Association to Preserve Cape Cod

Above: Cockle Cove salt marsh, Chatham. Photo by Sue Machie

What I'm Thinking...

A Better Way

by Andrew Gottlieb, Executive Director

The response I see most often to the relentless rollback of federal environmental regulations and the dismantling of essential agency functions is an impulse to restore or block the cutbacks. I have that response myself; it’s only natural. But I have come to conclude that while understandable, the impulse is not just wrong; it instead feeds and provides energy to the forces tearing it all down. Rather than just fighting to keep environmental protection as it was before the destruction began, the environmental community should envision and articulate a forward-looking protection framework that better equips us to address the environmental challenges staring us in the face.

I have come to understand the forces driving the abandonment of environmental standards and their scientific foundation as a repudiation of a broader societal status quo many believe has left them behind. Against the backdrop of empty Orwellian pronouncements and slogans that promise clean air and clean water supported by the best science, we are witnessing the dismantling of the entire infrastructure that delivered cleaner air and water and made America the world’s epicenter of science and discovery. The national dynamics that have allowed this to happen are ignored at our collective peril. It is in this context that a response that simply defends what was and leaves it at that is a mistake. We have to do more than just defend a framework that didn’t fully equip us with enough tools to protect the environment. A new and more finely tuned and, yes aggressive, plan that sustains the gains of the past while looking forward is the way to build support for a cleaner environment.

Much of the environmental regulatory structure, until recently anyway, is rooted in the wave of federal environmental legislation that began in the early 1970s. This first-generation legislation was remarkably effective in eliminating the gross pollution that made waterways open sewers and air dark and unhealthy with soot and smog. Those same laws have proven to be somewhat less well-suited to solving today’s environmental challenges that include eliminating carbon pollution, nutrient enrichment of our waters, and chemicals of emerging concern.

The environmental community should be putting its collective energy into envisioning and developing a set of laws and regulations that are forward-looking and solve the problems of today and tomorrow. We need to be doing this now because the pendulum will swing back when people realize we have been led down a road to air that is dirtier, water more polluted, and a hotter and less habitable world.

We will all be better served by being ready with a better approach and not just calling for the restoration of what was. In fact, having and being able to articulate a better way forward than the status quo for actual environmental improvement makes it more likely that the country will choose that path forward before it is too late.

APCC Ecosystem Restoration Program

Above: APCC intern, Emma Acri (left), APCC intern, Lydia Reinhardt (middle), and APCC volunteer, Julia L’Esperance, (right), with the crab monitoring gear at Oyster Pond salt marsh.

Critters in the Marsh: Summer 2025 Salt Marsh Crab Monitoring

This summer, APCC’s Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) is keeping a close eye on crabs and their appetite for salt marsh plants. We’re looking for signs of this “herbivory” at three of our restoration sites: Oyster Pond in West Falmouth, Weir Creek in West Dennis, and Chase Garden Creek on the Yarmouth Port/Dennis line.

At Oyster Pond, ERP staff teamed up with volunteer, Julia L’Esperance, and APCC pond monitoring interns, Emma Acri and Sully Gaffney, to comb the marsh for clues—burrows in the mud, clipped or shredded plants, and live or dead crabs, such as fiddler crabs (Uca spp.) and blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus). We also photographed what we found to help us measure crab activity before restoration work moves forward.

Some grazing by native crabs like the purple marsh crab (Sesarma reticulatum) is normal, but when crab numbers grow faster than marsh plants can recover, the loss of vegetation can speed up erosion. By tracking crab activity now, we can design restoration work that protects the marsh and keeps the ecosystem in balance.

Above: APCC volunteer, Julia L’Esperance, checked a section of Oyster Pond marsh for crab activity using a PVC quadrat. While this spot showed no signs of crabs, she and the team saw plenty of fiddler crabs elsewhere throughout the day.

APCC's Pond Programs

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Cape Cod Ponds Network met at the

Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster

Above: APCC Director for Education Kristin Andres welcomes the attendees.

We are grateful to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History for providing the venue for the Cape Cod Ponds Network meeting. It is always good to get together, learn from each other, and connect. And we'll do it again!

Above: Caroline Berney, APCC intern, explains the cyanobacteria survey sent to veterinarians, animal officers, and wildlife rehabilitators

Above: APCC Freshwater Science Coordinator Sophia Feuerhake gives an update on APCC's cyanobacteria monitoring program

Above: Sue Dangel of Save Mashpee-Wakeby Pond Alliance shares some of the organization's advocacy efforts.

Above: Tara Nye Lewis, Cape Cod Commission water resources analyst, reviews the Water Quality Data Portal

Above: Cape Cod Commission Natural Resources Analyst Jessica Rempel gives anoverview on the Pond Buffer Guidance

Above left to right: Carolyn Auty of Friends of Crystal Lake in Orleans, Ann Frechette and Diana Preston of Harwich Ponds Coalition.

A Day in the Life of a Cyanobacteria Intern

by Sophie Corsaro, APCC summer cyanobacteria intern

Above: Sophia Corsaro

My workday usually starts at 8 a.m., thigh-deep in a pond in my waders and a field survey pulled up on my tablet. While I don’t sample every day I work, my favorite days are when I sample two to four ponds/lakes in one of the towns on Cape Cod.

Our field sampling consists of five steps. First, I start my field survey of the area, so we know what we are working with in terms of weather conditions, temperature, and photos of the shoreline. This can help us with later processing and so we can have photos of potential blooms and some of the conditions that cause them.

Then I take toxin samples that are used to figure out if the water contains dangerous levels of the toxin microcystin. Once completed, I take my net sample by tossing a plankton net into the water and pull it back in towards me slowly, trying carefully to make sure I keep the top of the net about an inch above the water so that I am taking in the surface water, which is where cyanobacteria are usually found.

Then I take a whole lake water sample. This process includes using a tube to get a water sample that represents the water column where we are sampling, which is about two feet deep. These two processes allow us to get both a condensed surface sample and a sample that is a true representative of the pond. We also take a sample of scum if it is present in the water first thing when we arrive at a pond, so we can see if this scum is cyanobacteria scum or not, although today no scums were spotted in my ponds. So, I am headed back to APCC to clean my gear and get to work in the lab.

Our next portion of the day is full of processing and microscopy. I look at a sample under a microscope and identify the cyanobacteria down to the genus level. This way we can get a general estimate of what type of cyanobacteria was dominant in the pond and how dense it was in the water. We also do this with the scums that we collect to see if they are made up of cyanobacteria or something more harmless, such as pollen.

Usually at this point in the day, we go to lunch after a very full morning, which is a great way to relax and get to know the other interns and employees a little bit more. Our team is full of people who have lived in different areas and have had different career experiences, so everyone brings a different perspective and knowledge to the team, which makes it a great team to work with!

Back from lunch, we spend most of the afternoon on fluorometry. This is a process in which we can figure out the levels of phycocyanin (the pigment produced by cyanobacteria) and chlorophyll (the pigment produced by more bacteria and plants) that are in our water samples. If we get high phycocyanin levels, this indicates that the pond could have high amounts of cyanobacteria and could produce dangerous cyanotoxins.

Fluorometry is run on all the vials of water that were collected while we were processing in the morning, so this takes us most of the afternoon, especially if we have a lot of ponds to process. Today, while I was working on fluorometry, one of the other interns was conducting an anatoxin test on a sample they collected in a pond where we had high phycocyanin levels and scum yesterday. Thankfully, the test today came back negative, but if we had a positive result, that pond would have to be flagged as being potentially toxic on the website and a cyanobacteria email alert would be sent out.

During the last hour or so of work, I help with our daily cleaning tasks. Today, this task is cleaning plastic and glass bottles. While this isn’t anyone’s favorite task during the day, cleaning and organizing for the days ahead are essential for the program to function. As the time nears the end of the workday, I go to collect my sampling gear and bottles for tomorrow, so I'm ready to go in the morning for another great day of work.

And as an extra special treat after work, the cyanobacteria intern team plays pickleball together about once a week. Thankfully, today is one of those days, so I can spend some extra time with my coworkers and improve my pickleball game!

Above: APCC's 2025 cyanobacteria monitoring team of interns having some social time on the pickleball court!

Pond Life Spotlight

Above: Encased caddisfly larvae

Above: Adult caddisfly

The Artsy Caddisfly

The caddisfly is not a fly as its common name implies. Rather, caddisflies belong to the order Trichoptera and are more closely related to butterflies and moths. In fact, the adults may be mistaken for moths, as their wings have a familiar furry appearance and, since they are active at night, are often found with moths around porch lights. A quick identifying characteristic is their very long antennae, which can be more than twice the length of their bodies.

Caddisflies require a water source for their life cycle. Adult caddisflies live near streams, ponds and other wetlands where there is standing water, which here on the Cape can be the ditches of abandoned bogs and isolated wetlands. Depending on the species, the adults may live only a few days to a couple of months. The manner of egg laying depends on the kind of caddisfly. Some adult females will deposit eggs while in flight, dropping them into the water. Some will lay eggs on plants at the wetland edge, and others will swim to the bottom to deposit the eggs.

Caddisflies have complete metamorphosis, which means their life stages include egg, larva, pupa and adult. The eggs will hatch into larvae in late summer. In the larval stage, they appear to resemble caterpillars with segmented bodies. However, unlike the appearance of caterpillars, the larvae have only single pairs of appendages at the end of their abdomens. They are equipped with gills to live in their subaquatic home and will spend their larval and pupal stage beneath the water before emerging the following warm season as adults. Caddisflies form a very significant part of freshwater food chains and the presence of these insects typically indicates a healthy ecosystem.

It is in the larval stage beneath the water that caddisflies are especially remarkable. The caddisfly larvae gather bits and pieces from their surroundings and with their silk-producing salivary glands build a protective tube-shaped cover, which eventually will fully encapsulate them for the pupal stage. All manner of underwater things are gathered, which can be pieces of leaves, twigs, bits of freshwater clam shell, sand and stones. This specialized adaptation provides unbelievable camouflage, making them virtually invisible. The case also affords them physical protection from some predators. In streams, some may attach the cases to rocks to secure them from being moved by the current. The larval worm leaves an opening so that it can move about to eat decaying leaves and algae.

As often is the case, artists find inspiration in the intricacies of nature. This especially fascinating adaptation of case-building caught the attention of at least one artist who took advantage of the caddisfly's behavior. A French artist named Hubert Duprat brought caddisfly larva into a contrived habitat of gold flakes and pearls where the insects instinctively made use of the materials and constructed some amazing mosaics, literally encrusting themselves with jewels.

Keep an eye out for bits of moving debris in the shallow water of a freshwater wetland—it might just be a caddisfly larva. Whether it be a cocoon of natural organics or jewels, one cannot help but be impressed by the artistic work of the caddisfly.

Cape Cod Pond Watchers Bio-survey Program

~ a training video on how to use the Survey123 app to log your observations in pondside!

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.

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.

Please note: The cyanobacteria alert is only sent out when a concern is first identified at a pond. All updates following this initial notice are shared on APCC’s interactive map.

Join Us for an

End of Season Gathering

The consultation program is about to conclude for the season, and we thought it would be a great time to ask program participants and others to join us for a short presentation by Erin Camire, APCC's ecolandscape program coordinator, and meet others with similar interests in having a Cape-friendly landscape.

Friday, August 22nd

10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

The Koppel Center at APCC's headquarters

482 Main St (Route 6A) in Dennis

We hope you can join us! We want to show off the Koppel Center, what has been accomplished around the grounds of APCC, and the projects underway.

If you can't come to the event, we will offer Erin's presentation online via Zoom and will record it for viewing at a later time. If you'd like to receive a Zoom link, please register and select the virtual attendance option.

REGISTER

We Love Botany

Botanize a bit with Erin Camire, APCC's ecolandscape program coordinator, in the video below. A short clip from a walk at Forest Beach in Chatham.

SAVE THE DATE!

APCC's Annual Meeting

Sunday, September 14th at 12:00 p.m.

at the Dennis Inn

Events Hosted by Others

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.

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 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.

Photo credit: Alexandra Lancaster

Prickly Pear

Opuntia humifusa

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.