Association to Preserve Cape Cod

Photo by Sue Machie

What I'm Thinking...

Fresh Water Focus

by Andrew Gottlieb, APCC Executive Director

This week marks the beginning of APCC’s cyano bacteria sampling season. APCC will again be sampling ponds in all 15 towns and posting results on our website map and notifying people who have signed up for our email alerts about blooms of concern. The cyano program is part of APCC’s larger initiative to draw attention to the preservation of pond health.

The second year of our board water quality testing program under contract to the Cape Cod Commission is well underway. Through these two complementary sampling programs, we are expanding our understanding of baseline conditions and the threats to pond water quality.

While most towns are making great progress toward management of the nutrient loading that is degrading estuaries, ponds are lagging in both priority and management approaches. The APCC sampling programs are helping to address the knowledge base gaps and increasing the awareness needed to create the local political support for freshwater remediation. While those things take time, there are things individuals can do to change yard care practices to those that work with, instead of against, nature. APCC has lots of great information that empower homeowners to take actions that support better water quality.

As always, local political engagement is critical. Make clean water an issue that gets talked about in elections and at municipal board meetings. Our town governments remain small enough to be responsive to the will of the people who are willing to step forward and identify priority issues. Make pond water quality a priority in your town.

Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program News

A cyanobacteria identification, ecology and toxicology workshop was hosted by APCC and Dr. Mindy Richlen at WHOI for APCC’s freshwater monitoring staff and 2024 summer cyano program interns. It was led by Dr. Barry Rosen of Florida Gulf Coast University, who provided three hours of presentations on all the cyanobacteria groups and their toxins. He guided a lab using microscopes and live specimens to practice identification and provided APCC staff with updated visual keys to cyanobacteria and green algae, as well as his book with over 1,000 photographic images of all types of freshwater algae, including cyanobacteria.

Also attending the workshop was Hilary Snook, environmental scientist with EPA New England Regional Laboratory, who provided an overview of the U.S. cyanobacteria program and the role of New England Region 1 in developing the national protocols.

The First Wave - Welcome to the first of our 2024 cyano program interns to join us for the season!

Hi everyone, I am Dara Estes! I am a summer resident in Chatham, although I live year-round in New Hampshire. I am a rising senior at Bucknell University, studying biochemistry and cell biology. I am very excited for this summer and to become a master of microscopy. I hope to meet you all in person!

My name is James Marino, and I am a rising junior at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Studying marine science, safety, and environmental protection, I am very excited for the opportunities APCC is providing in their cyanobacteria pond monitoring internship. I am very passionate about studying the hundreds of ponds Cape Cod holds, as I grew up fishing them and they are very special to me!

Hi everyone, my name is Casey Proto and I will be a cyanobacteria monitoring intern this summer! I am a rising senior at Massachusetts Maritime Academy studying marine science, safety, and environmental protection. During this internship I am looking forward to gaining valuable field and laboratory skills and having the opportunity to help monitor the health of freshwater ponds across Cape Cod.

Our robust internship program expands APCC's capacity each season to undertake the Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program, the Eco-landscape Audit Program, State of the Waters: Cape Cod project, and projects associated with APCC's Ecosystem Restoration Program. These paid positions also help the up-and-coming students of the environment with practical application of science--and they inspire us! Thank you to you, our membership, for your continued financial support of APCC through your dues and donations, that make these paid internships possible.

APCC Bids Farewell to Eliza Fitzgerald, Restoration Technician

Eliza Fitzgerald joined APCC a year ago as the restoration technician for the Ecosystem Restoration Program, growing this program to three staff. In this role she has helped support our team and build our capacity, so we have been able to take on more projects, collaborate more with partners, and grow and expand the work we are doing to restore water quality and habitat across the Cape. Before APCC, she worked on the Herring River Restoration Project with the Cape Cod National Seashore (2021). She has filled a key role this past summer supporting our fieldwork and monitoring in our busiest field season to date. She quickly learned and grew to support report writing, data analysis, project management, grant writing, and outreach engaging with volunteers, our membership and the public.

Eliza took the lead on creating a Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project StoryMap last year, sponsored by the Cape Cod Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. In addition to providing a supportive role on the ERP’s projects, Eliza took the lead on managing the Yarmouth Stormwater Management Project, one of APCC’s stormwater projects funded by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.

Eliza enjoys a deep connection with the natural world and brought this love for being outdoors to her work. Her creativity, enthusiasm, and bright spirit will be greatly missed. We wish her well on her next adventures sailing to the Azores and relocating to Colorado.

Hurray, it's 16 days away!

APCC's Annual Native Perennial Sale

Due to construction at APCC's headquarters,

this year's annual plant sale will be a

one day, in person sale - no advance orders.

Friday, June 7th

9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

We will be set up in the parking lot of Bud's Go Karts,

9 Sisson Rd (Route 124) and Route 28, Harwich Port

Oodles of quart size perennials for purchase, representing over 15 species.

See the list here.

$10/qt pot or 12/$100 plus MA sales tax

Still plenty of time to do your research and make your list!

You have 16 days until APCC's plant sale...

Our sincere thanks to our business member and sponsor for our annual native plant sale event - BlueFlax Design, LLC.

APCC Webinar

The Jewels of Cape Cod - Our Freshwater Ponds

Cape Cod Ponds Network

Save the Date!

Next meeting of the CCPN will be in person at

the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, Route 6A, Brewster on

Thursday, August 8th at 6 p.m.

We will have a presentation by Steve Hurley, fish biologist with MA Department of Marine Fisheries.

If you are not already on our email list and would like to attend quarterly Zoom meetings, sign up here. Any questions can be directed to Kristin Andres at kandres@apcc.org or Dr. Julie Hambrook at jhambrook@apcc.org.

Events Hosted by Others

Cape Abilities Farm, Saturday June 1st, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. -

Native Plants & Pollinator Pals. APCC's Kristin Andres will be on hand to sign Guidelines for Cape-friendly Landscapes.

Resilient Roots hosts APCC's education director, Kristin Andres

The 2023 State of the Waters: Cape Cod report content can be viewed on this dedicated website: CapeCodWaters.org

Guidelines for Cape-friendly Landscapes - an APCC publication

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.

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?

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, Sea Howl Bookshop, Soares Flower Garden Nursery, and Eight Cousins Bookshop.

If you are a retailer and would like to sell this publication at your store, contact Kristin at kandres@apcc.org.

You can also view the book's content as a pdf on our website.

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!

You can purchase now your 9-inch aluminum Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod sign at Hyannis Country Garden, Crocker Nurseries, Brewster Book Store, Orleans Conservation Trust, and

Cape Abilities Farm.

If you are a retailer, and you would like to sell the signs, you can order online here, or email pollinators@apcc.org.

APCC Merch