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Cape Cod

Photograph by TNC Staff
TNC Staff Leading Nature Walk in Sandy Neck

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Cape Cod, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, is also home to some of the largest and most pristine barrier beaches and dune systems, salt marshes, and coastal plain ponds in the Northeast.

Threats
In recent years, these ecosystems have been under increasing threat from expanding coastal development and human disturbance. To accommodate the sharp increase in year-round residents, six new homes are completed each day on average, causing habitat destruction and fragmentation. Human demands upon the finite water supply are increasing as well.  What little open space remains is subject to recreational overuse. 

Plants
Cape Cod's coastal plain ponds - a rare freshwater wetland community - harbor a number of globally rare plants, including the Plymouth Gentian and bluet damselflies. These ponds are "windows" on the aquifer with direct connections to groundwater and no inlets or outlets. The plants are adapted to annual fluctuations in pond levels that keep shrubs and pitch pines from invading the pondshores.

Animals
Cape Cod's beaches provide habitat for the Northeast's most productive population of Piping Plovers, a species of shore bird listed as threatened by the federal government. Huge congregations of migrating shorebirds also use the beachflats that form in bays behind the barrier beaches. The diamondback terrapin, a turtle that was harvested to near-extinction in the early twentieth century, is staging a comeback in the region's salt marshes. Protection of these species and communities is one of the greatest contributions Massachusetts can make to conserving global biodiversity.

Our Conservation Strategy
The Conservancy's involvement ensuring the long-term ecological health of Cape Cod is includes habitat preservation, ecological restoration and community based conservation.  Elements of our strategy include:

  • Developing community-based partnerships - such as conservation buyer programs - to respond to intensifying development pressures
  • Providing local communities with tools to manage growth, like hydrological monitoring to protect water supplies
  • Working with the towns to prevent new off-road vehicle trail construction along beaches, pondshores and marshy areas and to control invasive plant and animal species
  • Encouraging the enforcement of laws restricting the use of off road vehicles on beaches, especially at times when young shorebirds and turtles are most vulnerable
  • Protecting wetlands, beaches, pondshores and pitch pine/scrub oak woodlands, through gift, purchase, option, or restriction

What TNC Has Done/Is Doing

  • In 2003, the Chapter helped the Town of Yarmouth acquire nine acres at Dennis Pond in Yarmouth. A favorite spot for fishing, swimming, and ice-skating, the coastal plain pond also supports a population of the globally rare Plymouth Gentian. In 2004, the Conservancy is assisting in the protection of another property on the pond.
  • The land protection staff also collaborated with partners to protect 57 acres on the Great Marsh in Barnstable and Sandwich. One of the best barrier beach and salt marsh systems in the region, this area is home to numerous wildlife species, including the endangered piping plover and the threatened diamondback terrapin.
  • The Chapter partnered with the Massachusetts Military Reservation to conduct a prescribed burn on 200 acres of pitch pine/scrub oak habitat in 2003. Burning this fire-adapted habitat makes the landscape more suitable for its birds and rich lepidopteran fauna.
  • In addition, the Conservancy continues to remove the invasive plant Phragmites from Sandy Neck. As of fall of 2003, more than half of the swales have now been treated, a remarkable result in just two seasons of work. More removal efforts are planned in the summer of 2004.
  • Finally, the Chapter is assisting the Commonwealth and Town of Barnstable in the restoration of 40 acres of salt marsh at Bridge Creek. By replacing an undersized culvert under Route 6A, partners will restore natural tidal flow between the creek and the Great Marsh.

Preserves on Cape Cod:
Grassy Pond
Boat Meadow
Sandy Neck

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