This is the first in a series of articles on the Cape Cod National Seashore’s science program. It explores why science matters at the Seashore and why it’s at risk.
Cape Cod National Seashore
ENVIRONMENT
Science Research Is Cut to the Essentials
Outer Cape naturalists’ fieldwork is postponed, leaving holes in data sets
With the ongoing pandemic, scientific research has been interrupted across Cape Cod.
Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has placed five staff members on partial furlough due to funding freezes, according to director Melissa Lowe. Visiting researchers have postponed or canceled fieldwork, and the sanctuary has suspended all volunteer efforts. With fewer staff and volunteers, data collection has been disrupted.
NATIONAL SEASHORE
Ups and Downs of Managing Change at the Seashore
Delaney seeks help in reauthorizing ‘sunsetted’ advisory board
EASTHAM — It will cost you more to park at a Cape Cod National Seashore beach this summer, and less — in fact, nothing — to participate in ranger-led programs.
“The fee increase [from $20 to $25 for vehicles] has been in the works for three years,” Supt. Brian Carlstrom said Tuesday. “It’s being rolled out across the National Park Service.”
The superintendent said the Seashore reviewed the programs it was offering and found that, for many programs, “it was more efficient not to charge anything. It costs more money to collect the fees; we really weren’t bringing in a net benefit to the park.”
Carlstrom said the Seashore’s budget has been “pretty consistent, in the high $7 million range, over a long period of time.” While that translates to “decreasing buying power” over time, he said there are no plans for overall staff cutbacks.
“We’re changing positions to meet the highest priority needs,” he said. “We’re trying to manage the park as best we possibly can with the fiscal resources we are allocated, all the while providing access to the public while protecting the natural and cultural resources.”
The superintendent was contacted after Art Autorino, a Seashore volunteer and member of the Eastham Finance Committee, raised concerns at a joint meeting of the committee and the select board on March 9. In a phone interview, Rich Delaney, the last chair of the “sunsetted” Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission, said his board would likely have had discussions with administrators about the changes and been helpful in gauging public reaction. The commission’s federal authorization expired in 2018 and has not been renewed.
“Ordinarily, the superintendent would have briefed us on what they’re required to do,” Delaney said. “This is a sad illustration of how much we are missing this forum. I know they have to deal with some budget issues this year, but I don’t know the details.”
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved reauthorization through 2029, and senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren filed a similar bill (S.508) in their chamber last month. There’s been a hearing by the subcommittee on national parks and a vote by that body is imminent, according to Delaney. “I’m trying to round up some select board support, and town managers to encourage the committee to pass the legislation,” he said. “Senator Markey is working very hard to push it through on that level, but we need voices from the community — elected officials, users of the park — to all say we need this legislation so the commission can get back in action.”
The superintendent said he has “no expectation whatsover” that the changes will affect tourism adversely. “We’re still going to be offering programs,” he said. “We’re utilizing the knowledge we have to continue to provide programs. We’re doing a lot of things to improve our facilities.”
Carlstrom added, “Probably the biggest is the Highland Light tower being closed for renovation. We’re reestablishing ventilation in it and putting a new coating on it so the masonry can breathe, and new glass.” Ground-level facilities will remain open.
The Coast Guard building in Eastham will get a new roof, new siding, a refurbished fire escape, and windows. Accessibility will be improved at the Province Lands Visitor Center and there’ll be a new walkway out to the Old Harbor Lifesaving Station in Provincetown. The Atlantic White Cedar Swamp connecting trail in Wellfleet should be fixed up by July 4.
“There’s a lot of good work happening at the Seashore,” Carlstrom said.
Markey’s legislative aide Claire Richer is in charge of forwarding public comment to the Senate subcommittee. The senator’s office address is 255 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510 and the phone number is 202-224-2742.
RESTORATION
Support, and a Few Doubts, at Herring River Hearing
Long-planned Cape Cod Commission review is underway
WELLFLEET — Speakers lined up at microphones at the Council on Aging Monday to support the Herring River Project, which over 20 years could repair 570 acres of a salt marsh that was diked in 1909 for mosquito control and other purposes.
The project, the largest salt-marsh restoration in the state, has been discussed for decades and is now at the beginning of a two-year permitting process. But Monday night was a landmark moment — the first review of the project by the Cape Cod Commission (CCC) as a development of regional impact — and more than 100 people showed up.
“This is a river we have tried to kill for a hundred years,” said Gordon Peabody, an early proponent of the restoration. “We’ve forced it to breathe through a straw. It may only be a whisper at first, but it’s important to give it its voice back.”
At least a dozen representatives from various local, county, and statewide organizations spoke about the benefits expected from opening up the Chequessett Neck Road dike slowly to allow tidal water to flow in and out of the riverbed. The project will affect mostly Wellfleet and a small portion of Truro.
Those in support included state Rep. Sarah Peake, state Sen. Julian Cyr, the Chequessett Yacht & Country Club, the Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum, the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod, the Wellfleet Open Space Committee, Wellfleet Conservation Commission, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Supt. Gabrielle Sakolsky of the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project.
Sakolsky said her agency has been involved in other salt marsh restorations and she is confident that they rarely lead to an increase in mosquitos. That is because the predator fish that feed on mosquito larvae will no longer be blocked from swimming up the river to eat the larvae, said Project Manager Carole Ridley.
The CCC staff wrote a 24-page report on the project. Its conclusion stated, “Probable project benefits … include water quality improvements, protecting and enhancing harvestable shellfish resources, enhancing opportunities for recreation and tourism, combating climate change through carbon storage in a restored salt marsh, invasive plant/Phragmites management, and re-establishing natural control of nuisance mosquitoes.”
Cape Cod marshes have been filled, diked, and restricted all over the peninsula. Mark Robinson, of the Compact for Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, said he found 16 tidal restrictions along Truro’s Pamet River, including dikes, culverts, and roadways, “collectively creating an incredibly impaired system,” Robinson said.
Rarely is there a chance to reverse the damage, said John Idman, the commission’s chief regulatory officer. That chance exists with the Herring River because 95 percent of the estuary is in the Cape Cod National Seashore, he added, though restoration must be balanced with care to prevent property damage. He said his staff felt “comforted” by the adaptive management strategies, which means the Seashore staff will open the tidal gates gradually and curtail the flow if there are unforeseen problems.
It was these unforeseen consequences that troubled several speakers Monday, including Paul Faxon of Chequessett Knolls Drive. His well is a few feet from the high-water mark in phase one of the restoration. (Phase one comprises 570 acres. Phase two would require further permitting.)
Faxon said he would like some conditions imposed on the project in case of unforeseen impacts to property owners, such as salt intrusion into his well.
Martin Nieski, of Old Chequessett Neck Road, listed various scenarios involving the rising river by his home, including making his property unusable because it will be designated as a wetland. Ridley said none of those scenarios would happen in phase one.
Dr. Ronald Gabel said the 2005 Sesuit Creek restoration in Dennis resulted in ugly swaths of eroded mudflats without new growth of saltwater plants.
Stephen Spear, a neighbor of Sesuit Creek and a member of the Herring River Technical Committee, said other areas of the creek have recolonized with saltwater species. But he admitted the Sesuit project did not all work as planned. “We’ve learned a lot since 2005,” he said.
The next review by the CCC is on Thursday, April 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the East Wing Conference Room of the Barnstable County Complex, in the old jailhouse.
CIVICS
Conservation Work Lags With Volunteer Shortage
Travel, conflicts, and controversy combine to make recruiting difficult
WELLFLEET — The conservation commission has struggled in recent months to do its work with fewer than a full complement of seven members. According to interviews with several current commissioners, with some being out of town for extended periods and some members having to recuse themselves because of potential conflicts it has been difficult to assemble a quorum. The commission needs four people in order to meet. And decisions require a majority of four.
Commissioners Barbara Brennessel and John Portnoy have both taken long out-of-town trips this winter. Commissioner Michael Fisher and former Commissioner Lauren McKean have had to recuse themselves from some cases, Fisher because he is on the board of the Wellfleet Conservation Trust and McKean because she works for the Cape Cod National Seashore; both organizations control properties that have been subjects of commission action.
“If someone has to recuse because of a conflict, we can’t move projects forward or deny them,” said Brennessel. “That has happened on a number of occasions.”
The conservation commission’s inability to maintain a full roster has a variety of causes.
McKean’s conflicts were so extensive that she ultimately had to resign from the group, according to her colleague John Cumbler. Trudy Vermehren, who served on the commission while running her own landscaping business, stepped down in June 2018 after opening a cafe in town, the Fox and Crow. The work load of being on the commission while running a restaurant was just too much, she said.
This winter, with the cafe business at a slower pace, Vermehren agreed to accept a two-month appointment to the commission to help it plow through a backlog of cases.
She named another reason why recruiting new members is hard.
“It’s a controversial board to be on,” Vermehren said. “You get a lot of pushback from people. Not everybody understands the reason the conservation commission is even there. It’s a difficult position to be in when you have to argue for the environment versus the market value of a home. As Americans, we have property rights. If you own property, people think you can do whatever you want with it.”
“A lot of people don’t like what we say,” Cumbler said. “You have to be willing to have people really dislike you. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
Barbara Brennessel pointed out that younger townspeople may be reluctant to serve on the commission because of the need for both evening meetings and daytime site visits. “It’s hard if you have a job and family to go to site visits in the daytime,” she said. “We might want to think about doing site visits on the weekend.”
Cumbler noted that questions of conflict and recusal would likely arise when permitting for the Herring River Restoration Project comes before the group.
“There are lots of issues,” he said. “Two members of the commission are on the Friends of Herring River board, one is a consultant to the project, I’m technically an abutter to phase two of the project, and the Conservation Trust is an abutter. Only one person is not in some way involved.”
Last year’s annual town meeting approved a charter revision adding two alternate members to the conservation commission to help avoid these problems. But no alternates have been appointed.
“There are no alternate members on these boards,” wrote administrative clerk Jeanne Maclaughlan in an email, “because there are no volunteers.”
EASTHAM 400
1620 Events to Focus on First Encounter With Nauset
Replica of Pilgrims’ shallop will visit Rock Harbor
EASTHAM — History will be docking at Rock Harbor this summer. Tying up next to the Coast Guard boat that rescued 32 sailors from the Pendleton shipwreck in 1952 will be a craft similar to the one that brought men from the Mayflower’s anchorage in Provincetown Harbor in 1620 to Eastham for their first live encounter with the indigenous Nauset people.
“We’ll have some ceremonies and possibly some trips out into the bay” in the replica vessel, the shallop Elizabeth Tilley, select board member Peter Dibble said at the Feb. 24 meeting of the Eastham 400 Commemoration Committee. Built in 2000 by Peter Arenstam, the boat will be towed from Plymouth to Provincetown early in July for festivities there before being towed or sailed to Rock Harbor for a stay of several days.
At last week’s meeting, Dibble displayed Richard C. Ellington’s scale model of the shallop, built to mark the 400th anniversary of the Dec. 8, 1620, event at modern-day First Encounter Beach. “It’s perfect,” Dibble said.
In another event planned by the committee, historian Ian Saxine, whose book The Story of the “First Encounter” at Nauset has sold out its first edition and is being reprinted, will speak at Nauset Regional High School on March 27.
“We’re trying to find as many points of interaction as possible, so teachers are able to address things while bringing in another layer of authenticity,” NRHS Principal Christopher Ellsasser said. “We’re trying to weave together this opportunity with the learning that’s already happening.”
Visitors to the Cape Cod National Seashore can do their learning while sitting on the sand at First Encounter Beach from Memorial Day weekend through the summer. The “109 nights,” as committee vice chair Tom Ryan described the program, will commence with the ringing of a bell 15 minutes before sunset and continue with a daily 10-minute presentation of “some fragment of our history” and a reading from Saxine’s book, plus a preview of coming events.
On the nine Sundays of July and August, a “sunset series” will offer interactive programs around an electronic “campfire” at the beach. “Campfires are not bonfires,” Ryan said. “This is an electronic device approved by the fire department [that sits] like a bowl in the sand.”
Also in the works is a tour of Cove Burying Ground, where three Mayflower passengers are interred. It’s hoped that high school students could be involved in all three programs.
The committee voted to request $25,000 from town meeting in May: $12,000 for two part-time coordinators for the beach events, $6,000 for the cost of bringing the shallop to Rock Harbor and housing its crew, $4,000 for reprinting Saxine’s book, $2,000 for printing signs and beach sticker insignias, and $1,000 for rack cards.
At the meeting, the committee reviewed other groups’ marking of the 400th anniversary. The Eastham Historical Society, which will open the First Peoples exhibit at its 1869 Schoolhouse Museum on May 1, has been working with an archaeologist to catalog its collection and is planning an extensive speaker series. The Cape Cod National Seashore will have three new outdoor exhibits: on Wampanoag use of salt marshes, on the Pilgrims’ search for water, and on the signing of the Mayflower Compact. The Federated Church of Orleans, which traces its history back to the congregational society founded in Eastham in the 1640s, will hold an open house during December. Eleven boxes of historical records from the church have been digitized and are available through the archives of the Eastham Public Library, which is planning a roster of special events.
Ryan said that the Wellfleet Historical Society “has focused on their Native American collection and discovered they have representative items from all 10,000 years of documented habitation of Nauset. They’re doing a special exhibit all summer.” Over in Orleans, he said, the historical society “will focus on the seven [settler] families that came here. The focus isn’t how they related to Native Americans, or their faith structure — it’s their clothing and habitation.”
The Cape Cod Genealogy Society will hold a free event at the Eastham library and the Chapel in the Pines next door on March 29 from 11:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There will be talks on Mayflower descendants, Native American genealogy, and researching female ancestors, as well as 20-minute genealogical consultations for those interested in possible links to the Mayflower.
For further details on 400th anniversary events, go to easthamthefirstencounter.org.
How Restored River Will Alter Wellfleet Views
A tour of five places that Herring River project will change
WELLFLEET — After two decades of planning, the official review of the massive Herring River Restoration Project will begin on March 9 when the Cape Cod Commission considers the first permits for phase one of the work. This meeting, starting at 5 p.m. at the Wellfleet Council on Aging, is the first of what’s predicted to be two years of hearings before the first shovel hits the mudflats.
ENVIRONMENT
Sacrificial Sand Won’t Stop Erosion at Blasch House
Restoration experts look to biomimicry and managed retreat
WELLFLEET — The huge pile of sand dumped over the edge of the bayside bluff next to the Blasch house in November has entirely washed away, adding sediment to the water column that may harm fish and shellfish. That’s why experts working to preserve coastal land look to biomimicry and retreat instead.
As reported in the Independent on Nov. 14, 2019, the “sacrificial sand” was meant to act as a temporary buffer to keep the house from collapsing over the edge of the bluff. The thinking was that the sand would slow the rate of erosion by giving the waves something else besides the bluff to wash away.
But this year’s sand load, estimated at 2,000 cubic yards, did not stay in place for long. The “beach renourishment” lasted perhaps one month, according to observers.
Owners Barbara and Mark Blasch are suing the town over another protective strategy they want to try: building a 241-foot sea wall in front of their house.
Conservation Commissioner Barbara Brennessel walks the beach regularly and watched the pile of sand disappear.
“Anyone who’s walked that beach can see that,” Brennessel said.
Although she would not comment on the specifics of the Blasch property due to the lawsuit, Brennessel said that the benefits of beach renourishment are still open to debate. Often, wave and wind dynamics transport sand far from its starting point, she said.
“In the future,” Brennnessel said, “the sacrificial sand may be put not where the project is occurring but somewhere else that makes more sense.”
Cape Cod National Seashore maintenance chief Karst Hoogeboom agreed, adding sacrificial sand “doesn’t really slow the rate of erosion.”
Safe Harbor Environmental Services director Gordon Peabody remembers a six-foot dune, lined with vegetation, that once existed on the beach in front of the Blasch house. But stronger winds and bigger waves during winter storms have increased erosion rates. Now, that protective dune is gone. The bluff takes the force of breaking waves and is retreating at a rate of about three feet per year. The 5,595-square-foot house was only 25 feet from the edge a year ago.
“If you’re trying to do a dune restoration where there’s no dune, that’s not going to happen,” Peabody said.
The minutes of a Nov. 6 conservation commission meeting note the group’s concern about the environmental effects of sacrificial sand. Studies have shown that high amounts of suspended sediment in the water column can affect ocean organisms’ health by clogging their gills.
How to Restore a Dune
Both Hoogeboom and Peabody have led dune restoration efforts that reject renourishment and employ revegetation and biomimicry instead. These methods put nature to work to create more lasting solutions.
High winds carry more sand. Therefore, slowing the wind with vegetation is crucial to these methods.
At Ballston Beach in Truro, shortcuts through the dune vegetation led to massive erosion in the 1980s. As the vegetation was trampled, wind carried sand away and left the Pamet River’s headwaters unprotected.
Called in by the town after a 2009 storm led to an overwashed Pamet River, Peabody’s team placed slices of shingling around the dune to mimic dune grass and create turbulence. This slowed the wind, allowing sand to drop out — in some storms, large quantities were collected. Over 14 months the dune grew 12 feet higher in some areas.
Hoogeboom led a similar project to restore the dunes at Herring Cove in Provincetown. He said the final plantings of beach grass at the site were made just three weeks ago after a year and a half of work. Hoogeboom and his colleagues will now monitor the distance between the parking lot and beach to determine the rate of erosion.
At Herring Cove, “We anticipate the shoreline will stabilize with a more predictable rate of erosion than we’ve seen,” Hoogeboom said. The dunes are expected to mitigate storm damage by buffering waves before they can reach the parking lot.
Peabody said that about 400 feet of cross-section is enough for a coastal dune to weather storms. At that point, the dune itself changes the wind dynamics to collect its own sand without assistance.
But “when you’re down in Wellfleet on a coastal bank, that doesn’t work,” Peabody said.
Photographs taken this week show how grasses planted on the bluff just below the Blasch house, presumably as part of a restoration effort, have been undermined by the wind. (See photo on page 1.)
Even with these efforts, Hoogeboom, Peabody, and Brennessel agreed that the erosion cannot be stopped. Since the ice age, Cape Cod has been getting smaller, and human intervention can do little.
“What we’re talking about is how to mitigate some of the detrimental parts of erosion on the habitat and coastline in general,” Brennessel said.
Hoogeboom agreed. The Park Service prioritizes managed retreat: moving critical infrastructure inland. “We want to give natural forces a little space to act independently,” he said. “Not everybody has that option — people want to stabilize things in place. But long-term, it will keep eroding.”
ENVIRONMENT
Horseshoe Crabs in Comeback
Their return to East Harbor may hold clues to the success of tidal restoration projects
TRURO — Since the once-thriving salt-marsh ecosystem called East Harbor was partially reopened to tidal flow in 2002, ocean organisms have been rapidly recolonizing the estuary. Researchers now hope to understand its changing ecology by documenting the success of horseshoe crabs, which have recently been found spawning in East Harbor (sometimes called Pilgrim Lake).
Scientists from the Cape Cod National Seashore, the Center for Coastal Studies, and Antioch University of New England are about to dig into two projects to collect baseline data and document horseshoe crab behavior in the partially restored tidal lagoon. The work, to begin in April and continue for two years, builds on an effort that began in 2018 and was slowed by the government shutdown the following year.
NATIONAL SEASHORE
Truro Ghost Town Still Inspires
From the Cold War to the Highlands Center to now
NORTH TRURO — In the Outer Cape’s collective memory, the fear associated with living and working at an Air Force station built to listen for incoming Soviet atomic bombs has faded.
Besides being part of America’s mid-century air defense network, the place was a neighborhood. With bingo, a bowling league, softball games, and cheap drinks — a place folks flocked to for lighthearted debauchery. Richard Scoullar, who worked at the base, remembers it well.
“Most everyone knew each other by name,” he says. “There was a little gas station and a ball field where people from P’town played all the time.”
“We also had a bowling league — we’d bowl every night of the week,” says his wife, Eugenia Scoullar. “And the best blueberries you could pick grew out on the helicopter field.”
FOWL PLAY
Hunters Take Aim at Phaseout of Pheasant Stocking
National Seashore may halt practice within five years
As upland game season wraps up on Nov. 30, many local hunters worry that a longstanding tradition of pheasant hunting will soon be ending.
Following a 2002 court challenge by animal rights groups, the National Park Service is expected to begin phasing out the state’s practice of pheasant stocking, in which non-native ring-necked pheasants are released for sport shooting each fall. The court challenge triggered the Park Service to issue a 200-page environmental impact statement in 2007 that suggests pheasant stocking will be phased out sometime between 2021 and 2024.
ENVIRONMENT
Shark Mitigation Study Offers No Guarantees
Woods Hole Group analyzed 27 alternatives
EASTHAM — “There isn’t a single alternative or suite of alternatives that can 100-percent guarantee the safety of all individuals who choose to enter the water,” coastal scientist Adam Finkle told a crowd of about 100 at Nauset Regional High on Oct. 17.
Representing the Woods Hole Group (WHG), Finkle presented the results of the Outer Cape Shark Mitigation Alternatives Analysis completed by the consulting group. Its conclusion: no alternative can guarantee safety from shark attacks.
But a “guarantee,” one citizen argued, is too high a mark to aim for.
“There’s very few guarantees in life,” said Bob Wagner of Wellfleet. “Airbags are not 100-percent effective but people still get in their cars. It’s not stopping people from making cars because there may be an accident or a death that results if an airbag doesn’t deploy. People have to accept these risks.”
Wagner directed his remarks to members of the Shark Working Group that includes Outer Cape town officials, National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom, and Megan Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC). The group fielded questions from the public after the presentation.
The study, Finkle said, was not intended to produce a specific recommendation for action. The event, therefore, left many wondering what the next step is for dealing with the increasing shark and seal presence in local waters. Citizens and officials agreed that doing nothing is not an option, but without a clear-cut course many questions remain.
Finkle, as project manager, gave an overview of the 192-page report. WHG plans to publish an executive summary that highlights key findings before the 2020 summer season for town and Seashore officials to review, he said.
The analysis looked at 27 alternative strategies to mitigate encounters between sharks and humans in three categories: technology-based, barrier-based, and biological-based.
| Technology-based | Barrier-based | Biological-based |
| Tagging (acoustic, real-time alert) | Flexible Exclusion Barrier | (Smart) Drum Lines |
| Tagging (satellite, real-time alert) | Rigid Exclusion Barrier | Cull Nets |
| Visual Detection (planes, helicopters) | Semi-Rigid Exclusion Barrier | Seal Contraception |
| Visual Detection (tower-based) | Bubble Curtains | Seal Culling |
| Visual Detection (balloons) | Live Kelp Forests | Indigenous Harvest |
| Visual Detection (drones, tethered drones) | Simulated Kelp Barrier | Electric Shock |
| Acoustic Detection (sonar buoy, real-time alert) | Electrical Deterrents | Scent-Smell |
| Electromagnetic (active, wearable/mountable) | Electromagnetic Deterrents | Modify Behavior |
| Magnetic (passive, wearable/mountable) | Acoustic Barriers | |
| Adaptive Camouflage |
The study uses a detailed matrix to grade each of the 27 alternatives based on a set of six criteria: limiting factors, cost, permitting, effectiveness, potential impacts on humans, and potential environmental impacts. Each of the six categories contains a set of individual criteria.
For example, the limiting factors are weather, marine conditions, effective range, effective depth, resilience to storm impacts, and commercial availability.
Finkle went through each alternative with the audience. Some seemed promising but there were problems in every case.
“None of the technology-based alternatives physically separates sharks from humans,” Finkle said.
The study found that barrier systems have been installed in Australia and have been effective in excluding sharks from swimming areas for humans. But they come at a price.
“A barrier would likely have extremely long permitting timelines and high cost if proposed locally,” he said.
Biological-based alternatives were less promising.
“Removing a couple thousand seals from the population is not likely to have a significant effect on the great white shark population,” Finkle said. “It’s also plausible that a reduction in the gray seal population may cause other gray seals from the greater northwest Atlantic population, close to 500,000, to move into the area to occupy that habitat.”
One citizen pointed out what he called an error in the report, which suggests that a permit is required to operate a drone in the National Seashore.
“[Drones] can be flown over the National Seashore, but they cannot take off or land within it,” Carlstrom said.
Others questioned how well a drone could spot a shark beneath murky Cape waters.
The 27 alternatives were chosen after WHG reviewed strategies used around the world, feedback from local towns, and feedback from a public survey.
The survey was conducted in February and received 573 responses.
“Results of the public survey proved critical to the development of this comprehensive list of alternatives,” the report states.
The survey found that 50.1 percent of respondents said they preferred technology-based alternatives, 38.6 percent said they preferred biological-based alternatives, 16.2 percent said they preferred barrier-based alternatives, and 30.7 percent said they preferred an alternative that considered the human dimensions of the problem like engaging in “shark smart behaviors.” (Respondents could choose more than one answer.)
Cost will be a significant factor in any decision that is made about shark mitigation.
Jay Coleman, who owns a house in Eastham, questioned where the funding would come from for any proposed project. “You’re not going to get the money I don’t think from the federal government or from the taxpayers, are you?” he said.
“I think that the results in this report and the money decisions are going to be made at a lot higher level than the shark working group,” said Chief Ranger Leslie Reynolds of the Seashore.
The report is available to view online at eastham-ma.gov/home/news/outer-cape-shark-mitigation-alternatives-analysis.
in the wild
Not All Fungi Foragers Are Good Environmental Stewards
Overcollecting and trampling disturb a delicate symbiosis
The Outer Cape’s sandy, acidic soils are generally seen as inhospitable for food crops. But every fall, people travel from across New England and farther afield to visit our dunes and pine forests, looking for the special mushrooms that thrive in nutrient-poor soils and in symbiotic relationships with pines and oaks.
The number of mushroom foragers has increased in recent years, said Bill Yule of Haddam, Conn., who was picking mushrooms at Wellfleet’s Great Island in the Cape Cod National Seashore last week. Yule drove here expressly to forage, as he has done for many years.
No one the Independent interviewed for this story would admit to selling foraged mushrooms from the Outer Cape to fancy restaurants in the city. One Russian collector at Great Island told a reporter that there were “no mushrooms today” as she filled the trunk of her car with fungi.
Yule said that not all foragers are respectful environmental stewards. “Some people come out and grab everything they see,” he said. “Some people rake the pine duff, looking for matsutake buttons to sell in Boston. It’s not huge, but it gets bigger every year.”
Matsutake and porcini, also known as boletes, are both tasty mushrooms that grow in piney woods across the Cape. They can command high prices, $40 to $50 per pound and sometimes higher.
Liam Luttrell Rowland, the chef at Spindler’s in Provincetown, said this week that, on rare occasions, he buys local matsutake harvested by trusted foragers.
“I don’t like the idea of someone coming to the Cape and making a bunch of money harvesting mushrooms,” Luttrell Rowland added. Safety and legality are his top priorities, he said.
Mushroom fever breaks the rules
Within the boundaries of the National Seashore an individual is allowed to pick up to five gallons of mushrooms per day for home use. Digging in or disturbing the soil while collecting, however, is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, collecting mushrooms for sale is “completely illegal,” said Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom. “It’s for personal consumption only.”
Carlstrom said that citations have been issued for overcollection in the past. Although the Seashore is not actively monitoring mushroom foragers, “Our rangers are looking for anything that might seem excessive,” he said.
Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary has also experienced some illicit collecting.
Director Melissa Lowe Cestaro said that people often forage in the sanctuary despite its strict
no-collection policy. “We require people to stay on trails,” she said, “and foraging takes you off-trail and sometimes into sensitive conservation areas.”
Cestaro said that illicit foraging has been a problem each fall in her 25 years at Audubon. Mushroom hunters often sneak into the sanctuary from West Road, parking their cars a few feet away from the signs prohibiting collection.
From the large quantity of their hauls, Cestaro infers that foragers might be selling their mushrooms. “Sometimes I see people with a carload of mushrooms,” she said. “It’s not like you can eat a truckload in a day.”
It’s a sport for the Russians
Lucy Lins of North Falmouth was the disappointed forager at Great Island last week whose car trunk contained several boxes of boletes, of which porcini are a subgroup.
Lins is Russian, and she said that mushroom foraging is the Russian equivalent of recreational fishing. “It’s a sport — something you do just for fun,” she said. “You spend time outside and walk around.” Lins claimed that she would enjoy foraging even if no tasty mushrooms could be found.
Ilya Bernstein of New York grew up in the former U.S.S.R. and has spent several autumns in Truro. He explained that collecting mushrooms is a popular weekend activity in Russia.
“Russian peasants, traditionally, have had very little food of their own,” Bernstein said. “For long stretches of history, they ate mushrooms.” In the 1960s it became fashionable among city dwellers to spend a day foraging in the countryside, he said.
Russian foragers look specifically for boletes, Bernstein said. He doubted that anyone was selling them, though. “They’re very beautiful,” he said. “But [boletes] look better than they taste.”
Foraging on the Cape has a reputation among the Russian foragers.
“There’s a story that Russians tell — a mushroom horror story,” Bernstein said. “One day, someone went and gathered several bags of mushrooms. They were stopped by a ranger in the parking lot and forced to dump them all out” — a complete waste of perfectly good fungi. “From the perspective of a mushroom picker, it’s a complete outrage,” said Bernstein.
Guarding mushroom knowledge and ecosystems
Overcollecting and trampling of forest vegetation could have long-term effects on Cape Cod’s ecosystems, and mycologists worry that if word gets out about the valuable species growing here, the situation will only get worse.
Wesley Price, head of the Cape Cod Mycological Society, said that foraging has increased in recent years. “The awareness of what we have is growing,” Price said. “Caring for that resource is not always foremost in people’s mind when they’re foraging.”
Although there’s little research on how much harvesting is too much, overcollecting could result in fewer fungi. If mushrooms are collected before they have a chance to drop their spores and reproduce, “it could impact the overall health of the species and genetic diversity,” Price said.
Bill Neill, a mycologist and co-author of Cape Cod Mushrooms, said that the increasing number of foragers in the woods is changing the landscape. “It’s not like people go from point A to point B,” said Neill. “It’s all cow trails, meandering though the pines. Certain places just get so trampled. It must be taking its toll.”
Fungi play important roles in the ecosystems of Cape Cod. Many fungi live below ground, where we can’t see them, and their mycelia — tiny, spindly roots — are microscopic. In one square foot of soil, there are miles of mycelial threads, which connect to surrounding trees to exchange nutrients and water.
Without these symbiotic relationships between fungi and trees, “There would be a lot less forest than there is now,” Neill said. “Out in the wind, it’s a very hostile environment, and fungi are a big reason why the forests can survive.”
ENVIRONMENT
23 Park Structures at ‘High Risk’ From Climate Crisis
Officials design movable structures in response to erosion
TRURO — The climate crisis is “the greatest threat to the integrity of our National Park Service that we have ever experienced, and we’re at the forefront of it,” according to Cape Cod National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom.
Responding to that threat includes getting creative with practicalities like dune stairways and beach bathhouses. That’s because one of the Park’s priorities is to preserve public access to the shore.
“The first site I came to here in 1986 you can no longer visit,” Carlstrom said, referring to an older configuration of Marconi Beach’s visitor access in Wellfleet.
About 35 people came to Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro on Aug. 14 to hear Carlstrom talk about the effects of the climate crisis on local Park Service facilities.
“We have a lot of resources in the near shore environment,” Carlstrom said. “We’ve analyzed over 200 structures and found 23 in total to be very high risk.”
Carlstrom showed slides of changing National Park lands from around the U.S., ranging from a dramatic photograph of a pronounced “bathtub ring” in the Lake Mead Recreational Area in Arizona and Nevada, where water levels have dropped over 100 feet in 20 years due to drought, to a disappearing Klondike Gold Rush glacial field in Alaska.
Here on the Outer Cape, he said, sea level rise and erosion are the most immediate challenges.
New access configurations at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham are two recent projects that model a new strategy for accommodating visitors where erosion is intense. One of the Park’s strategies, CCNS maintenance chief Karst Hoogeboom told the Independent in a phone interview, is “to reduce the amount of structure at the beach and just have the essentials there.”
Because erosion is so unpredictable, the National Seashore is now also designing beach facilities to be movable, according to Carlstrom.
“The average long-term rate of retreat at Herring Cove Beach has been 2.5 to 3 feet per year for more than a century,” said Mark Adams, a geographic information specialist and coastal geology technician with the Park Service, via email. “It’s difficult to simplify, but the Herring Cove north parking lot was subject to a rapid erosion hot spot from 2012 to 2018.” This area now seems to be protected by the growth of a barrier spit from Hatches Harbor.
Ensuring structures are easier to move starts with building them strong enough to withstand a move, according to Hoogeboom.
And if buildings are being moved, that means plumbing will be, too. Park staff are considering various plumbing choices for beach facilities.
“In some locations we’ve done vault toilets, which are a toilet building with, in effect, a big container underneath that you pump out periodically,” Hoogeboom said. The Herring Cove facilities are hooked up to the Provincetown sewer, and the Nauset facilities will have a title 5 septic system.
The bathhouse complex and concession stand at Herring Cove is a model for the entire Park complex, Carlstrom said, because they were designed to make moving them straightforward. Though given current erosion patterns, he added, “We don’t anticipate having to do so for at least a decade.”
environment
Sunscreen Chemicals Can Harm Marine Life
Hawaii, Key West, U.S.V.I. have imposed bans
A father sprays his son’s back with sunscreen and releases him into the water at Newcomb Hollow Beach to play. It’s a common scene: an estimated 1.9 million people visit the Cape Cod National Seashore each summer between June and August and most tourists spend a good deal of their time in local waters.
The possible long-term effects of that sunscreen on the marine environment are worrying scientists. That’s because a 2016 study linked the death of coral in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Hawaii to exposure to oxybenzone, a common component of many chemical sunscreen products.
Craig Downs, executive director of the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory in Clifford, Va., was the lead author of that study.
“We were looking at Trunk Bay on Saint John, an iconic beach that gets about 6,000 people per day,” he told the Independent in a recent phone interview. “We couldn’t figure out what was killing the coral. There wasn’t anything obvious as an anthropogenic stressor, and we were trying to understand why it was dying at different rates in different bays.”
A local man overheard a conversation between Downs and another scientist in the grocery store.
“It’s the tourists’ sunscreen,” the man told them. “Go down to the beach at sunset and you can see the sheen.”
Forensic investigation by Downs’s team linked oxybenzone to four major toxic effects in young developing coral: increased susceptibility to bleaching, DNA damage, abnormal skeleton growth, and developmental deformities. In response to their findings vacation destinations including Hawaii, Key West, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have banned the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and other chemicals, such as octinoxate, that are considered “contaminants of emerging concern.”
Downs and other scientists studying coral bleaching emphasize that the climate crisis is the most significant cause. But Downs’s research suggests that sunscreen can add to the problem in places where it is heavily used. Some sunscreens are marketed as “reef safe,” but the term is not regulated by the government and does not have an agreed-on definition.
Concern rises but there’s no local data
The effects of heavy sunscreen use on Outer Cape waters is unclear. Local organizations that study water quality and aquatic ecosystems express increasing concern about sunscreen, but there is hardly any research being done on the question here.
“In freshwater ponds there’s very, very little data,” said aquatic ecologist Sophia Fox of the Cape Cod National Seashore. “When we have heavy bather use in a small pond, what we need to know is what are the concentrations of the chemicals in these ponds in the middle of summer, and at what concentrations do things start happening? When we see a slick, does that actually contain the compounds we’re concerned about?”
Both Fox and fellow National Park Service researcher Stephen Smith said these are questions they are interested in. But they have been unable to pursue the answers with current staffing and budget levels. Inquiries to the Association to Preserve Cape Cod in Dennis, the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension in Barnstable also failed to turn up any information on the effect of heavy sunscreen use on local aquatic ecosystems.
Wellfleet resident Gabrielle Griffis said she has been concerned about sunscreen pollution for several years and last year contacted state Sen. Julian Cyr’s office to suggest that Massachusetts consider a ban similar to the ones enacted in Hawaii and other U.S. jurisdictions. Cyr’s office said the idea was considered before this year’s session but that no legislation was filed.
Scientific American reported last year that the Center for Biological Diversity had petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate from sunscreen and personal-care products. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, has said she plans to introduce federal legislation that would outlaw the sale of sunscreen with those compounds.
Chemical ultraviolet (UV) filters like oxybenzone are widely used in personal-care products as well as in food packaging, pharmaceuticals, and textiles. The chemicals reach waterways through both recreation and wastewater effluent, as they do not break down during the wastewater treatment process.
Oysters may be at risk
Two separate studies published this year in Science of the Total Environment detected the presence of UV filters in oysters along the northwest Portuguese coast and in Chesapeake Bay. These chemicals have been linked to reproductive toxicity and developmental disorders in a variety of marine organisms.
“This is a route of exposure that no one really talks about,” Downs said. “Polluted waters can reduce overall crop yields for farmed shellfish, edible algae, even fish.”
Downs said researchers are now studying the effects of these chemicals in aquatic ecosystems all over the world, from alpine lakes in Switzerland to trout rivers in Canada.
An infographic produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggests balancing protecting ourselves and marine life by seeking shade between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.; using protective clothing such as UV sunglasses, sun shirts, sun hats, and leggings; and choosing “sunscreens with chemicals that don’t harm marine life.”
Harmful ingredients listed on the graphic are oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, benzophenone-1, benzophenone-8, OD-PABA, 4-Methylbenzylidene camphor, 3-Benzylidene camphor, nano-Titanium dioxide, and nano-Zinc oxide. The alternatives are mineral sunscreens that rely on non-nano-Titanium dioxide and non-nano-Zinc oxide to prevent sunburn.
The town of Wellfleet installed free public sunscreen dispensers at Baker’s Field and Newcomb Hollow several years ago. But vandalism has been a problem, and the town has had to replace the units several times, according to Beach Administrator Suzanne Grout Thomas. She said Bright Guard sunscreen, which contains oxtinoxate, is provided by a foundation dedicated to melanoma prevention, started by the parents of a Barnstable lifeguard who died of the cancer in her 20s.
“The lifeguards are super diligent about sun protection,” Thomas said by email, “but they prefer sun protective clothing to chemicals.”
