Whale Bone Point, Wellfleet
***PRESERVED!***

Through the leadership of Wellfleet Conservation Trust (WCT), and the combined efforts of the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Town’s Open Space Committee, the 5-acre Fox Island Marsh gateway known as Whale Bone Point will be preserved as conservation land and managed by the Town Conservation Commission. It represents the last in a series of open space purchases and donations made in the area behind Indian Neck that began in 1994 that has resulted in 173 acres being preserved by the three entities.

WCT negotiated the sale with the landowner. It was listed for sale at $1.1 million. (The Town’s appraisers subsequently estimated that the waterfront building lot was valued at $1.2 to $1.4 million.) The owner agreed to sell it for conservation at $750,000. WCT agreed to raise and donate $250,000, and subsequently secured a $100,000 commitment from Fisheries and Wildlife, which used the state money to buy a conservation restriction over the lot. The Open Space Committee applied for a state Self Help grant and secured $351,000. Thus, the final net cost to the Town Land Bank fund for the $1.1 million lot was $149,000.

The Town and WCT also cooperated in designing and installing a 1.5-mile public walking trail system on the preserved upland that was dedicated last summer by the Wellfleet Selectmen. Whale Bone Point makes a beautiful destination on the trail, providing a panoramic overlook to the mouth of Blackfish Creek and out to Lieutenant Island and beyond.

Whale Bone Point received its name owing to its prominence as a spot for landing blackfish and small whales during the heyday of the inshore whale fishery in the 1700s. Reputedly, the marine mammals’ bones could be found stacked on the site after the blubber and oil was rendered from the carcasses.

The area is very important for wildlife. Whale Bone Point itself and many other coastal banks in the vicinity are favored nesting spots for diamondback terrapins, a small marine turtle that is considered threatened under the rare species act. Numerous birds, including blue herons, shore birds, hawks and owls frequent these woods and marshes. In addition, many of the commercial aquacultural grants of the harbor are located just offshore from the Fox Island Marsh.

Bass River Park, West Dennis
***PRESERVED!***

A 2.5-acre parcel, with 600 feet of tidal frontage on Bass River, the Cape’s largest estuary, is being purchased by the Town of Dennis with funding assistance from the Dennis Conservation Trust. This gateway property lies at the foot of the Bass River Bridge carrying Route 28 between Dennis and Yarmouth. Previously developed for a restaurant, mini-golf and small marina, a developer had proposed a 28-unit condo complex built on stilts above the flood plain. Town purchase for $3.2 million will enable “undevelopment” of the blight and redesign of a small public maritime park with riverfront access. The Dennis Conservation Trust has pledged to contribute $500,000 in solicited funds towards the purchase.

Eelman's Point, South Orleans
***PRESERVED!***

The Orleans Conservation Trust purchased a permanent conservation restriction for $2,000,000 on the 9–acre coastal headland known as Eelman's Point between Pleasant Bay and Little Pleasant Bay at The Narrows. This Point preserves a swath of forest and pondshore habitat running through a valley including Sarah’s Pond to Quanset Pond. Rich shellfishing grounds and a major winter stopover for migratory waterfowl are situated around the Point. Public access landing on the 600 feet of tidal shoreline is allowed under the terms of the easement. The potential for three waterfront homes was extinguished. (Photo credit: Vince Ollivier)

Poor's Hill Project - Glacial Dome in Truro
***PRESERVED!***

The Truro Conservation Trust successfully raised $500,000 toward the Town’s purchase of this “sand dome,” the last remaining wild hill in Pamet Harbor for $2,000,000. Rising 70 feet straight up from the harbor, the hilltop offers panoramic vistas across Cape Cod Bay and the National Seashore. The 3.5 acres was slated to have two large houses atop the hill. The property is composed of coastal heathland habitat, a dwindling vegetation type once common on the Cape. Low-growing groundcovers that prefer sandy, acidic soils, such as bearberry, lichens and lowbush blueberry, are stunted by the winds whipping off the bay.

Little River, Cotuit (Barnstable)
***PRESERVED!***

The Little River runs through the middle of the 5-acre Baker Property, purchased and preserved by the Barnstable Land Trust for $175,000. Once a cranberry bog with attendant upland, the Baker Property provides a safe haven for wildlife such as wild turkey, red tailed hawks and upland mammals.

The Baker Property is a missing link in the 800 acre greenbelt that contributes to the unfragmented character of the woodland expanse buffering the Little River and supports many natural processes, such as ground water protection, surface water recharge and preservation of coastal water quality.

One of only five corridors in the Town’s Open Space Plan, the Little River Corridor begins in the 300-acre Santuit Pond area. From the pond the river flows to Lovell’s Pond and then meanders through well fields and conservation land, linking over 800 acres owned by the towns of Mashpee and Barnstable, the Cotuit Fire District, the Barnstable Land Trust and Mary Barton Conservation Trust. The terminus of the Little River is at Cotuit Bay near the famed Cotuit Oyster Company.

The Baker Property has been a community priority since the list was first created back in 1984

Stony Brook Valley, Brewster
***PRESERVED!***

Brewster Conservation Trust raised $50,000 by November 1, 2007 to help protect 10 prime wooded acres purchased by the Town of Brewster after voters approved $1.2 million at their annual fall town meeting. This critical acquisition helped to leverage protection of an adjacent 40 acres through a conservation restriction. As shown in the aerial photo above, the 10-acre woodland rests to the east of the historic and environmentally sensitive 70-acre Stony Brook Valley Preserve. In fact, both tracts of land are next to the Stony Brook Valley Preserve, which is owned by the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and further protected by a permanent conservation restriction under the Brewster Conservation Trust. If not preserved, the 10-acre priority property would have been cleared for a six-lot subdivision.

Preserving the land meant protecting not only wildlife habitat, but also water quality and the area's historic sense of place. The Stony Brook herring run meaders past a historic mill as it flows from Lower Mill Pond, through the valley, under Route 6A, and transitions to the estuarine Paine's Creek on Cape Cod Bay. Every spring as part of their annual migratory phenomenon, thousands of herring swim upstream from Cape Cod Bay through Paine's Creek and Stony Brook to the collection of spawning ponds that include Lower Mill Pond, Upper Mill Pond, and Walkers Pond. If the land was lost to development, then the water quality of Stony Brook as well as the wildlife that depend on it could have been affected.

Galloway, Cotuit (Barnstable)
***PRESERVED!***

The Barnstable Land Trust raised $150,000 to preserve 3.5 acres at the south end of the 152-acre Eagle Pond Sanctuary in Cotuit. This parcel adjoins the 805-acre Little River Corridor, a protected greenbelt that spans the Towns of Mashpee and Barnstable which is a major “fingerlink” in Barnstable’s Open Space Plan. The land purchase can create a new pedestrian access point to Eagle Pond, maintain the integrity of forested woodland and prevent wildlife fragmentation.

Slough Road Woodlands, Brewster
***PRESERVED!***

At their May 1, 2006 Spring Special Town Meeting, the Town of Brewster voters authorized the two-year phased purchase of almost 60 acres from two owners of adjoining property west of Slough Road. These properties are the first open space parcels acquired under the Community Preservation Act in town, which replaced the Land Bank last year. The combined purchase was the largest acquisition since the Town’s Punkhorn Parkland was created almost 20 years ago.
“What a tremendous opportunity this is, to be able to protect open space that is critical to both Brewster and Dennis.” said Elizabeth Taylor, chair of the Brewster Open Space Committee, which negotiated the deals on behalf of the Town.

These parcels are important for many reasons:

· They abut the 27-acre property known as the old Hawk’s Nest Farm that the Town acquired in 1996 for conservation and complete a parkland nucleus connecting over 50 acres of protected lands in Brewster to over 300 acres of Dennis protected lands; and,

· The parcels provide a new, alternative public access point to Walker’s Pond from Slough Road and further protect the critical Walker’s Pond alewife spawning ground as well as a great variety of wildlife habitats, including unfragmented pine-oak barrens, coastal plain pondshore and possible vernal pools; and,

· The acquisitions preserve critical wildlife corridors connecting to the Punkhorn Parklands and provides a needed walking trail connection linking public Cape Cod Pathways trails from Dennis through Brewster; and,

· The parcels are all within the zone of contribution to important public wellfields in Dennis. The Dennis Water District contributed $1 million to subsidize the Brewster purchase to protect the water supply.

Recognizing that these acquisitions are important to protect water quality, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs awarded a $500,000 grant to the Town of Brewster in 2006.

3239 Main Street
P.O. Box 443
Barnstable, MA 02630

Phone: 508-362-2565
Fax: 508-362-4480

Email: compact@cape.com