Volunteer Woodworkers
Build Trailhead Kiosk

The timberframe kiosk at the 15-acre Cornelius Pond Woodlands newly preserved by Harwich Conservation Trust is in place thanks to volunteer time and skills provided by the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers Woodworkers Club. The group gathered over a few mornings to measure, saw, and hammer together the sturdy structure which will house a trail map and other helpful information about the new conservation destination. This carpentry crew from the Chatham-Harwich Newcomers offers its construction time and talent to complete small-scale building projects that make a big difference for local nonprofits. L to R: Jay Arthur (top), Chris Seymour, Joe Linehan, Jim Meehan, (back) Bob Labrecque, (top) Wayne Glifort, Warren Chase, Steve Patzman.   

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Meadow Restoration
Takes Root & Blooms

Thanks to widespread support from the Cape Cod community in 2017, HCT was able to purchase and preserve approx. 17 acres with about 1,400 feet of shoreline on Muddy Creek that flows into Pleasant Bay. An abandoned house that had been open to the weather for years occupied part of the property. After HCT contracted with the local Robert B. Our Company to remove the structure along with abating the asbestos and worked with local Blue Flax Design to seed the disturbed area with native grasses and wildflowers, the blighted landscape has evolved into a blooming meadow. After the meadow is more fully established, HCT plans to open a walking trail around it and through the surrounding valley of woodland.

In the upper right of your screen, click to sign up for HCT eNews to receive word on when the trail is officially open.

Meanwhile, to learn more about the background of the 17-acre Muddy Creek Headwaters Project and ongoing land stewardship efforts, please click here. 

Local Students Explore
Robert F. Smith
Cold Brook Preserve

“We survived!” one fifth grader exclaimed as she jumped up and down. Her class at Monomoy Regional Middle School was playing a game about the life cycle of the American eel, taught by Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary School Programs Coordinator Spring Beckhorn with curriculum in part created by 30-year veteran science teacher Valerie Bell. The students from Harwich and Chatham were learning about the Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve owned by Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) in the heart of Harwich Port.  HCT and Wellfleet Audubon are partnering to connect Monomoy students to local conservation land, water, and wildlife, thereby educating future generations about the importance of being sensitive stewards of Cape Cod’s natural heritage.

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Island Pond
Conservation Lands

Vision, luck, persistence, compassion, patience, flexibility, fate—just some of the elements that form the origin of the more than 80 rolling acres of forest and wetland that beckon within the Island Pond Conservation Lands. This conservation assemblage with walking trails traversing old cartpaths bordered by bicycle trails near the Town Center has been assembled over 20 years by a partnership among Town Meeting voters, HCT, and landowners with the courage and will to make a difference for land, water, and wildlife.

It all started 30 years ago, when a truck went into a ditch in the snow in the snow forcing G. Rockwood Clark and land owner George Canham to get to know each other better while they walked for help. Rocky was looking for Harwich land to buy. Canham, a sheep farmer, then in his 80s, wanted to sell his acres to people he liked and who would appreciate the land, so he gave Rocky and his then wife Cynthia a deal. 

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