Association to Preserve Cape Cod - this week...
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Change
by Andrew Gottlieb, APCC Executive Director
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The longer shadows, gathering geese, and more frequent northerly winds are announcing that the transition to another fall season has begun. While there is plenty of summer-like weather ahead, there are subtle signs that another inevitable seasonal transformation is underway. I, for one, am ready for a little less heat and hopefully some more rain (at night would be nice). I am less thrilled with the shorter days but it’s a package deal.
The traditional end of summer at Labor Day has us saying goodbye to many of our seasonal friends and supporters. To those of you who must leave, rest assured that APCC is a year-round watchdog for the environment. Stay connected to our work with our weekly emails and check us out at APCC.org for all the latest news you need to know. To our friends who have longer stays and are perhaps here with us all year, we need you to be engaged at upcoming town meetings and to make your voice heard at all manner of local meetings and events. You rely on us, and we rely on you to show up, speak out, and to do the work of community involvement that places environmental protection on par with all the other important civic matters under consideration.
Regardless of if you are staying or leaving this week, I hope you had an enjoyable summer. Stay connected to Cape Cod in any way you can. It’s good for the soul.
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APCC's 2022 Annual Meeting
Sunday, September 11th at 1 p.m.
at the Dennis Inn,
25 Scarsdale Road - Dennis MA - 02638
Space is limited and registration is required.
Register here.
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APCC in the field...
APCC’s restoration team was out in the marsh at Parkers River in Yarmouth this month monitoring the vegetation to track the impact of restoration of tidal flow to the marsh after completion of construction of the new Route 28 bridge crossing. Tidal flow has definitely increased as evident by the depth of some of the stream channel crossings staff and interns navigated.
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Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program News
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Fall Interns are here! Meet Jordan and Lynn.
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Jordan Goodstein. Hi, my name is Jordan, and I have joined the cyanobacteria team for the fall. I graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in wildlife ecology and a concentration in wildlife management. Most recently, I worked for Mass Audubon as a coastal waterbird technician and horseshoe crab tech. I have worked all over the country and would one day like to become a superintendent of a national park. For the time being, I am excited to learn the lab side of science in contrast to field work.
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Lynn Francis. Hi! My name is Lynn and I have been a long time Falmouth resident. Recently, I completed my 1,700 hours with AmeriCorps at The 300 Committee and I had a wonderful experience with Alex, Jessica and Lucy. I learned and led a variety of stewardship projects that helped maintain and preserve open spaces in Falmouth. In addition, I just completed my associates of science in environmental technology and have received my bachelors of science in chemistry. I am looking forward to learning about the cyanobacteria program at APCC, and getting an understanding of this fantastic and much-needed program. I am excited to be here and look forward to what the future brings.
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Yes, Labor Day is upon us! And for the cyanobacteria monitoring program, it means the number of ponds being monitored for cyanobacteria is lessened. For a list of the ponds being consistently sampled over the next few weeks, go to our cyanobacteria webpage and of course check the interactive map for the updated status of ponds.
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OneCape 2022 Day 2 Plenary - Cape Cod's Water Quality
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GOOD NEWS! The County Commissioners and Assembly of Delegates found a path forward and funding for the Freshwater Initiative was approved this week.
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The initiation of this project is an enormous milestone and will be looked back upon as the start of proper stewardship of our lakes and ponds.
Many thanks go to Speaker Princi and the additional 13 delegates who voted in favor (Mashpee delegate O'Hara was absent) and to Commissioners Ron Bergstrom and Sheila Lyons for finding the common ground needed to make this all possible.
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Swim float, Schoolhouse Pond, Chatham
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If you have a swim float, or a float at the end of your dock, or maybe a float on your mooring, have you looked at it lately? Most likely is made with buoyant blocks of blue polystyrene.
We may commonly refer to this material as Styrofoam, the trademarked brand name for polystyrene foam first introduced into the marketplace in the early 1950s. However, technically speaking, “Styrofoam™” is extruded polystyrene, versus expanded polystyrene beads. The latter is the granular white stuff, used for summertime beer coolers and single-use takeout coffee cups, food containers and packing peanuts. Regardless of the method of manipulation of the polystyrene, the material is a form of plastic. And everyone should know by now, we have a plastic problem in the environment.
Anyone who has walked the beach of the coastline or a pond, doesn’t take much to find some litter pollution. Some of us have happened across bits of blue strewn amongst the vegetation or mixed into the sand – impossible to pick up and dispose of. The culprits of these blue-turquoise crumbles are disintegrating polystyrene blocks from someone’s float. Bits of plastic in the environment – a different kind of litter.
It’s not the old days when (we thought) we could say, “Oh, it’s just some little bits of stuff in the water. No big deal.” We know now that everything we do, because of the cumulative impact of our actions, does make it a big deal.
If you have a float at the end of your dock, or maybe you have a swim float, don't wait until your town imposes a regulation banning the exposed foam or otherwise takes enforcement action. Please do the right thing and upgrade to the encapsulated boxed flotation.
Don’t think that it doesn’t matter. It does.
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Shoreline of Peters Pond, Sandwich
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Schoolhouse Pond, Chatham
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Shoreline of Peters Pond, Sandwich
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What you should know about TREES
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Trees help moderate temperature in the landscape. On a hot and humid summer day, we all have experienced the physical and mental relief from the shade of a tree. Trees help reduce the energy it takes to cool your home. In downtown areas, trees can help moderate the heat sink created by the predominance of black pavement, concrete, and buildings. In addition to shade, trees transpire water vapor that has a cooling effect.
Trees play a crucial role in the water cycle. A typical tree breathes out 250 to 400 or more gallons of water per day through the amazingly large surface area of its leaves. An acre of forest can contain well-over 1,000 acres of leaf surface area. This moisture in the air then condenses somewhere in the region and it rains. Many examples around the world show how clear cutting of forests has resulted in desertification, which is the creation of deserts. On the flip side, there are examples of how forest restoration efforts have reversed the desert conditions and restored the local water cycle.
Trees help with the replenishment of the Cape’s groundwater and protect water quality. Much of our landscape is hardened with buildings and pavement where rainwater evaporates on a hot day or is directed into catch basins and disposed of without treatment. The leaves and branches of trees intercept the rain drops and reduce the velocity of the rain so that the water has a chance to soak slowly into the ground and be cleansed before it reaches groundwater and our aquifer. The rain that comes through the leaves and branches is called "throughflow" and the rain that cascades down a tree trunk is called "stemflow."
All living things are made of carbon and so are trees. Find an 18 inch diameter oak tree and appreciate that it is storing about three tons of carbon. A tree’s capacity to store carbon from the atmosphere can be for hundreds of years. An acre of forest can grab/sequester more than one ton of carbon out of the atmosphere per year–and, of course, give back oxygen. Carbon is not only stored in the tree we see, but in its extensive root system as well as the associated soil organisms.
Trees are habitat. And protecting habitat is vital, especially when the climate change impacts to species are not yet well known.Trees support the local food webs. For example, oak trees support oodles of different kinds of caterpillars that are essential food for nesting birds.
THREATS
Direct loss of trees occurs daily due to development, “improvements,” or the property owner doesn’t like the messy leaves, or maybe doesn’t like the messy needles. We think nothing of removing trees that are decades old. We wipe out “scrub oak” simply because its common name makes it sound worthless, and because it is a diminutive understory species of oak. In fact, Quercus ilicifolia is a keystone species in our pitch pine-oak woodlands, remnants of a pine barren plant community that is globally rare ecosystem.
A secondary demise of trees comes from activities around trees. Compaction of soils from driving on and near trees, from construction of buildings, patios, driveways, etc. damages the rootlets by which the tree obtains water and nutrients. Perpetual lawn irrigation under and around trees can weaken them as the water needs of trees are not the same as turf lawn.
Severe weather events such as hurricanes, northeast storms, coastal erosion, and even tornadoes on the Cape can have devastating impacts. Extended periods of drought can weaken trees, making them susceptible to injury and disease.
Invasive species negatively impact trees. Bittersweet vines weigh down trees to the breaking point. Non-native spongy moths decimate leaves when their populations surge. New threats like beech leaf disease (BLD) arrive on the scene unexplained. And with a warming climate, it is expected pests from parts south, normally checked by New England winters, will find our warming climes suitable to wreak havoc.
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Fall is the PERFECT time to plant a tree!
(Make it a native species, please.)
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The Jewels of Cape Cod ~ Our Freshwater Ponds
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Cape Cod's freshwater ponds are the home of turtles. Self-taught naturalist, Susan Baur, swims the Cape's freshwater ponds and has taken a keen interest in observing the lives of turtles beneath the surface of the water. This video is by Susan of a musk turtle (also known as a stinkpot turtle.) She visits the ponds frequently enough that she recognizes them as individuals, and they recognize her.
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Pond Stories is a collection of writings and other media from Cape Codders and visitors who love the almost 1,000 local ponds that dot the Cape. We hope this collection of stories awakens your inner environmentalist to think deeper about our human impacts to these unique bodies of water.
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Send us your favorite pond photo, story, poem, video, artwork--we want to share with everyone why the Cape's ponds and lakes are so special! Email your pond connection to [email protected]
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APCC Enewsletters. Our weekly newsletters will now be archived on our website and easily shared.
You can find the month of August here.
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Water Use Restrictions Posted in Your Town?
How about a rain barrel (or two) to harvest rainwater for your garden!
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APCC Rain Barrel Program
$99
includes delivery
to your door via FedEx.
Upcycle Products repurposes food barrels, otherwise destined for the landfill, to make these rain barrels. Choose your color - gray, black, blue, or terracotta.
For more information and to order online,
CLICK HERE.
For a how-to-use video, check this out from
Brewster Conservation Trust!
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A Cape Cod Native Plant-finder
~ to help you choose the perfect native plant for your garden location.
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Anise-scented Goldenrod- Solidago odoro
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Email [email protected], 482 Main St, Dennis, MA 02638
and we'll send you a CapeCodNativePlants.org decal.
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Looking for a speaker? Check out APCC's Speakers Bureau.
APCC staff speak on a variety of topics and are available by Zoom.
If interested, please contact the staff person directly to make arrangements.
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Are you thinking of going solar? We hope so!
In partnership with SUNPOWER BY E2 SOLAR in Dennis, APCC receives $500 for every solar installation when APCC is named as referral.
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Thank you to the homeowners who just contracted to install solar panels through E2 Solar.
May the sun always shine for you!
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Every cup of coffee you drink could be supporting APCC's work and a local Cape Cod business.
But ONLY if it's
Coastal Cape Blend from Cape Cod Coffee!
Order online.
A portion of the proceeds for every bag of
Coastal Cape Blend sold is donated to APCC.
It's important to know that Cape Cod Coffee sources beans are
Fair Trade & Rainforest Alliance certified,
and grown without the use of pesticides.
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Expressions Gallery, 578 Main Street, Chatham
CLICK HERE
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Ocean to Office. APCC has partnered with EXPRESSIONS, a fine art photography gallery located in Chatham center, to provide Cape businesses the opportunity to beautify their offices with coastal photography while directly supporting protection of our cherished environment.
This special offering gives back to APCC. CLICK HERE to learn more.
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Thank you to our business sponsors
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