In The News

The announcement of a $7.9 million contract to overhaul a machine-gun range at Fort Devens in Ayer has opponents of the proposed machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod asking why Massachusetts Army National Guard officials didn’t mention that range during the Cape proposal’s review process.

On Sept. 29, a Stoughton-based company was awarded a $7,933,000 construction contract “to modernize and redesign” an existing automated multi-purpose machine-gun range at Fort Devens, according to Jaz Levario, Devens Reserve Forces Training Area public information officer. The project has an estimated completion date of Sept. 28, 2023.

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As plans to build a machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod move forward amid ongoing opposition, the federal government has just awarded a construction contract to build a similar range at a military training site in Worcester County.

A representative for the Massachusetts Army National Guard said the range on Fort Devens will feature four lanes and primarily serve members of the Army Reserve —
compared to the Cape’s eight-lane range that will serve members of the Guard.

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The health of local ponds or lakes is something Cape Cod residents and visitors take more personally than they do marine water bodies, Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, said.

“People have a much more emotional, direct relationship … They talk about going to my pond,” observed Gottlieb speaking at an online forum on existing water quality in freshwater ponds and lakes Tuesday afternoon. The forum was part of this year’s OneCape Summit, hosted by the Cape Cod Commission on Monday and Tuesday.

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Dozens of ponds and lakes around the state are closed right now due to dangerous algae blooms.

Look closely at the surface of Santuit Pond in Mashpee, and bright green specks floating on the water are clearly evident. That’s cyanobacteria to scientists but is generally referred to as algae by the rest of us.

Whatever it’s called, when it’s too plentiful, it upends the natural ecosystem of a body of water and puts it off-limits to people and their pets. Santuit Pond has been closed since May.

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“Across our incredibly captivating shoreline, the waves roar in from the Atlantic while the tide rises and falls to reveal infinite stretches of sand on the bayside. This small yet mighty slice of paradise has attracted artists and intellectuals for centuries. Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod chronicled his wonder at this region in the 1850s. As Thoreau predicted in his book, “The time must come when this coast will be a place of resort for those New-Englanders who really wish to visit the sea-side… But this shore will never be more attractive than it is now.” As the tourists arrived a century later, confirming Thoreau’s prediction, President John F. Kennedy authorized the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore, protecting over 43,000 acres of land in 1961. Just a few years later, in 1968, the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) was founded by a group of passionate individuals amidst a nationwide environmental movement.”

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As Rebecca Miller waded into Mashpee’s Santuit Pond, mesh plankton net in hand, a vacationing couple walking a pair of dogs was retreating from the shoreline.

Like Miller, Matt Eastman and Alexis Parr are biologists, so they knew the importance of pulling the dogs back when they approached the pond’s gently lapping waters.

“Benni just tried to drink the water and I made sure to tell him not to,” Eastman said of the couple’s schnauzer mix. “I heard on the local news in Connecticut that with all the rain there are high bacteria levels.”

Eastman’s instinct was spot-on.

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For the first time in its long history of testing the water at public beaches, the town has partnered with an outside agency to help ensure that Cyanobacteria are kept at bay.

The Association To Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) has already begun testing several of the town’s freshwater ponds for the bacteria that can poison humans and animals.

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It is almost impossible to have not heard something about high cost of housing, if you can find it, here on Cape Cod. The advocates for housing that supports year-round resident s and the economy make a good case and I am not going to repeat it here, as APCC is a part of that discussion in other forums. The point I want to emphasize today is that the need for housing and expanded economic opportunity is all predicated on one critical factor that still does not get the attention it warrants. A clean, healthy, and fully functioning environment is the foundation for everything on Cape Cod.

Without clean drinking water, access to beaches, ponds to swim in, fish to catch, trails to walk, breathable air, open spaces (do we really need to debate their importance after the last 14 months?) and marine waters teeming with life, there is nothing to talk about, or invest in, on Cape Cod. Without these sustaining elements of life there would be no worry about housing shortages and high prices, nor would there be businesses hurting for workers. Why? It’s simple: Our environment drives everything else. Without environmental quality, Cape Cod would be just another example of a place of former glory that consumed and tainted the very things that brought people there in the first place.

We need to remind ourselves while we come together collectively as a community to address issues related to housing and opportunity that the expanded protection of our environmental resources is central to the discussion of how we move forward. While we do things to address our economic future, we must do so in full recognition that it cannot come at the expense of further investment in our environment. Yes, more investment in the protection of important open spaces, more investment in infrastructure to clean our waters, more investment in drinking water protection, more investment in environmental restoration of degraded and altered wetlands and bogs, and greater attention to our role as stewards of the landscape. We need it all because without it, don’t waste your time, energy and resources thinking about building new stuff because without a solid foundation, it will all eventually collapse.