2013-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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2013 Permitting and Enforcement: runs in town (Santuit, Mashpee and Quashnet Rivers). 2014 will mark the 4th year in a row that we have The Conservation Department continues to be conducted herring counts. Volunteer training and diligent with enforcement of the state(310 CMR 10.00) supplies are provided by the Association for the and local(Chapter 172)wetland protection acts through Preservation of Cape Cod(APCC). APCC collects the the facilitation of wetland permitting. With over 1400 data from each town's count program and uses it to acres of conservation and open space lands to manage, assess the conditions of the runs as well as for estimating ' the Conservation Department continues to rely on the herring populations. If you're interested in becoming a assistance of the Mashpee Police Department,the MA Mashpee Land Steward, please visit the following link Environmental Police, Mashpee Fire Department, for more information: http://www.mashpeema.aov/ Mashpee Department of Public Works, the Refuge Pa,ges/MashpeeMA Conservation/stewards partnership and volunteer residents to effectively monitor and observe these areas, many of which are The Mashpee Conservation Commission would remotely situated and difficult to access. like to thank the Building Dept, Board of Health, Zoning Board,Harbor Master and Shellfish Warden for 2013 Land Stewardship Program/Americorps: their continued cooperation in maintaining cross- departmental permitting compliance. The Commission 2013 was a great year for volunteer initiatives. would also like to thank Cynthia Bartos, our new The Conservation Department qualified for Americorp Administrative Secretary. Cynthia has been a perfect fit Week this past year, whereby we had over 30 for the Conservation Dept with her unmatched Americorp volunteers and local resident volunteers enthusiasm and positive energy. We would also like to assist the Conservation Department for one week(May welcome Judy Daigneault, our new Board Secretary. 20th-25th) to tackle a variety of projects. Projects Additional thanks to Tom Fudala, our Town Planner, included the installation of 5 pollinator gardens at 3 Catherine Laurent, our DPW Director and Clayson different locations around town (2 gardens at the Nicholson, our GIS Coordinator for their continued Community Garden site and one garden at the assistance with various conservation projects, entrances to Pickerel Cove and Jehu Pond conservation maintenance issues, mapping needs, administrative areas respectively). The pollinator gardens are intended duties and grant opportunities for land acquisitions and to showcase the value of planting native pollinator other funding opportunities. species and providing additional habitat for bees, rr butterflies, and other pollinator species. Pollinator Respectfully submitted on behalf of species populations are on the decline worldwide, so the Agent and the Commission, public awareness is a major priority. Each of these John Fitzsimmons, Chairman gardens is accompanied by educational signage. Ralph Shaw, Vice Chairman Another major project was the construction and Mark Gurnee installation of 7 kiosks at key conservation parcels Brad Sweet around town. With these sturdy new kiosks in place, John Rogers the Conservation Department can not only display Mark Anderson : parcel information like trail maps and pictures but also Steve Cook spread the word about volunteer activities hosted by the Lou DiMeo department as well as advertising nature walks with our Andrew McManus (Agent) Part time naturalist. ' At last count, the Mashpee Land Stewardship Program has 58 volunteers and we are constantly trying to recruit more! As a volunteer land steward, you commit to walking a conservation parcel of your choice at least 4 times per year and then filling out/submitting our online parcel observation form. Volunteers can also choose to participate in parcel workdays(clean ups,trail maintenance,etc).or other volunteer initiatives like our annual Herring Count Program. Mashpee has 3 herring 85