Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 20 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
Environment
INTO THE WOODS
Friends of the 1651 Forest Start the Season of Habitat Restoration
A group combats runoff from foot and paw traffic with native plantings
EASTHAM — Step into the woods near Wiley Park and you’ll find yourself stepping back in time. That’s the idea, at least. Since 2001, Eastham’s 1651 Forest Advisory Committee has […]
ENVIRONMENT
Beebe Wants to Get Real About the Eastham Sewer
Questions range from purpose to location to smells from future wastewater treatment facility
EASTHAM — Last month’s news that the town had qualified for a renewable $50-million low-interest loan from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection for a sewer system to protect the […]
WATER POLITICS
Truro Makes Plans for Water, and for Misinformation
As housing and infrastructure advance, the town aims to communicate more clearly
TRURO — At a recent meeting with residents of Short Lots Lane, which runs just south of the 70-acre town-owned Walsh property, zoning task force chair David Bannard heard a […]
WALK IN THE PARK
Pitch Pines on the Path to Eastham’s Forest Primeval
New clearings and pioneer species were probably always part of our old oak forests
The idea behind Eastham’s rather grandly named 1651 Arboretum was to cultivate the sort of mature forest that the first European settlers might have encountered and, theoretically, enjoyed before subsequent […]
BIRDWATCHING
Allowing a Chipping Sparrow to Stop Time
The wonder of communion on watching a conspicuous and social bird
I am always startled by its appearance. Streaked and mottled brown like sandy soil or like the dried blades of last year’s grasses, it rises up: a leaf? A bird. […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Fringe Festival
The trail that leads down to Wellfleet’s cedar swamp, where majestic Atlantic white cedars grow from a bed of standing water, begins up on the heathland. There, the path winds […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 13 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
SEA LEVEL RISE
Provincetown Unveils Its Coastal Resilience Plan
Stormwater and sewer upgrades, then a townwide effort to raise bulkheads
PROVINCETOWN — A near-final draft of the coastal resiliency plan that the town has been working on since last spring was unveiled at the select board meeting on April 28, […]
ENVIRONMENT
New Analysis Suggests Prioritizing Septic Upgrades at Sites Nearest the Shore
Wellfleet board opts not to vote on watershed plan, asking consultants for a rewrite
WELLFLEET — After a recent round of amendments, a strategy for removing nitrogen from the town’s wastewater over next 20 years — part of the Targeted Watershed Management Plan — […]
THIS WILD CAPE
Watching the Songbirds
The beauty of migratory birds’ arrival in May’s fleeting weeks
Yes, we got through the winter here on Cape Cod, and we’ve been counting the days through March and April. Finally, the wind and the cold are pretty much behind […]
NATURAL SELECTION
70 Million Years Young
The fuzz-covered newborns that can be seen unrolling from their fetal positions near the cedar swamp in Wellfleet this week are the fresh fronds of cinnamon fern, Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, an […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 6 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
RIGHT WHALES
In the Bay, One New Calf and One Dire Entanglement
Center for Coastal Studies reports numbers are up, but only slightly
PROVINCETOWN — Late April marks the peak of the North Atlantic right whale season in Cape Cod Bay. Since January, more than 180 of these endangered animals have made an […]
MORNING FLIGHT
A Place for Rare Birds
Seeing one rare winter visitor led to seeing another at a Provincetown feeder
This is the story of seeing the rarest bird I’ve ever seen on Cape Cod. It was a few days before Christmas when I got an email from Provincetown resident […]
