Trail Hound

Environmental lessons on South Cape Beach

 Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

- Joni Mitchell

 The folks at Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (say that three times!) in East Falmouth and Mashpee want to make sure people know what they've got before more development and wasteful use of natural resources destroy the Cape's fragile coastline.  That's why WBNERR not only has become a leading watershed research center over its 20 years of existence, but it hosts a boffo line-up of educational and entertaining programs to give visitors insight into local ecology and the impact of human activity.

 Friday mornings from 9 to 11 there are South Cape Beach Walks, guided tours of the salt marsh and barrier beach.  I recently joined up with one that focused on how climate change may affect the coast.  For much of the past millenium, sea levels had been increasing about 1 millimeter a year.  But starting about 150 years ago, when carbon dioxide output from factories and other uses of fossil fuels took off, the average annual increase more than doubled to 2.5 millimeters a year.  Not a lot in any particular year, but it adds up.  As ice caps melt, that rate is expected to increase.

 Led by a naturalist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, our group examined the salt marsh, a rich habitat for shrimp, crabs, minnows, and migratory birds, which would be altered by rising sea levels.  Algae could be seen coating some of the eelgrass, evidence of too much nitrogen and other nutrients from septic systems and fertilizer upstream in the watershed.  Crossing the bridge to the low dunes of the barrier beach, the peninsula's protection against pounding seas, we could see how the coast could be socked Katrina-style by the rising water in a significant storm. 

 I combined the enjoyment of this beautiful place and study of its precarious environmental position with a geocache, the Dead Neck Dunes cache hidden on the backside of South Cape Beach.  A strong dousing of insect repellent before heading out on the trail is essential to protect yourself from becoming part of the food chain via greenhead flies, but other than that it's well worth the short walk. 

WBNERR is another of the Cape's well-kept secrets, but there's a lot to come here for.  Besides the expansive and relatively quiet South Cape Beach, there's a full sampling of the Cape's ecosystems among WBNERR's 3,000 acres.  You can hike the wooded trails in the Quashnet River Reservation, enjoy a picnic on the lawn by the visitor center overlooking Waquoit Bay, or camp on Washburn Island. 

Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. there are songs, dances and presentations at Evenings on the Bluff, held by the reserve's headquarters.  Creature Features and other programs for families and children fill out the calendar, including a Watershed Block Party from 3 to 6:30 on August 5.

 Programs might get people to visit, but it's the land and water that are the main attractions.  Despite grim scenarios of what could happen if human impacts don't change, the sparkling shore demonstrates how nature can restore itself, given the chance.  Tidal water is being allowed once again to flow freely into and out of the salt marsh, making it healthier.  Protecting wetlands helps filter excess nutrients from groundwater, which reduces oxygen-choking algae blooms.  There's a lot we can do to preserve this land and water.  Once we get to know it.

Photos, from top:

A solitary beach walker on South Cape Beach

Crossing the boardwalk between beach and marsh

Dead Neck Trail dunes near the geocache

A naturalist from WHOI discusses coastal impacts of global warming and what can be done about it during a South Cape Beach Walk at WBNERR