Harwich Conservation Trust Seeks Pond Front Properties

Nestled in the woodlands south of Route 39 and west of Depot Road is the nearly 2-acre Rushy Pond. Rushy Pond lives up to its name given the profusion of slender plants poking above the surface that provide ample habitat for dragonflies, damselflies, turtles, and frogs to hide and forage while mammals wander down to the water’s edge for a drink and birds nest in the shoreline shrubs.

Bordering the southern side of Rushy Pond is 1.42 acres of woodland. The upland slopes down to the pond edge with 122 feet of frontage comprised of thick shoreline greenery like fragrant sweet pepper bush, maples, and tall oaks and pines. The property has been on and off the market for several years. When the price dropped at the start of the summer to $79,900, it was time to act and a purchase offer was floated by Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT). The offer was accepted and now HCT is seeking donations from the community to cover the land cost. To donate, please click here. 

Local fresh water ponds decorate our Cape Cod landscape like vibrant blue gems. The health of these jewels is increasingly tarnished with deteriorating water quality caused by nutrient loading from septic systems, lawns, and road run off. In recognizing the impacts of development to the water quality issues of many Harwich ponds, both the Town and HCT focus on ways to protect these sensitive surface water resources, including efforts to preserve land.

In 2004, HCT embarked on its local Harwich Priority Ponds Project to focus on preserving key parcels on ponds and within watersheds that could help protect pond health and wildlife habitat. HCT has made significant progress by protecting 285 acres with over 10,000 feet of shoreline across 15 different ponds. To learn more about the Priority Ponds Project, please click here.

Mark Robinson is Executive Director of The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, which is a regional land trust service center providing parcel priority analysis and technical assistance on land acquisition matters to both land trusts like HCT and towns. Mark launched a Cape-wide study of pond front parcels two decades ago that formed the basis of the Harwich findings.

“Twenty years ago, the Harwich Conservation Trust took that pond study to heart and has been making great strides ever since in protecting the most vulnerable local pond settings. Besides Rushy Pond, HCT is also raising funds for the 50-acre Thacher property which has significance for Sand Pond. I’m amazed at how HCT takes on multiple land campaigns simultaneously. It’s a testament to a bold willingness to act in a very competitive real estate market,” said Robinson.

Susan Cyr, who is the President of the newly formed Harwich Ponds Coalition weighed in with the nascent group’s endorsement. “The Harwich Ponds Coalition advocates for an array of ways to protect the health of our local ponds, including preserving land in pond watersheds, and applauds Harwich Conservation Trust’s Priority Ponds Project,” said Cyr.

Harwich Conservation Trust had been eyeing the Rushy Pond property to both protect the pond habitat and also to connect with adjacent Harwich Select Board land on the eastern and southern borders to establish a north-south wildlife habitat corridor to the pond. Looking at the larger land picture, this Rushy Pond property creates even greater conservation connectivity with additional town holdings, including Town conservation land (Thompson’s Field) to the southwest and town water supply land to the south.

Preserving this Rushy Pond property aligns with HCT’s long-term Priority Ponds Project by protecting land that is mapped by the state as having several sensitive characteristics, including:

• Public Water Supply Recharge defined as the area of an aquifer which contributes water to a well under the most severe pumping and recharge conditions that can be realistically anticipated
• BioMap Local Landscape defined as intact natural areas including mosaics of forests, wetlands, and streams
• BioMap Local Vernal Pools defined as vernal pool clusters that support critical breeding habitats
• BioMap Core Habitat defined as areas that are critical for the long-term persistence of rare species, exemplary natural communities, and resilient ecosystems
• Priority Habitat of Rare Species defined as the geographic extent of rare species habitat based on observations documented within the last 25 years
• BioMap Rare Species Core Habitat defined as areas critical to the long-term conservation of our most vulnerable species and their habitats

 

Tom Evans is President of HCT’s Board of Trustees. “We need to be strategic as we take on land acquisition projects and this one checks all the important boxes.  It’s a big win for habitat and water quality,” said Evans.

To support the Rushy Pond Project, please click here.  

Photos courtesy of Gerry Beetham