COURTESY OF THE OYSTER POND ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST
FALMOUTH – The Oyster Pond Environmental Trust has acquired the 22 acre headwaters of Oyster Pond from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The trust, which was formed to conserve and protect the natural environment and ecological systems of Oyster Pond, purchased the five parcels of Falmouth land for just over $2 million.
Wendi Buesseler, the executive director of the Oyster Pond Environmental Trust, said the parcels are key to maintaining and improving the health of Oyster Pond.
The only surface water source to the pond comes from the wetlands that are on these parcels of land.
“Land activity that is on this land has a significant impact on the water quality of the pond because everything will go downhill into the wetlands and then into the pond,” Buesseler said.
The land also features two vernal pools which are an important type of wetland, according to Buesseler.
“They are vernal because in the spring they are full of water and in the winter they are dry and so they tend not to be seen very much for development,” she said. “And they are very key to certain frogs and salamanders that breed in there.”
The trust will also be able to protect coastal wetlands that are also throughout the 22 acres.
“Coastal woodlands are a type of habitat that are disappearing on Cape Cod and all of New England,” she said. “So it’s really nice to be able to preserve these too.”
Buesseler said the purchase could not have been possible without the help of State Representative for the 3rd Barnstable District David Vieira, State Representative Timothy Madden, of the Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket District and State Senator Vinny deMacedo (R-Plymouth).
“If it hadn’t been for the $500,000 we received from the state from the Landscape Partnership grant, I’m not sure how this would have happened,” she said.
Future plans for the land include creating walking paths to make the land more accessible to the public, removing invasive plant species and installing a parking lot at the entrance to the area.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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