2008-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Commission has gone through some Quashnet River. The public should be aware that no changes in 2008. Our full time corps of Conservation taxpayer money is used for these services. In recog- Comrriissioners has remained unchanged since 2007. nizing the extra burden of dealing with these multi- 2008 has seen the additions of two Associate faceted circumstances, AFCEE (Air Force Center for Commissioners; Robert Anderson and Jack Mates. Environmental Engineering)compensates the Town of Both Mr. Anderson and Mr. Mates are long time Mashpee. The Commission has developed an effec- Mashpee residents who are passionate about protect- tive working relationship with AFCEE and the Mass ing our town's natural resources. Military Reservation throughout the clean up and remediation effort. The permitting function of the department remained consistent in 2008. Like in 2007, most of The bogs represent an important revenue source the permitting involved tear down/re-builds, additions for the Conservation Department's Acquisition of and smaller scale projects Indeed, the Town of Lands and Maintenance Account. Funds from the sale Mashpee is reaching ever closer to build out condi- of cranberries go directly into this account which is tions. New Seabury continues to expand with new used to upgrade and improve Mashpee's conservation development. Flat Pond Preserve and The Residences lands. at South Cape Beach were two of the larger develop- raent projects that carried over from 2007 to 2008. 2008 marked the first year of the Mashpee Land Stewardship Program: a volunteer initiative set up by 2008 saw the Commission make the decision to the Conservation Dept. to involve Mashpee citizens in open up the Conservation-owned Quashnet and the care and maintenance of our conservation parcels. Gamer Farley bogs for cranberry cultivation. An RFP Assistant Conservation Agent, Elizabeth Leidhold, is (Request for Proposal) was sent out in December to the department's liaison to the Stewardship Program. gauge interest from local cranberry growers. The Liz has effectively organized the Stewardship Quashnet bogs have not been harvested since 1999- Program to allow volunteers to head up their own pro- 2000 season due to the on-going clean up of the EDB jects,be it baseline information and mapping research (Ethylene DiBromide) contamination plume from the on land parcels or maintenance crews to handle trail Massachusetts Military Reservation (referred to as the work, signage and monitoring. The primary focus of FS-1 plume). The clean up operation (supervised by this volunteer initiative is to encourage residents to AFCEE -Air Force Center for Environmental take on a more active role in their community's open Excellence) involves the continuous pumping and re- space parcels. If anyone is interested in joining the charging of groundwater to remove the EDB contain- Stewardship Program, please visit our website inants. According to the most recent report from (www.ci.mashpee.ma.us) or call our office for details AFCEE, there are only minute detections of EDB in (508)-539-1400. the groundwater in one area of the Quashnet bogs and no EDB detection in the fruit of the berries. In an effort to update our permitting process, the Conservation Commission revised our filing fee struc- In deciding to move forward with cranberry cul- ture to reflect the average of permitting fees for towns tivation, the Commission's primary focus is the pro- on Cape Cod and the South Shore. Permitting check- tection and restoration of the Quashnet River, which lists for RDAs and NOIs have been created to ensure runs through the center of the Quashnet bogs. that permit requests placed on the hearing agendas are Separating bog operations from the Quashnet River filled out correctly and all necessary information has and protecting native Brook Trout habitat is of the been submitted. Mashpee Conservation has recently utmost importance and will be a priority moving for- implemented a resource delineation service whereby ward. Additionally, we are still addressing the after one of the agents can come to your property and delin- effects of a failed berm which impacted the flow of the eate any applicable wetland boundary for proposed Quashnet River as well as the quality of existing projects for a fee. This service is not an official delin- wildlife and fishery habitats. We are continuing to eation of resource areas; however, it is designed to explore various mitigation scenarios for this complex assist the homeowner in regards to whether or not a situation. The Commission has received a feasibility permit will be necessary for any proposed work. Since study from the environmental consulting firm of Haley the beginning of 2008, we have used MS Powerpoint and Aldrich (Portland ME) with technical reports at our Conservation hearings to provide the commis- from the Woods Hole Consulting Group. The com- sioners with images of the projects being presented for missioned study details 3 mitigation scenarios to con- further visual clarification. Sider, ranging from ongoing maintenance of present aver conditions to partial or full realignment of the 103