Environmental News
Upcoming Events:
Rescheduled to Saturday, May 3, 2025 (originally scheduled for Saturday, April 5th), 9:30am to 12:30pm, Public Outreach – Mashpee, Quashnet, and Red Brook Rivers Restoration Project, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Government Center, 483 Great Neck Road South, Mashpee – The Town of Mashpee is working with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC), Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR), and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on the restoration of the Mashpee, Quashnet, and Red Brook Rivers. This project is funded in part by a grant from NOAA. For additional information about this community engagement event, to attend, and/or to become a project partner, go to https://waquoitbayreserve.org/coastal-training-programs/source-to-sea.
Weekly Guided Nature Tours, Saturday Mornings – Each month, the Mashpee Conservation Department sponsors guided walking tours, which are free of charge and weather dependent. Details regarding these walks are posted along the left-hand margin at the department’s main website at www.mashpeema.gov/conservation. Walks have included Childs River, Lowell Holly Reservation, Mashpee River Woodlands, Pickerel Cove, Santuit Pond Preserve and many more. This is a great way to explore Mashpee’s wonderful array of conservation lands.
Celebrating Earth Day:
Saturday, April 12, 2025, 11am to 4pm, Honor the Earth Fair, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Government Center, 483 Great Neck Road South, Mashpee – Co-hosted by the Native Land Conservancy and the Mashpee Wampanoag Natural Resources Department, this event is free, open to the public, and features vendors and exhibitors (including MEC) with a shared mission of protecting and preserving the ancestral homelands of the Wampanoag. Festivities will include opening remarks by Mashpee Wampanoag Chief Earl Mills Jr., cultural crafts, traditional singing and dancing, and activities for children. More information is available here. If you attend, please stop by the MEC table and say hello.
Saturday, April 19, 2025, 9am to 1pm, Textile Recycling, Media Storage Recycling, Secure Shredding, and Composting Containers – FREE Event Mashpee Senior Center, 26 Frank E. Hicks Drive, Mashpee – The Mashpee Environmental Coalition, in collaboration with Mashpee’s Department of Public Works, will hold their 2nd Annual Earth Day event, featuring Textile Recycling, Secure Shredding, Composting Containers and Information, and (new this year), Media Storage Recycling. Textile items donated at this event are carefully sorted and clothing is re-used, if in good condition. Ripped, worn or damaged items are repurposed for a variety of consumer uses or recycled into new products such as mattress stuffing or cleaning rags. Details are available by viewing our Earth Day 2025 Flyer, the Full List of Textiles that may be bagged and dropped off, and the List of Media Storage Items that can and cannot be recycled. Additional questions may be sent to [email protected].
Saturday, April 19, 2025, 10am to 2pm, Cape Cod Canal Cleanup, Herring Run Recreation Area – Co-hosted by Americorps and the US Army Corps of Engineers, this 24th Annual Cleanup is free and open to the public. All cleanup supplies and a complimentary lunch will be provided. Interested volunteers can register online at www.capecod.gov/Canal-Clean-Up-2025.
Information Items:
Cape-Wide “Perpetual” Conservation Calendar: The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts and its nonprofit members currently maintain a Regional Calendar of Events, that is updated on a continual basis. This Conservation Calendar includes programs from villages and towns across Cape Cod, encouraging both visitors and residents to take part in nature and environmental events. The wide list of current programs may be accessed at: www.blt.org/capeconservationcalendar.
Textile Recycling Reminder: As of November 2022, it is now illegal to discard any clothing or other textile items in the trash, even if stained, ripped, threadbare, or filled with holes. The full list of items that must now be recycled may be accessed at the link provided, courtesy of Bay State Textiles. MEC is currently planning textile drives twice each year — one in April as an Earth Day event, and one in August alongside the Hazardous Waste Dropoff. Exact dates and times each year will be posted above under “Upcoming Events”. More information may be found at: List of Clothing and Textiles that must now be Recycled.
Like Ospreys? Thanks to the Friends of the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge and Comcast, you can now watch – and listen to – the osprey nest of Rachel and Carson and their two new babies located at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. To access this live feed, click on the link below, then “Osprey Cam” at: https://www.friendsofmashpeenationalwildliferefuge.org/
Important Fertilizer Reminder: Mashpee regulates the application of fertilizer as follows:
1. No application of nitrogen is permitted between October 30 and April 14 — or at any time within 100′ of specified waterways
2. No application of phosphorus is permitted between December 1 and March 1 — or at any time within 20′ of specified waterways
Even during acceptable dates, no application is permitted before or during a heavy rainfall or when the ground is saturated. These regulations are detailed in the Nitrogen Control Bylaw, amended 2017, available at www.mashpeema.gov, under Town Clerk. However, please note that Mashpee Town Manager, Rodney C. Collins, issued a Special Water Quality Alert to all property owners asking them to discontinue the use of fertilizers on lawns and landscaped areas. This alert is available at https://www.mashpeema.gov/home/news/special-water-quality-alert-july-2021. Thank you for helping to keep Mashpee’s waterways clean!
In Case You Missed It:
Session Videos and Resources from the 2024 Cape Cod Coastal Conference – The June 18, 2024, full-day WBNERR conference entitled “Collaborating for Solutions: Practical Sessions to Achieve Watershed Plans” focused on ways that our Cape Cod communities can take action to restore water quality, reduce nutrients in our watersheds, and apply for funds to assist in implementing Watershed Plans. The full Conference Agenda, Session Videos, and a link to Grant Opportunities and Deadlines are available at: https://waquoitbayreserve.org/2024-cape-coastal-conference/.
Pond Oxygenation Workshop – A Special “Shout Out” to the Waquoit Bay Reserve for their informative, full-day workshop in November 2023 on how to manage healthy ponds by using oxygenation – and no chemicals. This technique has proven successful in lakes and ponds across the US, as well as right here on Cape Cod with Sarah’s Pond in Orleans – thanks to an initiative undertaken by the Orleans Pond Coalition. The full-day program, including agenda, presenter information, and PowerPoints may be found at the link below. For anyone interested in learning more about a fully natural way to help manage our freshwater ponds, this approach is well worth exploring: https://waquoitbayreserve.org/pond-oxygenation-workshop-learning-through-case-studies/
Monthly Board of Directors Meeting Schedule
Board meetings of the Mashpee Environmental Coalition (MEC) are held via Zoom the second Thursday of each month (January to November) starting at 4:00pm unless otherwise noted. There is no meeting in December. Please note that our Annual Meeting takes place the second Thursday in September at 4:00pm followed by the September board meeting.
All are welcome to attend. If you wish to attend one of our meetings, please contact [email protected] by 12:00 noon the day before the meeting so the Zoom link can be emailed to you.
Bring Back the Bees and Butterflies: Plant a Pollinator Garden
An Article by Barbara Adner, Past Director and Member at Large of MEC – Published August 2017
I first became aware of the importance of bees when our son, Adam, agreed to house two beehives for a beekeeper. He lives behind a flower nursery where the bees had an abundant choice of flower pollen.
Very interesting, I thought. It got even more interesting when one day I opened the trash can and found bees in it. There were hoards of them and they were on the move over and under and inside the trash bags. It happened while Adam, the bee lover, was visiting, and he found a beekeeper who would relocate the bees for $150. My choices were to spend $150 and have the bees taken to another location, leave the lid open and hope they would fly away (they did, but returned) or leave them to their fate in the never-never land where trash is dumped. I would like to say I did the former but, truth be told, I did the latter and have worried about those bees ever since.
Much has been written about the loss of bees to pollinate plants. Butterflies, birds, bats, flies, and moths are also pollinators. As their habitats are destroyed by converting wild lands to domestic use, and as the pesticides poison the pollinators, the human food chain is diminished. Some of our agriculture is now pollinated through the aid of beekeepers who transport their beehives from crop to crop, since there are no longer enough bees and other creatures to pollinate the plants.
Mashpee Enacts Lawn Fertilizer Regulations
After overwhelming approval at Town Meeting, unanimous approval by the Cape Cod Commission and approval by the Attorney General, the Town of Mashpee has now added lawn fertilizer regulations to the Town Code. These regulations strongly recommend that only one to two pounds of nitrogen be applied per 1,000 square feet of lawn area. Phosphorus in lawn fertilizers should only be applied on new lawns or lawns where a soil test indicates a real need.
This Nitrogen Control Bylaw, Chapter 107 of the Town Code, as initially passed, includes the following performance standards that anyone who fertilizes their lawn areas must abide by: read more…
Snapshot Data 2000-2013
In 2003 the Mashpee Environmental Coalition introduced the “Pond Health Program” with volunteer water samplers measuring and recording water column parameters in each of Mashpee’s six major ponds with public access. Collected data was made available to the scientific and local communities. Below are data collected between 2000 and 2013.
Mashpee’s Department of Natural Resources has since taken over the collection of water samples from Mashpee’s waterways.