The Cape’s Natural Resources – What’s at Stake?

Historic development patterns on Cape Cod have fragmented and diminished critical habitats, impacted drinking water supplies, and degraded freshwater and marine water quality. If Cape Cod continues to follow existing growth trends, the Cape’s environmental problems will only get worse.

Hanging in the Balance: An Urgent Call for Protecting Cape Cod’s Natural Resources is a report by APCC that provides a comprehensive analysis of key natural resources on Cape Cod. The report examines past and present impacts to natural resources, current threats, case studies, and recommended actions that promote protection, preservation and restoration of the region’s most important resource areas.

Our marine waters, freshwater ponds and wetlands, groundwater, iconic natural landscapes and critical habitats are still under assault by the same land use practices that have failed us in the past. With only an estimated 14 percent of the Cape’s land remaining as undeveloped and unprotected, the actions we take now to protect what we have left will decide what kind of Cape Cod our future generations will inherit. It’s imperative that we protect our remaining natural resource areas and seriously rethink where and how we choose to grow.

Technical assistance in preparing the report was provided by Horsley Witten Group. The report is an accompaniment to Grow Smart Cape Cod, a project by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod and the Housing Assistance Corporation that identifies areas where natural resource protection are a priority and areas most suitable for housing production. Funding was provided by Barnstable County and its Economic Development Council License Plate Grant Program through the Cape Cod Commission.