Association to Preserve Cape Cod |
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Herring count volunteers needed for 2024 Counting will begin on April 1. Deadline to sign up is March 22.
Spring is just around the corner and we’re once again seeking volunteers to count river herring. River herring include alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (A. aestivalis), both listed as Species of Special Concern by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. River herring are important in the coastal food web, but despite an ongoing moratorium banning their catch, sale and possession, herring populations remain perilously low. Count data are urgently needed to document their presence.
Volunteer counts of herring provide valuable scientific data on herring abundance and are used by fisheries managers to manage and protect herring stocks. Herring counts also help to document the need for restoration or improvement of fish runs and the success of restoration projects. Cape Cod has many herring runs that provide opportunities for volunteers to view the spring herring migration while collecting valuable scientific data. This year volunteers are needed to count herring along the following runs: -
Stony Brook, Brewster
- Bound Brook and Scargo Lake, Dennis
- Trunk River, Falmouth
- Mashpee River, Quashnet River and Santuit Pond, Mashpee
- Mill Creek, Sandwich
- Red Lily Pond, Centerville
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Long Pond, Yarmouth
- New this year – Baxter Grist Mill, Yarmouth
- Others (see our website for updates).
Volunteers are needed to count several times a week between April 1 and June 15. Counts are done for 10 minutes. Volunteers must be able to safely traverse rough terrain, be able to visually see fish in the stream, and provide their own transportation to and from the counting site. The counts are reported to APCC via our website data entry system.
If you are interested in counting herring, you can sign up at APCC’s website here. We will contact you and will also refer you to the count coordinators for these runs. Training events for runs in Brewster, Dennis, Mashpee, and Sandwich will be posted on our website. Count coordinators for the Trunk River and Red Lily Pond runs will contact volunteers directly to arrange for training.
To learn more about APCC’s herring count program, instructions for counting, past run sizes, and our website data entry system for volunteers, visit APCC’s website here. |
Stormwater Management to Improve Water Quality |
APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) is tackling stormwater remediation through the redesign and implementation of best management stormwater practices at key sites across the Cape. In other words, the ERP helps to prioritize and secure funding for towns to design and install new “green” stormwater systems to remove more pollution from runoff and improve water quality. Ineffective stormwater management is a major cause of poor water quality in our ponds and bays. To learn more check out our Stormwater 101 video.
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Above: Staff from APCC, Yarmouth and Horsley Witten conducting a survey of existing stormwater infrastructure in Yarmouth. |
The Cape Cod Boat Ramp Stormwater Management Project is one of the ERP’s ongoing projects. After assessment of boat ramps across 11 Cape Cod towns, we identified 20 priority sites and are currently moving seven projects through design and permitting (75% permit-ready design plans are now available online). The sites are surveyed and designed by engineers at Horsley Witten Group (HW) with assistance and review from town, state and local partners. Work on this Boat Ramp Stormwater Project has been funded by an EPA Southeast New England Program Watershed Grant, two Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management Water Quality and Coastal Habitat Grants, and private foundation funding.
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Above: Preliminary survey at a boat ramp on Shubael Pond, a site where the stormwater retrofit is currently being designed. |
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| Protect Pollinators at Home: Alternatives to Herbicides By Aaron Anderson, the Xerces Society
If you’re concerned with pollinator conservation at home, you’ve likely taken steps to eliminate insecticide use in your yard. But many gardeners may be surprised to learn that herbicides (chemicals designed to kill plants) can also pose a risk to pollinators and other invertebrates. Luckily, there are a number of solutions that home gardeners can use to manage yards and gardens without herbicides. READ MORE...
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Networking to Empower Tenders of the Earth |
Over 50 ecologically-minded land care professionals, landscape practitioners, farmers and others that tend the land convened for a networking event held at MA Audubon Long Pasture in Barnstable last week. It was a meet-up planned by the Ecological Landscape Alliance and co-hosted by APCC. Native plant designer, consultant and speaker, Marie Chieppo of EcoPlant Plans, kicked off the morning with a presentation followed by a panel discussion, featuring Angela Tanner of Crawford Land Management, Alex Kent of Kent Land Design, and Theresa Sprague of BlueFlax Design. We discussed the aspirations of these businesses who have a environmental ethic and the challenges many of them share. Time was made available for personal conversations, and at noon, Dave Scandurra of Edible Landscapes gave a tour of the food forest they planted a few years ago on the grounds of Long Pasture.
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2024 Winter-Spring Speaker Series
Hosted by The 300 Committee Land Trust Thursday, February 29, 7:00 p.m. at the Cultural Center, Falmouth Museums on the Green
Cyanobacteria are an ancient group of photosynthetic microorganisms commonly found in freshwater systems on Cape Cod and worldwide. Under certain conditions, they can multiply rapidly and form harmful cyanobacteria blooms (HCBs). HCBs have increased because of nutrient enrichment and rising water temperatures due to warming resulting from climate change. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), certain common cyanobacteria can produce harmful toxins known as cyanotoxins. Julie Hambrook Berkman, Ph.D., project director, Pond and Cyanobacteria Monitoring Programs at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC), will tell the story of how APCC’s cyanobacteria pond monitoring program came to be, and how it has evolved along with the science as she shares the latest data for Cape Cod ponds.
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Saturday, March 9th
8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Tilden Arts Center, Cape Cod Community College
The annual Cape Cod Natural History Conference, now in its 27th year, will be hosted in-person once again at the Cape Cod Community College Tilden Arts Center! This conference will feature a series of presentations from area researchers from environmental organizations across Cape Cod, speaking on a diversity of timely natural history topics. Registration is required.
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APCC's restoration ecologist, Jordan Mora, will give a presentation about two projects where runneling and ditch remediation could be used to help reverse the effects of accelerated sea level rise on marshes that have been altered with agricultural and mosquito ditches.
One project is with Mass Audubon, where APCC conducted pre-restoration monitoring in the Barnstable Great Marsh and a runneling and ditch remediation plan has already been designed.
And at Chase Garden Creek in Dennis, with funding from the Lavori Sterling Foundation, APCC's Ecosystem Restoration Program staff analyzed the health of the salt marsh using aerial imagery and field-based methods. While no restoration has been designed for this location yet, runneling and ditch remediation are being considered as options to help improve coastal resiliency at Chase Garden Creek.
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Avoiding single plastic use in daily living can be a challenge, but it is doable. And by the way, using a plastic water bottle twice doesn’t mean it’s no longer considered single-use plastic. Options for personal refillable drink containers abound, and using one is not only socially acceptable, but also better for your health—avoiding ingesting microplastics or other leached contaminants.
As much as there was a twinge of controversy over banning single-use plastic bags, you might agree that we see less on the roadsides and hanging from trees. Hurray! Most people now take reusable bags to the grocery store, proving that a little
regulation and a little behavior change can make positive change. But there remains other plastic litter in the natural environment, where it just doesn’t belong.
According to a research paper published in the Journal of Environmental Management (Sept 2021), with the current plastic production, we can expect by 2050 that we will have landfilled about 12 billion tons of plastic. Wow. Doesn’t it behoove each of us to be more plastic-conscious and make wiser choices?
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Purchasing some food products in bulk can reduce your plastic consumption, and there are a few businesses on Cape (maybe more we don't know of?) that offer products to help you reduce your plastic footprint and refill options: Green Road Refill, Pure Vita, and The Glass Jar.
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Now accepting applications for these positions: |
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| Eco-landscape Audit Program Manager - April through November
APCC is seeking a qualified individual who is passionate about native plants and ecological landscapes to be the team leader of APCC’s Eco-landscape Audit Program. It will be the second year for the program designed to offer ecological landscape consultations for homeowners. The program team will consist of one or two summer interns and the manager will be the team leader. Read more...
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| Ecological Land Care Intern(s) - May through August
The ecological land care summer intern will be part of a team with APCC’s Eco-Audit Program that conducts property assessments for homeowners who want to know more about how they can make their properties nature friendly. Intern will also help with maintaining the native landscape at APCC’s headquarters, and other related projects. Read more...
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| Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program Intern(s) |
APCC is seeking interns to help monitor cyanobacteria in Cape Cod’s freshwater ponds as part of APCC’s Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program. Candidate must be at least 18 years of age, have a high school diploma and one to three years of relevant field experience (e.g., limnology, biology, ecology, chemistry, and/or other science related to aquatic systems). Position starts mid-May. Read more...
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| Restoration Coordinator - Full-time, year-round position
Responsibilities include managing restoration projects; managing and developing project and consultant engineer scope of work and budgets; working effectively with multiple partners and constituents to plan, initiate, manage and complete multi-year restoration projects, and assisting with seasonal field survey work as needed. Read more...
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The 2023 State of the Waters: Cape Cod report content can be viewed on this dedicated website: CapeCodWaters.org |
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Guidelines for Cape-friendly Landscapes - an APCC publication |
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The Guidelines gives homeowners steps they can take in the design and maintenance of their properties that will support pollinators and birds, manage stormwater, conserve water, and protect the Cape's water quality. This 40-page booklet is beautifully illustrated by Marcy Ford with content that is easily digestible and supported by numerous resources for additional learning.
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Thank you for this important book! Hopefully everyone of us with a yard will read it and put it to use! - Vicky Titcomb of Titcomb Bookshop |
We've enjoyed creating it and hope it will help you with ideas to help you steward your piece of Cape Cod and maybe foster an environmental ethic in the decisions we all make in our own managed landscapes. Get your copy here—and maybe one for a friend?
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We are grateful for the several retail shops that are partnering with us to make this publication more widely available: Brewster Book Store, Birdwatchers General Store, Crocker Nurseries, Wellfleet Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary, Cape Abilities Farm, Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, the Cape Cod Lavender Farm, Heritage Museums and Gardens, Titcomb's Bookshop, and Sea Howl Bookshop, Soares Flower Garden Nursery.
If you are a retailer and would like to sell this publication at your store, contact Kristin at [email protected]. |
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Guidelines got a great plug from CL Fonari this past Saturday as she interviewed Marie Chieppo, contributing author, on her radio show, Garden Line on WXTK. Check it out here.
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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. Please get on the map to show your support of pollinators on Cape Cod!
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| APCC Caps are available for purchase! $25 includes shipping & handling
Click here for more information and to order.
This is one great way to show your support for APCC's work. |
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A Cape Cod Native Plant-selector
~ to help you choose the perfect native plants for your garden. |
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Green & Gold Chrysogonum virginianum |
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| APCC Enewsletters. Our weekly newsletters are archived on our website and easily shared.
You can find past newsletters and share with your friends to sign up for future enewsletters HERE. |
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Are you thinking of going solar? We hope so!
In partnership with 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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Expressions Gallery, 578 Main Street, Chatham
CLICK HERE |
Expressions Gallery donates 20 percent of its profits to APCC's work.
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Thank you to our business sponsors |
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APCC is rated four stars by Charity Navigator and 2023 Platinum by Candid (formerly Guidestar). |
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