these days, with the steep incline up from the parking lot and then an equally steep slope down to the beach.

In an effort to lessen the strain the Truro Conservation Commission is proposing an elevated walkway over the dune. The proposal, however, might require the prohibition of four-wheel drive vehicle access. ... ©

Read the full article in The Provincetown Banner.

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 Cod National Seashore Seeks Volunteers

The Provincetown Banner reports that the Cape Cod National Seashore is seeking volunteers this summer to work at the Seashore's locations in Truro and Provincetown.

Volunteers are needed at the Province Lands Visitor Center, the Old Harbor Life Saving Station, and on the nature trails in both Truro and Provincetown.

Also, the Seashore is looking for a volunteer photographer-videographer to produce programs and presentations for the local cable access television channel.

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.

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.

Clearing in Edward Hopper Landscape Shocks Truro Neighbors

“Clearing in Hopper Landscape Shocks Neighbors”
The Cape Codder, May 15, 2008
By Kevin Mullaney

TRURO -- The first scar has appeared on the ridge next to the former studio in Truro of famed American painter Edward Hopper, in the so-called Hopper Landscape.

The clearing is the result of an archeological investigation just completed, a requirement imposed before Donald and Andrea Kline can proceed with their plans to build the low-slung, 6,500-square-foot house ...

In March the Klines received the Cape Cod Commission’s blessing on conservation and other restrictions they had proposed ... putting 6.4 acres of the nine-acre property under conservation restriction. ... ©

Read the full article in The Cape Codder.

Related articles:

• “Kline Project Ok'd by Cape Cod Commission,”
    Provincetown Banner, March 8, 2008

• “A Town Tries to Protect an Artist’s Inspiration,”
    The New York Times, September 20, 2007

• “Mansion May Obscure What Hopper Painted,”
    The Boston Globe, August 15, 2007

Also, see the Save the Edward Hopper Landscape blog and checkout a neat poster of The Hopper Landscape (with photographs by J. B. Hightower).

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.

           Hills, South Truro, 1930, by Edward Hopper (1882-1967)