Association to Preserve Cape Cod - this week... |
The Plashes Conservation Area, Dennis Port. Photo by Sue Machie |
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| We Matter by Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director
This past Sunday, APCC was able to gather in person for our annual meeting for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. It was wonderful to see and interact with our membership again on a face-to-face basis. While we had a great turnout, attendance at these events can only represent a small percentage of the membership, as we know there is a lot of worthy competition (unless you squandered the day watching the Patriots- ugh) for your time on a lovely September Sunday. Given that, I want to share with you some of the important news we discussed at the annual meeting and what it says about APCC and our collective impact.
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The short version is that back in March of 2021, APCC made two significant public policy recommendations to the Barnstable County Commissioners.
The first was to fund the Cape Cod Commission to launch a comprehensive assessment of lakes and ponds. The project was intended to improve our understanding of their quality, the threats they face and to develop an effective management framework to protect, and restore, our lakes and ponds. After much back and forth, the project APCC first called for is now known as the Freshwater Initiative and was fully funded by the County in August of 2022.
The second proposal was for the county to lower the interest rate, from 5 percent to 0 percent, charged to homeowners for septic upgrades funded by loans from the Community Septic Management Program. There is a growing number of homeowners needing to either upgrade septic systems or connect to public sewers and those costs can be burdensome. The revised loan program targets relief to homeowners with low and moderate incomes and provides a sliding scale of interest rates between 0 percent and 4 percent, based on need. After a lot of hard work by county staff and state officials at the Office of the State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, the new program was approved in August of 2022.
These two initiatives are important because they speak right to the heart of some of the most pressing issues facing the Cape. They are also illustrative of what APCC, with your support and backing, can and does accomplish on a regular basis. APCC is effective, in part at least, because we have the history, perspective and credibility to take on the big issues and the vision and audacity to propose solutions sized to the magnitude of the problems we need to confront. There are a lot of good organizations and people doing excellent work on the Cape. We at APCC pride ourselves in being among the more effective and bolder players in the environmental world of Cape Cod.
For those of you who missed the meeting, I hope I conveyed the spirit and message shared with those in attendance. I can’t help you with the yummy snacks and good company you missed. For the full experience, we hope to see you at the 2023 Annual Meeting. |
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Pollinators at APCC
A tall wispy plant stood about three feet above the rest all summer, seemingly out of place and something you want to yank out. But it was spared and thank goodness. For while most of the plants around it became brown and never flowered due to the severe drought, the modest looking green stem with narrow leaves in whorls of four showed itself last week. The hyssop-leaved boneset has just come into flower, much to the delight of a plethora of pollinators: bumble bees, common green bottle flies, a variety of wasps, syrphid flies, and this brightly colored ailanthus webworm moth.
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Ailanthus Webworm Moth and Tree of Heaven - quite a pair |
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The strikingly colored moth, ailanthus webworm, is a non-native insect that found its way here to Cape Cod with its host plant, tree of heaven, an exotic invasive species. The moth feeds only on tree of heaven.
Tree of heaven (TOH) is native to China and was imported to the U.S. in the 1700s. It is easily confused with the native sumac. However, its stems are smooth, lacking the pubescence found on staghorn sumac. An unmistakable trait of TOH is the disagreeable odor when handled, which is why it is also known as stinky sumac, but not related.
TOH is a prolific seeder. Unfortunately, at APCC, our property is ringed with various invasive species, some on adjoining properties, and tree of heaven is one of them. We are constantly pulling seedlings that drop over onto our garden and lawn--and consequently know why it got that nickname, stinky sumac!
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Beneficial Insects - Wasps
Featured below is the fraternal potter wasp (Eumenes fraternus).This small black and white wasp is very docile. It didn't care that I was close, zooming in with my phone to take her picture. Potter wasps are non-aggressive and live a solitary life after mating.
The potter wasp gets its name from the jug-shaped mud nest it build, attaching it to a plant or perhaps on the outside of a basement wall, or other structure. It is the female that builds the nest. To do this, she must find a water source and the right kind of soil to make the mud. Bit by bit, she applies the mud with her mandibles, layer upon layer, forming the pot. She finishes the pot with a distinctive flared lip around the nest entrance.
Once the pot is completed, she will insert her abdomen into the opening and lay a single egg suspended by a silken thread attached to the top of the mud pot. Then she will set out to find caterpillars that she paralyze with a sting, and carry them back to the nest. She will fill the mud nest with several caterpillars so that when the larva emerges from the egg, it will have fresh food to eat. She caps the nest entrance with more mud. She will do this several times.
Potter wasps will rarely sting, unless touched. Potter wasps are especially attracted to goldenrods, asters and hyssop-leaved boneset because as you see, the adults like the nectar. |
(Above) Fraternal Potter Wasp at APCC
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Photo above and right by Heather Holm |
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Want to learn more? See Heather Holm's publications. |
EVENTS being held by others |
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The Jewels of Cape Cod ~ Our Freshwater Ponds |
CRYSTAL CLEAR By Wendy Shreve
Years ago, when asked to write about Crystal Lake in Orleans, I felt tempted to provide an ecological history of the ups and downs of the lake: fertilizer run-off, acid rain and goose droppings being the main culprits of algae blooms and inedible fish.* I also considered writing a brief memoir recalling my halcyon days as a child coming to Cape Cod for two weeks during the summer. Instead, I chose to share with readers a fiction author’s perspective. The following is an excerpt from my novel Shadowwater: **
With the onset of June, rafts had begun to be anchored for swimming or sunbathing. Soon, swimmers from Nauset would come here to clean off the salt water from the Atlantic. One visitor had said, “Better than an outside shower, if you’re not picky about water temperature.”
Lily welcomed a steady breeze from the East, coming from the ocean, as the humidity had begun to rise. It was late Sunday morning. She and Cal had arrived in time to see a fisherman with water up to the top of his waders, calling out to his friend who sat on the dock with pride, as the fisherman held his fishing line with a large striped bass dangling at the end. . .
Cal took in the scenery surrounding Crystal. A dead, serpentine-shaped tree at the opposite end of the lake had been stripped on top—where a piece had broken off and had been filled with woodpecker holes—and yet the tree still stood. Other trees were also bare, except for a couple of pines. All covering the hills; seamless, as if there were no separation between the lake, the trees, and the blue sky. . . Cal watched as the wind blew the water in opposing directions. Like diamonds dancing across the crystal-clear lake.
A high-pitched “Fee-bee, Fee-bee,” came the stuttering sound and again, “Fee-bee…” “What was that?” she said. “Phoebe. Eastern. Chickadees have a similar call. Did you hear those skips?” She nodded.
“That means the bird, male most likely, has been in an aggressive posture. Warning others to stay away, I’d bet.” “Could’ve been a female…See, there she is! Her tail’s wagging, too.” The tiny bird, with a blackish head and whitish breast, had a fanned tail moving back and forth. Cal enjoyed Lili’s childlike delight.
The feathered creature fascinated her. The bird flew across the lake; a speck in the sky yet she could describe it in detail. Cal had once told her, “If you let yourself, you can feel its presence.” Its spirit lingered long after they departed.
There has never been a time when I’ve gone to Crystal Lake where I haven’t seen, experienced memorable moments such as an osprey surveying the fish stock. Or another day, when my friend and I spotted a golden retriever sitting on the bow of a one-man kayak as the dog’s master broke the lake’s surface with see-sawing strokes. Both the kayaker and canine traveled the length of Crystal oblivious to the spectacle. If Cape Cod is my home, Crystal Lake is my picture window. *Some of the aforementioned information in the introduction was provided by Orleans Pond Coalition. **The excerpt has been edited for content and length. |
Crystal Lake, Orleans - Photos from Ed & Merilyn |
BIRDS! Cormorants, egrets, gulls, herons, and ducks. |
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Water is clear - no scum! |
| John Smith, Crystal Lake Team Leader, not worried. |
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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. |
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 months of July and 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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Hyssop-leaved Boneset, Eupatorium hyssopifolium |
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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 |
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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