Association to Preserve Cape Cod - this week... |
|
|
|
Fast Start by Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director
As last year ended, we promised big things were in the works at APCC for 2023. The new year is off to a fast start with APCC having been awarded a competitively bid contract from Barnstable County to manage the water quality monitoring component of the Freshwater Initiative. Partnering with the Cape Cod Commission, APCC is excited to help elevate the understanding of challenges to freshwater water quality. It is our hope and expectation that, armed with data and insight, a management consensus can be forged that will result in the protection and restoration of the almost 900 lakes and ponds that help define the Cape’s environment.
|
|
|
Lest there be any doubt, we have a lot of work to do to scale up and we are already putting the pieces in place. APCC will be reaching out to our friends and collaborators to build new, and expand existing, relationships as the effort moves forward. This work will supplement, and not replace, our ongoing focus on cyanobacteria monitoring. Taken together, the cyano monitoring and the new monitoring of conventional water quality parameters provide an unprecedented opportunity to make a quantum step forward in our collective ability to understand what is happening in our freshwater environment.
This is just the first of a several new initiatives planned for 2023 and beyond. Stay tuned. |
The Resilient Lands Initiative The Resilient Lands Initiative (RLI) is a vision and plan that will guide actions to conserve, restore, and care for the land to benefit both nature and people. The RLI is distinct from other land conservation plans because both visioning and implementation were approached with two overarching considerations in mind: 1) justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and 2) climate change.
At its core, the Resilient Lands Initiative is a playbook of powerful strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on our most vulnerable populations and to protect and improve the quality of life for residents of every Massachusetts community through land conservation, restoration, and stewardship initiatives that conserve and enhance the health of the forests, farms, and soils.
The Healthy Soils Action Plan The Healthy Soils Action Plan provides an assessment of the condition of our soils and a blueprint for how we can effectively conserve and protect, restore, and properly manage our soils to improve the vitality of nature around us and the health and quality of life of our residents.
The Healthy Soils Action Plan for Massachusetts is the first of its kind. Rather than focusing primarily on agriculture, it endeavors to protect, manage, and regenerate soil health across a diversity of ecosystems, land uses, and soil types. |
MA Climate Change Assessment |
|
|
Insects ~ They Need More ♥ |
|
|
“They are the little things that run the world.” - Edward O. Wilson, world renowned biologist, naturalist, entomologist, and writer.
Insects make up the greatest diversity of organisms on the planet. Recent studies indicate that this vast group of species are declining at an unprecedented rate: Species are disappearing and those are just the ones we know something about. An informative article appeared in Reuters this month, “The Collapse of Insects.” It chronicles the global picture of insects in an interview with entomologist David Wagner of University of Connecticut. Wagner said it is a conservative estimate that each year we are losing at least one percent of the Earth’s insects, and that this means over the next four decades a third of our insect populations will be gone.
A study in Denmark found that there was an 80 percent decline in flying insects over a 20-year period (1997-2017). This was measured by the number of insects found dead on car windshields. This and other similar studies sounded the alarm of the “insect apocalypse.” Think about your own anecdotal evidence of insect population decline. Most of us, who are of a certain age, should remember well those road trips from our youth and the scads of flying insects that met their demise on the car grill and windshield - especially memorable if you were tasked with washing the family car. We just don’t see that today. And as a kid, you may also remember a multitude of moths and other insects that gathered around the porch light, June bugs hitting the screen, and the lightning bugs blinking in the dark. Likely, compared to then, your insect observations are a different experience today.
For the insect-phobic, the response may be, “who cares?” But the truth was stated by Dr. Wilson. Indeed, insects are the little things that run the world, but not in the sense of world domination. Rather, they make life as we know it possible on the planet. More than 80 percent of plants require pollination by an animal, and this task is primarily accomplished by insects. Insects help propagate plants by moving seeds. Some are decomposers that ensure nutrients from dead organisms are recycled. Some insects have the job of keeping other insects in check through predation or parasitism.
Remember your first biology lesson? Plants capture the sun’s energy and through photosynthesis make it available to other life. And insects are the first consumers that help relay that energy to other animals that don’t eat plants, like most of our terrestrial birds. Ninety-six percent of our birds rely on insects. A nest of chickadees requires upwards of 9,000 caterpillars before they can leave home. A single barn swallow consumes about 850 flying insects per day. A little brown bat is capable of catching 1,000 flying insects per hour, and in one night can consume maybe 4,500. Freshwater fish require protein from insect-meals for their growth.
Without adequate insect populations to support these insectivores, well, things start to unravel in the local food web. At some point, not enough insects will mean less reproductive success of the insect-eaters, and then the local populations of birds or bats diminish to the point of not having enough breeding pairs. And quickly, local populations can be at the point of no return. This can have a cascading effect on other species and ecosystems. Insects do make the world go ‘round. Think of them as the lower supporting pieces in the game of Jenga that hold up the complex tower of interwoven pieces/species.
The decline of insect populations and the extinction of species is due to multiple threats: habitat loss, pesticides, our industrial methods of farming, and impacts of climate change are the drivers. Many insects depend on wetland areas for all or part of their life cycle. With an overload of nutrients from fertilizers, stormwater runoff, and septic effluent, water quality and the quality of the wetland habitat is diminished. Loss of native plants that insects depend on for their life cycles, and non-native invasive species that change the ecosystem, degrade natural habitable spaces.
Our land use practices, and yard chemical applications have been designed with the intent to sterilize the out-of-doors and have created wastelands for insect life. We have waged direct war on insects with pesticides, and while at one time we thought we’d never win, we may be getting our wish. This article, by APCC Associate Director for Education Kristin Andres, appeared in the 12-15-2022 edition of the Cape Cod Chronicle. |
"The Unequal Cellophane Bee - Colletes inaequalis"
This video is courtesy of biologist Heather Holm. Learn about these little wild bees in this short video. Like most of our wild bees, they are solitary nesters, and are only interested in going about their life cycles to produce the next generation. The females do the gathering of pollen and nectar that they will be the food for their young. They do not defend their secret tunnels in which she has laid her eggs. Willow, red maple are favorite early flowering trees that are important to these gentle little wild bees.
|
|
|
|
The Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod is a group of organizations promoting native plants and pollinator-friendly land care practices to create a boat load of safe oases for our native bees, butterflies and a whole host of other pollinators that are crucial to the health of our ecosystems. Join us! It's easy. There are no fees. You just need to pledge to ADD native plants, SUBTRACT a little lawn, AVOID yard chemicals, especially pesticides, and LEAVE the leaves. And, help us spread the word. If you wish, please get on the map to show your support of pollinators!
|
|
|
In case you missed the webinar last week about wetland restoration... |
|
|
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. |
|
|
The Jewels of Cape Cod ~ Our Freshwater Ponds |
Susan Baur, aka "Turtle Lady," and a snapping turtle at Dam Pond, Falmouth. Photo credit: Robin Melavalin |
|
|
Pond Stories is a collection of writings and other media from Cape Codders and visitors who love the 890 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] |
STORMWATER Factsheets from CZM
New in 2022, this excellent series of factsheets focus on managing stormwater to help protect water quality. This is the title of just one of them. All are worth a read! And if you are part of a pond group, or neighborhood association, the information is important to share. |
|
|
A Cape Cod Native Plant-finder
~ to help you choose the perfect native plant for your garden location. |
|
|
|
Partridge Pea, Chamaecrista fasciculata |
|
|
| APCC Enewsletters. Our weekly newsletters will now be archived on our website and easily shared.
Here, you can find past newsletters from July 2022 on.
Share this with your friends and they can sign up HERE. |
|
|
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. |
|
|
| Thank you to the homeowners who just contracted to install solar panels through E2 Solar. May the sun always shine for you! |
|
|
| 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! Look for the new label. 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 that are Fair Trade & Rainforest Alliance certified, and grown without the use of pesticides. |
|
|
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. |
|
|
Thank you to our business sponsors |
|
|
Our Contact Information *{{Organization Name}}* *{{Organization Address}}* *{{Organization Phone}}* *{{Organization Website}}*
*{{Unsubscribe}}* |
| |
|
|