Environmental Sustainability
APCC believes sustainability means ensuring the Cape’s greatest assets, its swimming beaches, freshwater ponds, shellfish and fisheries, unique habitats, and iconic landscapes, will endure for generations to come. For the Cape to be environmentally sustainable and resilient, we must:
Protect our water.
The three major contributors to excess nutrients that degrade water quality are wastewater, stormwater and fertilizer use. APCC’s State of the Waters: Cape Cod report provides an action plan to address these problems.
Nutrients and warming water temperatures fuel toxic cyanobacteria blooms in the Cape’s freshwater ponds that pose a health risk to people, pets, and wildlife. With the help of volunteer pond groups, APCC’s cyanobacteria monitoring program informs local health officials when advisories need to be posted, and importantly draws attention to the need to address the contributing causes.
New nature-based stormwater management designs can be the best solution for removing nutrients and bacteria from stormwater. APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program works with towns to construct green infrastructure systems to treat stormwater.
At APCC’s office, we demonstrate eco-friendly landscape practices in our living landscape, which showcases a landscape design with native plants and reduced lawn area, chemical-free yard care and management of stormwater that allows the water to soak into the ground where it falls.
APCC’s rain barrel program encourages people to conserve water.
Preserve and Protect Our Natural Resources
Preservation of open space and protection of critical habitats continues to be the cornerstone of stewarding the land for future generations. APCC advocates for increased land conservation funding opportunities on the state and federal level that will benefit Cape open space efforts and promotes the adoption of local and regional regulatory policies that strengthen natural resource protection. APCC is also a member of the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, which works with local land trusts to preserve land from development.
Preserving isn’t enough. We need to restore natural tidal flows, rejuvenate ecosystems, and improve water quality. APCC established the Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) to assist towns with implementation of environmental restoration projects. The list of restoration projects includes projects for coastal resilience, habitat enhancement, and water quality improvement.
New nature-based stormwater management designs can be the best solution for removing nutrients and bacteria from stormwater. APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program works with towns to construct green infrastructure to treat stormwater to improve water quality in coastal embayments and freshwater ponds.
Through its herring monitoring program, APCC engages volunteers who assist in gathering valuable data related to the health of the Cape’s freshwater ponds. Each spring, volunteers count herring as they return to ponds to spawn volunteers This information helps state agencies gauge the health of the fish populations.
Our Native Plant Initiative inspires a new way to look at our managed landscapes that is more sustainable than the traditional paradigm. At APCC’s office, we demonstrate eco-friendly landscape practices in our living landscape, in both design and maintenance that serve to support biodiversity, water quality and conservation.
Work Together
APCC collaborates with partners in pursuit of a mutual goal for a healthy and resilient Cape Cod.
Growth and resource protection must go hand in hand. In an unlikely partnership, APCC and the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) undertook a mapping project to identify priority areas for natural resource protection and priority areas for affordable moderate-density housing development where wastewater infrastructure exists or is planned. The project is viewable on a dedicated website: GrowSmartCapeCod.org.
Take Action on Climate
We are experiencing the impacts of climate change right here, right now: heatwaves and drought, storms of greater intensity and more frequent flooding. Scientific data shows that the northeastern U.S.—including Cape Cod—will experience some of the most dramatic increases in sea level rise. APCC participated in the development of the Cape Cod Climate Action Plan by the Cape Cod Commission.
APCC is a founding member of the Climate Collaborative, a group of organizations and businesses from the Cape and islands that is working with all sectors to bring the region to net zero carbon emissions.
APCC strongly supports the swift transition from fossil fuels to clean renewable energy, such as solar and offshore wind. New energy development must be done responsibly and with minimal impact to habitats or natural resources. APCC is a member of the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Coalition and the coalition called New England for Offshore Wind. Both coalitions work to advance environmentally responsible offshore wind development.
Leading by example, APCC installed solar panels to power the office in 2020. Our solar program encourages others to do the same.
We encourage everyone to do what they can to reduce their carbon footprint in all aspects of their lives with the choices they make, including being carbon conscious in the landscape.
Adapt to climate change impacts
APCC is in the front lines on efforts to build resilience and adapt to the threats and impacts of sea level rise, increased flooding, extreme weather events, warming water temperatures. Project examples include a U.S. Geological Survey study that looked at the effects of sea level rise on groundwater; creation of a three-part film series, Saving Paradise; assisting the town of Wellfleet with incorporating climate change into their wetlands protection bylaw; partnering with the Cape Cod Commission in the development of an online adaptation tool for local decision makers; and assessing the Cape Cod salt marshes to identify those with the potential to migrate inland and adjust to rising sea levels.