New restoration project celebrated by Harwich Conservation Trust

Photo provided by Harwich Conservation Trust.

HARWICH – The Harwich Conservation Trust is announcing the completed restoration of the Hinckleys Pond and Herring River Headwaters Preserve.

The nearly two-million-dollar project included the rewilding of thirty acres of retired cranberry bogs into thriving wetland habitat. The HCT says the funding was made possible by generous donors and a mix of federal, state, town and local organizations. 

Several hundred feet of pond shore habitat was also preserved.

A walking path was created with a connection to the Preserve from the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

Conservation Trust staff and volunteers marked the occasion at a new overlook last Wednesday.

Tom Evans, president of HCT’s board of trustees, thanked Jake Brown and his family, who own a retired bog across Hinckleys Pond from the Preserve that was a part of the rewilding effort. “They generously saw a cross pond opportunity and seized it,” noted Evans.

Don Howell, Chair of the Harwich Select Board, expressed gratitude for HCT’s work over the decades. “This is probably the strongest and most enduring partnership we have with any organization,” said Howell. “Our grandchildren and their grandchildren are going to be profoundly appreciative of all these efforts.”

The Hinckleys project is HCT’s second large-scale, multi-partner eco-restoration effort, following in the footsteps of the Cold Brook restoration project, which now flows free for the first time in over a century toward Saquatucket Harbor on Nantucket Sound.