Association to Preserve Cape Cod

Above: Cedar Swamp. Photo by Sue Machie

APCC is Going Solar, Again!

Thanks to the generous support of the Tern Foundation, July will bring with it the installation of solar panels on the Koppel Center. This second APCC solar project funded by the Tern Foundation will allow APCC to continue to generate sufficient electricity to meet all our needs, including two Level 2 car chargers, and be a net contributor of electricity to the power grid.

Tern Foundation’s TernSOLAR challenge grant program is designed to expand renewable energy use in Massachusetts communities, making solar technology more accessible to nonprofit organizations. Grants are offered to dynamic nonprofits whose leaders engage creatively with their communities and also consider future generations and the natural environment in their strategic priorities and sustainability planning. Since 2010, Tern Foundation has funded 30 solar projects and associated environmental education initiatives.

APCC’s HVAC and water heating needs are exclusively met by heat pumps powered by the sun and represent part of our commitment to living by the climate friendly practices we encourage of others.

APCC's Ecosystem Restoration Program

Above: Aerial drone imagery from September 2024 showing the bare, unvegetated areas of the Sesuit Creek salt marsh upstream of Bridge Street near Route 6A.

Salt Marsh Restoration Continues at Sesuit Creek

Through Adaptive Management

In collaboration with the town of Dennis, local property owners, and other project partners, the APCC Ecosystem Restoration Program secured $224,000 to advance habitat restoration in the Sesuit Creek salt marsh upstream of Bridge Street. This project is funded and supported by the Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) Priority Project Program Advancement Grant (PPPAG).

In 2008, tidal flow was restored to the upper reaches of Sesuit Creek salt marsh by removing an undersized culvert and replacing it with two 10 ft by 12-foot box culverts. This upgrade rapidly restored tidal hydrology, increasing the tidal range from an average of two feet to nearly six feet and reestablishing the natural salinity gradient. However, decades of impoundment had caused the upstream marsh platform to subside by approximately two feet, resulting in prolonged inundation stress that has hindered the recovery of native salt marsh grasses.

Since the initial tidal restoration, APCC has collaborated closely with the town, DER, and the Cape Cod Conservation District to monitor ecological changes at Sesuit Creek. In 2018, APCC conducted a pilot planting study to evaluate whether introducing plugs (small seedlings) of a low marsh grass species, Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass), could enhance vegetation recovery. After several years of careful monitoring, the results showed promising vegetation response, encouraging project partners to seek funding for a larger-scale planting effort.

With support from the DER PPPAG and a private foundation, APCC is excited to announce that Woods Hole Group has been retained to develop the planting design and complete permitting in 2025. Plant installation is scheduled for May 2026, with monitoring planned throughout the summer of 2026. For more information, please contact Jordan Mora, APCC lead ecologist & science advisor, at jmora@apcc.org.

Green Stormwater Improvements at Two Key Yarmouth Sites

Above: Installation of new stormwater treatment along Standish Way in Yarmouth, including an underground infiltrating trench, porous pavement sidewalk, and planted bioretention area. Photo credit: Gerald Beetham

Construction is now complete at two high-priority stormwater improvement sites in Yarmouth: Standish Way and Curve Hill Road. These projects feature newly installed green infrastructure designed to improve water quality in nearby waterbodies and enhance habitat for fish and shellfish.

At Standish Way, stormwater runoff that flows into Lewis Bay is now being captured and treated through a combination of green infrastructure features. A subsurface infiltration trench—modeled after traditional urban tree trenches—was installed with shrubs instead of trees to preserve water views and simplify maintenance. In addition, a long, narrow bioretention area (an engineered rain garden) was created to naturally filter stormwater using a mix of soil types and native vegetation. This system helps remove pollutants such as bacteria, nitrogen, and phosphorus from runoff before it reaches the bay. A porous pavement sidewalk was also added to reduce surface runoff.

At Curve Hill Road, a constructed wetland now treats runoff that flows into a nearby wetland draining to the Bass River. Stormwater from Curve Hill Road and Great Western Road will first pass through an underground water quality unit—scheduled for installation in July—for pre-treatment to remove trash, sediment, grease, and bacteria. The treated water then flows into the shallow constructed wetland basin, where native plants and soil provide additional natural filtration before water enters the existing adjacent wetland.

The Curve Hill Road project has been extended to improve the connection between the wetland area and Great Western Road. Construction on this will be completed in the fall to replace aging and failed infrastructure, directing runoff from the large drainage area along Great Western Road to the constructed wetland area.

In recent weeks, native vegetation has been planted throughout both sites. At Standish Way, chokeberry, seaside goldenrod, switchgrass, and flat-topped goldenrod were planted in the bioretention area and infiltration trench. At Curve Hill Road, a variety of wetland plants—grasses, shrubs, and trees that are all native to Barnstable County—were selected to thrive in the local environment and wetland habitat. These plants will help stabilize soil, support pollinators, and enhance the system’s ability to filter pollutants.

Collectively, these green infrastructure features are designed to slow, capture, and filter stormwater through soil, gravel, and native vegetation—reducing the amount of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment, and bacteria entering the adjacent watersheds, Bass River and Lewis Bay.

Funding for both projects has been provided by the town of Yarmouth and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management Coastal Habitat and Water Quality Grants with additional funding for Standish Way construction provided by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS and the Cape Cod Conservation District were an integral part of the project team for Standish Way, providing technical review and input throughout planning, design, and implementation.

For more information on the Yarmouth Stormwater Project, including these and other prioritized sites, visit APCC’s Yarmouth Stormwater webpage.

Above: The constructed wetland project along Curve Hill Road. Photo credit: Gerald Beetham and Horsley Witten

APCC's Herring Monitoring Program

Captain Richard Bailey and the Call of the Herring

If you live on Cape Cod long enough, you learn to expect the unexpected. The person next to you on the beach or at the seafood counter might just have a story worth telling. Sometimes, you discover them waist-deep in a kettle pond or quietly perched beside a stream, clipboard in hand, counting herring during the spring migration.

Captain Richard Bailey is one of those people. A fifth-generation Cape Codder with roots in Wellfleet and Provincetown, Bailey has made herring monitoring part of his life for more than twenty years. Every spring, without fail, he heads to a quiet, remote bend in the Wellfleet Herring River. The spot is not easy to reach. He bumps along one of the Cape’s last dirt roads, a mile-long gauntlet of potholes and rocks, before parking at a small pull-off. From there, he walks an old cart path that narrows into a foot trail, finally arriving at a small clearing—his clearing—where “his chair” waits.

Bailey is no stranger to adventure. Long before he became a fixture on the Herring River, he captained the HMS Rose, a full-scale replica of a British square-rigged ship from the Revolutionary War. He sailed her up and down the Atlantic coast and oversaw her restoration and certification as a sailing school vessel in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His adventures took an unexpected cinematic turn when a film producer spotted the Rose in Newport, Rhode Island. Soon after, she was purchased and transformed into the ship seen on screen in Master and Commander, starring Russell Crowe.

Though retired from the helm, Bailey still finds plenty of adventure in quieter waters. Sitting in his riverside chair, he waits patiently each spring to record the passage of herring swimming upstream to spawn. His logbooks—meticulously kept—go back decades. He has travelled the world and crossed many seas, but this narrow stream, barely deep enough to wade in, is where he feels most at peace.

It is also where he finds wonder. One year he spotted a crayfish, another time it was two enormous snapping turtles lumbering up the stream, their heads submerged until they popped up to look around. He has seen box turtles sunning themselves, raccoons leaving behind piles of bones, and signs of elusive otters—scat here and there, proof enough that they are near. Sometimes, he pulls out his Merlin bird app and is astonished at the number of species surrounding him. When the herring are running, the osprey take notice, swooping and diving, calling out in a frenzy as they fish.

“This run is important,” he says, flipping through one of his old logbooks. “Even if the stream is shallow—so shallow I could lie down in it and dam it—the herring do come up this way. That matters.” These waters, after all, are connected to Herring Pond, Higgins Pond, Gull Pond, and Williams Pond.

When asked why he volunteers to count herring year after year, Bailey doesn’t hesitate. “Citizen science is always important,” he says. “We want to know what is happening in nature and observe the trends. It’s relevant.”

It is more than relevant. It is a quiet act of devotion. And for Captain Bailey, it is another kind of voyage—one not across vast oceans, but into the heart of a small stream where life returns, year after year, just as he does.

APCC at Falmouth Rod and Gun Club Annual Youth Day

Falmouth Rod and Gun Club hosted their Annual Youth Day event on Saturday, June 21, 2025. APCC's communications specialist, Dee Marsh, was joined by APCC volunteers, Kathy Leary and Sue Carrai, along with several highly entertaining special guests (cicadas). In addition to archery, fly fishing, and skeet shooting, families visited educational tables from local environmental and conservation organizations and learned about the Cape's wildlife habitat.

Speaking of cicadas...

Above photos by Gerald Beetham

After 17 long years, the band is finally back together! With their last performance in 2008, fans have been eager for the return of Brood XIV. And the best news of all, no Melody Tent tickets needed, as this rowdy bunch of cicadas can be heard playing their tunes all throughout the mid to upper Cape.

We kindly ask that you refrain from any unnecessary disruptions to the show, please silence your cell phones now, and definitely put away the pesticides! Cicada emergences provide incredible natural benefits, such as an increased food source for wildlife, enriching the soil once all they die and decompose, and naturally pruning trees, which can increase forest health.

For more information on Brood XIV, Barnstable County provides a great overview.

Cape-friendly Landscapes

Plant for Function

Planting for function means making choices that will give you the biggest bang for your buck in supporting nature in your landscape, such as incorporating plants that have the greatest ecological value and designing in ways that optimize your landscape’s benefit to wildlife. To support the highest biodiversity in your yard, the following tips are recommended:

Select plants that provide the highest level of wildlife value.
Reduce lawn area where possible and replace with native species.
Create gardens with pollinators and birds in mind.
Match plants with site conditions.
Create structural complexity with layers.
Plant densely.
Choose a diversity of native species and at least three to five of each is best.
For pollinators, offer a variety of plants to provide blooms from spring into fall.
Include shrubs that provide fruit for birds.
Remove invasive plant species.

What do we know about the ecological value of each plant species? Dr. Douglas Tallamy from the University of Delaware identified native tree species that are especially important to food webs because they support the greatest number and volume of lepidoptera (moths and butterflies whose larval stage is the caterpillar). These are called “keystone plants.” Examples include native oaks, cherries, willows, birches, and poplars.

Why is this important? The vast majority of terrestrial birds rely on caterpillars to feed their young. A single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to rear one clutch of fledglings. Research, conducted by Dr. Desiree Narango, assessed the impact non-native species have on the breeding and foraging behaviors of the Carolina chickadee. She found that the neighborhoods with less than 70 percent native plants drastically reduced the success rate of baby birds fledging and that the presence of 94 percent native plants was ideal.

What's growing in your yard and in your neighborhood?

Ecolandscape Consultation Program

If you desire to make your yard friendlier to pollinators and wildlife, learn more about native plants and controlling invasive species, and hear of ways to conserve water and protect the Cape’s water quality, we can help.

APCC’s Ecolandscape Consultation program is aimed at helping homeowners make their landscapes more ecologically friendly by providing site-specific assessments and oodles of information for the DIYers or those that want to be more informed to hire the right landscape contractor. While we are not landscape designers or engineers, we do have the passion, experience, knowledge, and loads of resources to offer guidance to help you achieve your goals for a Cape-friendly yard.

Click here for more information and

to schedule a consultation!

APCC's Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program

"When in doubt, stay out." High concentrations of potentially toxic cyanobacteria were detected in several ponds last week, at levels that are of concern for pets and children who are more susceptible due to ingestion.

The monitoring program for many ponds has begun. Check on the status of your favorite pond on our interactive map.

If you see what appears to be a bloom, take a picture, note the day, location, and time and notify the local health department, and email to cyano@apcc.org.

Sign up for cyanobacteria email alerts.

A Pond-related Workshop, Hosted by APCC

Mussels, Dragonflies,

and Damselflies

with Jason Carmignani, Ph.D., aquatic ecologist, Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, Mass Division of Fisheries & Wildlife

Friday, June 27th

10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

This is a hybrid event at APCC’s headquarters at the Koppel Center

482 Main St (Rte 6A), Dennis 02638

Seating is limited, but our virtual attendance is unlimited.

Registration required.

REGISTER

What do mussels, dragonflies and damselflies have in common? They all are inhabitants of freshwater ponds and are bioindicators of pond health. They also all have wild and crazy life cycles! Join us for this expert’s presentation where he will reveal the watery world of these creatures. And get answers to questions, such as: How many different kinds of freshwater mussels can be found on Cape Cod? What’s a dragon versus a damsel and which ones are common and threatened on Cape Cod?

This event is brought to you as part of APCC’s Cape Cod Pond Watcher’s Bio-survey Program, that encourages you to visit a pond near you and take some time to observe and report your findings. As a citizen scientist, the data will serve to provide greater knowledge of the biology of the Cape’s some 890 freshwater ponds.

VOLUNTEER with APCC!

If you are a farmer or someone who wants to grow native plants to sell, or just want to be updated on the program's development, please submit an interest form that appears on our webpage. We will be sending periodic email notices of workshops and meetings.

Funding for the project is provided by Barnstable County and its Economic Development Council License Plate Grant Program through the Cape Cod Commission.

A Cape-wide Conservation Event Calendar

The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts (“the Compact”) and its nonprofit members launched a new regional calendar of events. The Conservation Calendar includes programs across Cape Cod hosted by these groups. The goal of the calendar is to encourage visitors and residents to take part in nature and environmental events. You can always find the link to the calendar on APCC's website under News & Events.

A Cape Cod Native Plant-selector

~ to help you choose the perfect native plants for your garden.

Email kandres@apcc.org and we'll send you a CapeCodNativePlants.org decal.

Blue-eyed Grass

Sisyrinchium angustifolium

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.

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, please contact us.

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

APCC Merch

APCC caps

$25

-includes USPS deliver in the U.S.

Garden for Life T's

$30

-includes USPS delivery in U.S.

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 the 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.