HCT News
Maps Go Mobile
This summer HCT released the 3rd edition of its very popular Walking & Bicycle Trail Guide. The newest version includes some interesting features like the “mobile maps” that can be downloaded to your smartphone, iPad or other mobile device. HCT has placed square bar codes at each trailhead kiosk as well as on the cover…
Harwich Herring Count
Historically, the Herring River and its headwater ponds comprised one of the most significant herring spawning grounds in the state. However, owing to a precipitous decline statewide, a six-year moratorium on the taking, possession, and sale of herring is in place. Fishery experts benefit from field observations by volunteer counters or “citizen scientists” to gauge…
HCT volunteers are worth a million in 2012
Volunteers truly make our conservation world go round. In 2005, HCT formally launched a coordinated volunteer program and has been tracking results. Since then, more than 1,000 people have donated their time and energy to trim trails, find vernal pools, monitor protected lands, mark boundaries, lead walks, present talks, organize the office, assemble mailings, document…
Interns Remove Car
The Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) recently removed a long since abandoned 1950s Ford from Mill Pond Woodlands Conservation Area. The car was discovered approximately half a mile down the walking path from the entrance. Ryan Mann, HCT’s Outreach & Stewardship Coordinator and HCT’s four summer interns (Nathaniel Blichmann, Peter Bolte, Hannah Rusch, Laura Simmons-Stern) dismantled…
Eyes on Owls
Each year, the Harwich Conservation Trust hosts “Eyes on Owls” led by naturalist educators Marcia and Mark Wilson who tour the Northeast, offering audiences up-close looks at these secretive raptors. The event is sponsored by the Birdwatcher’s General Store, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, Cape Cod Chronicle, Cape Codder, Harwich Oracle, The Register, and The…
Birds of Prey
Peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, great-horned owl, and the bald-headed turkey vulture are among the live birds of prey that Tom Ricardi brings to the Harwich Conservation Trust’s (HCT) signature summer event at the Harwich Community Center in July. To bring audiences close encounters with these majestic raptors, the HCT teams up with Ricardi who runs…
Mission Wolf
Click here to join our free e-newsletter and receive advance emails about this and other special events. Mission Wolf returned to the Cape on its “wolf bus” for live wolf programs in the fall of 2014. The bus wasn’t a greyhound, but instead was a burly US Marine Corps bus retrofitted to accommodate three wolves as well…
Meet Your Local Farmers!
“Meet Your Local Farmers” Event Join us Sat., March 23rd (noon – 3:00 p.m.) in the gym at the Harwich Community Center HCT and the Cape & Islands Farm Bureau are bringing you the 10th Annual “Meet Your Local Farmers” event (free & open to the public) on Saturday, March 23rd from noon – 3:00 p.m. in…
HCT Volunteers Discover Vernal Pools
Thanks to HCT volunteers and AmeriCorps, 35 vernal pools have been discovered and certified across Harwich. Before the volunteer discoveries, only 5 vernal pools were certified in town. The total number of certified pools is now 40, an eight-fold increase in three years! Vernal pools are unique wildlife habitats best known for the amphibians and…
HCT Helps to Complete Eel Migration
The seasonal migration of American eels from Nantucket Sound through HCT’s 60-acre Bank St. Bogs Nature Preserve to Grass Pond in Harwich Port has been restored with a low-tech, low-cost, but highly effective “eel ramp” on private property allowing young eels to wriggle up and over a flume to their freshwater destination. The project also…
Harwich Herring Count Program at the Herring River
Spawned by dedicated herring count volunteers, the Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT), Association to Preserve Cape Cod, Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA), and the Town of Harwich Department of Natural Resources are involved with the second annual comprehensive river herring count program this spring. Each spring, the river herring return to Massachusetts’ rivers and…
Volunteers Monitor Nesting Birds
HCT volunteers and members of the Cape Cod Bird Club monitor up to 78 nestboxes at three different sites weekly for activity throughout the nesting season. The nestboxes are designed for eastern bluebird, American tree swallow, tufted titmouse and/or black-capped chickadee. House wrens have occasionally taken up residence. Volunteer monitors also take note of other…