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conservation

    ENVIRONMENT

    Shoreline Management Is a Four-Town Effort

    Adding layers to a geodatabase, and making it user-friendly

    By

    Protecting the Outer Cape shoreline is a continuous project, so much so that “there is no end goal” to the work, said Rex McKinsey, Provincetown’s marine coordinator. “These are living places,” he added.

    Great Hollow Beach
    The view from Great Hollow Beach is a reminder that nature doesn’t necessarily respect town lines. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    McKinsey is also project manager for the Inter-municipal Shoreline Management Program. And the group does have a near-term goal: to develop a cohesive approach to maintaining the outermost stretch of Cape Cod Bay shoreline. All four Outer Cape towns are involved.

    “For the past two or three years the conservation agents have been meeting to collaborate,” said Provincetown Conservation Agent Tim Famulare. “We face the same issues. We’re all small populations in coastal communities. We’re trying to find a way to pool our resources.”

    The program team consists of project manager McKinsey and the four town conservation agents: Hillary Greenberg-Lemos in Wellfleet, Emily Beebe in Truro, Shana Brogan in Eastham, and Famulare in Provincetown. Mark Borelli, Steve Mague, and Sam McFarland represent the Center for Coastal Studies.

    The state’s Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) gave the program a $115,000 grant in 2019 for a first phase of work that was completed at the end of June. The team has now requested $248,470 from the CZM for phase two, and they’ll be asking the towns to contribute another $82,960, for a total budget of $331,430.

    In the first phase, the group designed an Inter-municipal Shoreline Management Geodatabase (ISMG). The idea was that would serve as a baseline for identifying recommendations aimed at better coastal resiliency on the bay side.

    The towns wrote a memorandum of agreement that emphasized taking “a science-based approach” to shoreline protection.

    Shana Brogan explained that a geodatabase is a tool for evaluating resources, that is, “beaches, salt marshes, flood zones, and dunes,” she said, as well as human uses of the shoreline, “such as municipal dredging projects, beach sand nourishment, and revetments and seawalls.”

    The IMSG plots both existing publicly available information as well as information from recent research at the Center for Coastal Studies. For someone like Brogan, who is working on protecting the coast in Eastham, it will provide a view of coastal processes in Eastham and beyond.

    The group’s phase two proposal calls for adding more “layers” to this data. They should show locations of storm-tide pathways in Wellfleet and Eastham, as well as where there is potential for salt marsh migration.

    Brogan said that salt marshes can withstand only a certain amount of wave action and saltwater submergence. As sea levels continue to rise, the geodatabase could help identify areas that might be suitable for establishing fringe salt marshes in response.

    If all that sounds complicated, McKinsey said, the team would like to work on making the geodatabase accessible for everyone to view and understand.

    Other components of phase two of the project include creating a regional sand bank system so that the four towns could get the sand they use to replenish shorelines from the same place. According to the geodatabase, the towns place at least 25,000 cubic yards of upland sand on the shoreline each year.

    An inventory of low-lying roads — something Eastham has already started, through a partnership and with separate grant funding with Woods Hole Group — is another objective.

    Then there’s the need for educating the public. Listening sessions and seminars for interested town staff, shorefront property owners, the general public, and middle school students are all part of the proposal.

    These shoreline issues, Beebe said, “beg to be managed together.”

    Brogan agreed. “Regardless of whether the funding comes through, we’re going to continue to work together and manage these things more consistently,” she said.

    Big picture, the goal is to be ready for change. So that, “as things change,” Beebe said, “we can adjust and adapt.”

     

    ENVIRONMENT

    Earth Day Marks 50th Anniversary Despite Crisis

    Environmentalists maintain social distance while cleaning up

    By

    Celebrating the 50th Earth Day last week required environmental organizations across the Outer Cape to get creative.

    Both the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown and the Eastham Conservation Foundation organized cleanups, but this year without working in large groups.

    Laura Ludwig, coordinator of the center’s Marine Debris and Plastics Program, organized an Earth Day cleanup in which households individually collected litter. In total, 70 people participated, with about one third of volunteers sending in data cards tallying the trash, she said.

    Stacey Klimkosky
    Stacey Klimkosky braved the cold weather with her dog, Sam, to collect trash at Fisher Beach in Truro. (Photo courtesy Stacey Klimkosky)

    Since it was organized online, locales were near and far. Volunteers collected trash not only on Cape Cod beaches, but also in western Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and West Virginia. Ludwig was glad to reach people who hadn’t worked with the center before.

    Despite the cold weather, “The feedback was fantastic,” Ludwig said. “People were so grateful to feel they weren’t doing it by themselves — that there was a bigger collective behind it.”

    At the Eastham Conservation Foundation’s second annual cleanup at Bee’s River Marsh, volunteers picked up 300 pounds of trash. Seven households — a total of 15 people — worked on sections of the marsh over the course of several days while maintaining social distancing.

    Foundation director Bill Allan told the Independent that volunteers were glad to participate. “People were gratified by getting out and doing something productive, when there’s not many productive things you can do these days,” he said.

    Allan said volunteers ended up with less rubbish than the 1.5 tons collected last year, but that’s a step forward, since after the big effort last year, there was less trash to be found.

    But with fewer people, larger items, such as tires, were left behind. “We need to understand what’s coming in and get to the source,” Allan said. “There are 50 car tires along the edge of the marsh. How did they get there? They floated in from fishing boats, which use them for bumpers.”

    Ludwig agreed and emphasized the importance of counting the trash and tallying the data. “That way, you can draw attention to who the culprits are,” she said. Recording what garbage ends up in the environment is the first step toward stopping it from entering it in the first place.

    Construction materials, Ludwig said, make up much of the debris found at the ocean. “It’s probably the worst offender,” she said.

    Ludwig thinks construction materials blow out of uncovered dumpsters. “It’s a hard thing to manage, and harder to enforce,” she said. “But by having data, you can work with town managers and builders.”

    Allan pointed out that what ends up in Bee’s River Marsh is just a fraction of the trash dumped in the ocean. “A lot of what we find is just little pieces of plastic,” he said. “Where did the rest go? It breaks down into microplastics, which get incorporated into the plants and environment, and ultimately into us.”

    Harriet Korim of Wellfleet, a member of the climate-action group Cape Cool, was disappointed that live climate strikes on Earth Day were canceled due to the coronavirus. The Wellfleet Conservation Trust’s celebration of the 50th Earth Day at Preservation Hall was also canceled. Groups like Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion, which helped to organize the global strike, held online rallies instead.

    In lieu of a strike, Korim helped launch another project to get Outer Cape residents curious about their surroundings: a census of trees. It will continue for one year and encourage adults and children to observe and identify trees. “The real motivation is to learn how crucial trees are, and how much we don’t understand,” Korim said.

    On its website, Cape Cool asks students to pay attention to one bud on a tree by tying a piece of string around its base and drawing it every day. Participants can then send in their artwork, which will be posted online.

    LAND USE

    Truro Trust Inks Deal to Buy Beach at Great Hollow

    No town funds are expended in $250,000 purchase

    By

    TRURO — The Truro Conservation Trust closed on a bayside property on Nov. 1 for $250,000 — far below the original asking price for the 1.1-acre parcel next to Great Hollow Beach. The trust covered the entire cost, with no public money spent.

    Last year, the property at 2 Kill Devil Road was listed at $869,000, and the town, in collaboration with the conservation trust, proposed purchasing it. The understanding was that this would roughly triple the size of the existing public beach.

    Town meeting voters approved $242,000 in Community Preservation Act funds toward the purchase. But further legal research revealed that neighborhood covenants governed the use of the property, and that those covenants would not allow public use of the beach, Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer said on Monday.

    civics

    Provincetown’s Planner Heads to Truro for New Job

    Ribeiro sees opportunities in Truro to address problems both towns share

    By

    Jeffrey Ribeiro
    Jeffrey Ribeiro says the Walsh property in Truro offers a unique opportunity to work on conservation-based affordable housing. (Photo Paul Benson)

    PROVINCETOWN — Town Planner Jeffrey Ribeiro is resigning from his job this week to become the Truro town planner next week.

    The Truro position offers slightly more money, but according to Ribeiro that’s not the reason he’s moving — it’s that there are more interesting opportunities coming up in Truro. The Provincetown planner’s time is so completely consumed by the demands of permitting and development, he said, that there’s little left for the rest of his duties.

    The town planner is liaison and technical adviser to the zoning board of appeals, the planning board, and the historic district commission, and in a town with as much ongoing development as Provincetown, Ribeiro said, that aspect of the job tends to box out all other work.

    “The staff here in Provincetown is great — it’s not just a job for anyone here,” Ribeiro said. “People are really interested in the work they’re doing, and that doesn’t happen everywhere. We have a lot of Leslie Knopeses here,” said Ribeiro, referring to the amusingly overcommitted star of the NBC sitcom “Parks and Rec.”

    “And we have great boards,” he added, “the amount of work they do, and the degree to which they care about the underlying issues — it makes it hard to leave. I’m not paying lip service here. They’re authentically great.”

    But, he continued, he has little time for working on housing issues, developing the local comprehensive plan, or hearing from the public.

    “I was able to do more of that kind of work at the Cape Cod Commission, where I was before, and I’ll be able to do more of that in Truro,” he said. “It’s part of the job description here, too, but there is so much permitting work coming in, and it’s got to happen first. It’s urgent. The important but not urgent stuff just hasn’t been possible.”

    Ribeiro is excited about working in Truro because of both the land available and the people.

    “There’s a great group of younger people in Truro who are starting to get involved in a bigger way,” he said. “A lot of them grew up there, and they’re really engaged. In fact, there’s a lot of opportunity in Truro to address problems that both towns share. Provincetown couldn’t have businesses without water from Truro, but Truro also wouldn’t be so attractive without all those restaurants nearby in Provincetown. The workforce, the communities are tied together in a lot of ways. They’re shared communities with shared problems, and there’s a lot of room to work together.”

    Because of Truro’s larger lot sizes, the town could make good use of its accessory dwelling bylaw, Ribeiro said.

    “There are areas that could become vibrant villages, and that’s a discussion the town is having,” he said. “The Walsh property is an almost unparalleled opportunity. I worked on something at the commission called conservation-based affordable housing. The idea is, with a large property, you don’t have to make it into all one or all the other. The Community Preservation Act sets it up so you can do some of both.”

    Both Provincetown and Truro have had trouble getting their local comprehensive plan revisions off the ground. Provincetown finished its last LCP in 2000, and the rewrite that was begun in 2016 and then revived in 2018 is now “in a holding pattern,” Ribeiro said. “The Cape Cod Commission has just promulgated some new rules that make the process easier for towns to move through. There are several towns on the Cape that are struggling with this.”

    Writing a local comprehensive plan involves multiple community meetings on a half-dozen major subjects, such as economic development, affordable housing, open space, community services, and historic preservation. This kind of work is catnip to an urban planner, but this is also the work that Ribeiro wasn’t able to do in Provincetown, due to the steady demands of permitting.

    Asked if the position had grown too daunting for one person, Ribeiro hesitated.

    “I don’t want to say that,” he said. “I will say this though: I think one amazing thing about Provincetown is the scale at which it’s willing to tackle problems. The Year-Round Rental Housing Trust is innovative, outside-the-box, and it’s going to last. On climate adaptation, I think we are way ahead. As a town, we want to do big things that other communities don’t do. We don’t always have enough people to do all of those things. People here in this office encounter that every day.”

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