Eco-restoration journey: Work begins at Hinckleys Pond – Herring River Headwaters Preserve

On a typically chilly early spring morning in Harwich, a good-natured group from the Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT), SumCo Eco-Contracting and Inter-Fluve, an ecological engineering firm, gathered around a folding table in an unheated barn. There was excitement in the air: the Hinckleys Pond – Herring River Headwaters Eco-Restoration Project was underway!

One thing became instantly clear: this ecological engineering work is complicated stuff. Giant maps were unfurled, filled with details and numbers, heights and depths and a bunch of other info that was somewhat baffling to the untrained eye.

HCT Board of Trustees President Tom Evans and Executive Director Mike Lach were adept at this map talk tango: they’ve been down this road before with the recently-completed eco-restoration at the Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve in Harwich Port.

The first part of the get-together was a hybrid Zoom call, linking in other folks involved with the project, including the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, which has been instrumental in obtaining a NOAA grant for the work. Then, the recess bell rang and we got to go outside. Well, actually it was a scheduled tour of the site, but it felt like a field trip.

The project includes the eco-restoration of two retired cranberry bogs that bookend Hinckleys Pond in Harwich, at the headwaters of the Herring River estuary and immediately downstream of river herring spawning habitat in Long Pond and Seymour Pond. The eco-restoration also seeks to improve shoreline habitat of Hinckleys Pond, which is a herring spawning pond too.

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 made it more difficult for some local growers to continue farming.

In 2021, thanks to generous HCT donors, the Trust was able to purchase the 31-acre retired bog area from the Jenkins family. If not preserved, the forested upland along Headwaters Drive and Rt. 124 could have been converted into a subdivision which would have impacted pond health and closed off the popular spot to the public as well as forever changed the view from the busy roads and Cape Cod Rail Trail. The Brown family, who owns a retired bog on the other side of the pond is also partnering with the HCT on the project. The partnership eco-effort aims to increase biodiversity, restore freshwater wetland habitat and enhance recreational opportunities.

During the construction process, the site is closed, for public safety and the safety of workers. The Cape Cod Rail Trail will be open as usual and it provides a great vantage point to watch the transformation of the site into a wildlife oasis.

As we strode about the landscape, we saw the unusual sight of an excavator rolling into the middle of a former cranberry bog. The mighty machine paused and its arm descended into the soil. “That’s the first scoop!” said an excited engineer.

In an earlier presentation about the project, Nick Nelson, senior geomorphologist with Inter-Fluve, said an important part of the work here aims to “disrupt the layer cake of sand and cranberries,” that have built up over time. Excavators come in handy for a job like that.

We asked Mike Lundsted, project manager for SumCo Eco-Contracting, what folks could expect to see at the site over the next set of days. “They’re going to see equipment moving the marsh material,” he said. We’re going to be doing bog lowering — you’ll see a foot of the bog excavated and transported around the bog surface.”

The excavated material stays on the site. “It all gets used to fill these perimeter ditches and interior ditches, all throughout the bog,” said Lundsted.

While Lundsted is an experienced hand at these kinds of projects, it’s still a thrill to get things going. “First bucket in the ground — that’s always an exciting thing,” he said.