Eco-Restoration Journey Week 19: The conservation legacy of the Brown family

Our weekly site meeting at Harwich Conservation Trust’s (HCT) Hinckleys Pond — Herring River Headwaters Eco-Restoration Project now seems like a gathering of old friends.

We sit around a beat-up table in a barn and discuss the important moving pieces of the effort. Sure, it’s serious work, but there is a lot of laughter and a wonderful sense of camaraderie.

Perhaps the best part of these meetings is getting to hang out with Jake Brown. If you like chatting with smart, kind and funny people, then Jake’s your guy.

Jake Brown at a restored wetland near his family cottage in Harwich. 

As patriarch of the conservation-minded Brown family, he has been a fantastic partner on the eco-restoration project, which includes the rewilding of a retired cranberry bog next to the family’s picturesque cottage on Hinckleys Pond.

At the end of this week’s get-together, Brown addressed the group, and as usual, raised the spirits of everyone in the room.

“I just wanted to say on behalf of our family, thank you for everything you have done,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier. You’ve really put together a great team.”

Flying a drone and giving back

Brown, 91, also reported that he was so inspired by the eco-restoration project, he recently purchased a drone to get a bird’s-eye view. “I’ve been having good fun with it,” he said. “I’m piloting it well enough that I haven’t lost it in the bog.”

He has been along for every step of the project, providing valuable insight and a sense of place and history for this beautiful corner of Harwich. Retired from a long career in finance, Brown lives in Concord, but spends a lot of time enjoying his lovely perch on Hinckleys Pond.

Preserving land is the Brown family way, and over the years, they have donated nearly 14 acres to HCT, as well as woodland to the Brewster Conservation Trust.

After the meeting, we asked Brown about what his Cape cottage has meant for his family over the past 60 years. “It’s their home,” said Brown. “The little cottage has been so great for bringing up children. Because you just shove them outside and let them play.”

A beautiful sense of place

Then we took a drive over to the Brown family’s property on the other side of Hinckleys Pond. We bumped along an old dirt road and the woods gave way to a spectacular vista of rewilded wetland greening up by the day and the Brown family cottage holding forth at the water’s edge.

Brown met us there and we admired the work that had been done. We mentioned how we were struck by the amazing view as we emerged from the woods.

“When my wife was alive, we’d come to the head of the road there, and we’d stop and look out and say, ‘how lucky are we,’” said Brown.

HCT is also extremely lucky to have a conservation partner like Jake Brown and his family.

Project refresher

The Hinckleys Pond – Herring River Headwaters Eco-Restoration Project includes the restoration of two retired cranberry bogs that bookend 174-acre Hinckleys Pond in Harwich, located at the headwaters of the Herring River estuary. Hinckleys Pond is also connected by streams to river herring spawning habitat in Long Pond and Seymour Pond.

Harwich Conservation Trust’s Hinckleys Pond — Herring River Headwaters Eco-Restoration Project includes the rewilding of two retired cranberry bogs that bracket Hinckleys Pond, indicated with red circles. The blue arrows pointing into the three ponds show upstream migration of river herring each spring.

By the late 1990s, much larger off-Cape bogs were producing an extra supply of cranberries that caused the price to fall. This shift in the industry makes it more difficult for local growers to continue farming. Some are looking to exit the industry.

Farmers have a choice. They can either sell their properties for conversion of the upland to subdivisions which can cause water quality changes and end up closing off public access to the land. Or they can seek a conservation future by selling to local land trusts and towns. In 2021 at Hinckleys Pond, the Jenkins family finished their farming chapter and chose to sell their 31 acres to HCT for the next chapters of conservation and eco-restoration.

The Brown family, who owns a retired bog on the other side of the pond, is also partnering with HCT on the project. The collaborative eco-effort will increase biodiversity and restore freshwater wetland habitat as well as enhance opportunities for everyone to enjoy the trails, views and wildlife watching.

The eco-restoration project is funded by HCT donors, the Brown family, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed grant, EPA National Estuary Program Coastal Watershed grant under cooperative agreement with Restore America’s Estuaries, Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation MassTrails grant, foundation funds through the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, and a Transformational Habitat Restoration & Coastal Resilience grant through the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

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