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By Louise Russell
The Phosphate Study Group is preparing a pamphlet for broad public distribution that will describe the problem of nutrient overload in the Bay and its watershed, and offer constructive solutions to alleviate the escalating problem. We thank you for your letters of support and feel that the project will serve the Bay and the membership well.
Our research put us in touch with many similar efforts by local and state organizations and convinced us that every attempt to protect ponds, estuaries and drinking water through education and lifestyle changes is a valuable contribution. Water, salt and fresh, is the Cape's most precious resource, and we can no longer take it for granted.
With a pamphlet of good information, simply done, we can contact markets and stores, builders and landscapers, real estate agents and residents, as well as Town Boards. We will be addressing the entire Pleasant Bay Watershed - Orleans, Brewster, Harwich and Chatham - and will define the area and outline constructive actions that residents and visitors can take to help.
Among the topics to be covered will be the importance of choosing phosphate-free (or low-phosphate) household and yard products, and adopting environmentally responsible water-use and landscaping practices. Simple things, as mundane as picking up after pets on their walks, would reduce phosphorus, nitrogen and bacteria in road and pondside run-off.
There is much to learn. On May 16, two members of the Board of the Friends attended an excellent conference on stewardship of water resources that was hosted by the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod (APCC). It was well attended and informative, and many
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groups and agencies were represented. One intriguing fact we brought away with us is that there are about 1000 ponds, lakes and vernal pools on Cape Cod. Of these only 408 have a surface area of ½-acre or more.
This past summer, nutrient analysis and dissolved oxygen tests were undertaken in over 200 of these larger water bodies. The studies showed that about 50 percent of them have markedly decreased levels of oxygen in deep water. This condition is due to nutrient-loading (from phosphates), which promotes the growth of algae - which we see as green "scum" on the water.
Unlike other areas in Massachusetts, Cape Cod ponds naturally have (or had) very low levels of phosphate. Therefore the increased levels are due entirely to our activities in and around these bodies of water.
Lawn and golf course fertilizers and pesticides, as well as growing water use and water drawdown, are major factors in the death of ponds and the concentration of dangerous contaminants. The rate at which this is happening in highly developed areas on the Cape is alarming.
Fortunately, FOPB, the Pleasant Bay Alliance, Pond Associations and Conservation Foundations have an opportunity to work together to preserve the integrity of the waters in and around Pleasant Bay. But the effort will require help from every individual in the region.
Read the labels on the products you use in the house and in the yard, and choose prevention. Plant ryegrass and fescues instead of bluegrass. Appreciate what Nature can do and let her do it - opt for open space and natural areas, especially around streams, lakes, freshwater and saltwater ponds, and the Bay itself. These are some of the ideas we hope to convey in our pamphlet, which will be enclosed within our Friends of Pleasant Bay brochure.
But the task is huge. It will need ALL our efforts.
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"When I'm out in my Cape Dory, I sometimes stop rowing in the middle of Little Bay and just turn my boat in a circle and look around. Out there, thinking about the tremendous numbers of plants and animals that gain sustenance from the bay, I feel small in comparison to the grandeur around me. I recognize that although humans are the largest user, in all senses of the word, we are only one of many, not the only ones involved in the `budget' of the bay …"
--- Two excerpts from Sandy Macfarlane's
book,
ROWING FORWARD LOOKING BACK, nearing completion, about her 25 years as shellfish biologist and conservation administrator for the Town of Orleans. The Friends asked Sandy to write it after she captivated us at an Annual Meeting with a taste of her salty insights. We expect it will be off the presses before summer's out, and we will notify you when it is.
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"Since I keep my boat in The River now, near Meetinghouse Pond in the uppermost part of Pleasant Bay, I have to row the entire length of The River, about one-and-a-half miles, until I get to the Namequoit Point buoys at the entrance to Little Bay. When I go by Jack Knife Cove, I often find myself smiling as I remember days spent in that cove. When I'm trying to avoid larger boats in the channel, I often am very close to running aground on a spit of sand, covered at high tide, that parallels the channel and forms the western side of the small horseshoe-shaped cove …"
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