A Message from the President |
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First, I would like to extend my wish that all of us have a Happy and Healthy 2022!
My message will be short so that you can get right into the content in this first 2022 e-News edition, including: The Nauset Light Preservation Society; Green crabs; an overview of CCNS Natural Resource operations; a fascinating article by Bill Burke titled “The Hidden World of Another Pandemic”; and well-deserved tributes to Carl Sylvester from Dave Crary & Ivan Ace.
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It’s been a relatively quiet seven weeks for the FCCNS due to the normally decreased activity level that comes with the season change, and our usual habit of not having a December Board meeting. The one thing that has not slowed is the interest in the work of the Friends, exhibited by recent donations and new memberships since mid-November. |
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You are all members because you recognize the importance of the work done by the Friends to help preserve and protect the fragile resources of the Cape Cod National Seashore. We could not do it without your financial and volunteer support. To our new, as well as long-standing, members, Thank You!
Peter Eisenbarth
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Partner Profile: Nauset Light Preservation Society (NLPS)
by Susan Abbott, Vice President
Nauset Light located within the boundaries of the Cape Cod National Seashore, is an important part of Eastham’s cultural and maritime history. In 1993, a group of Eastham citizens formed the Nauset Light Preservation Society (NLPS), a non-profit volunteer organization whose original mission was to rescue the lighthouse. Through their successful efforts, Nauset Lighthouse was moved approximately 300 feet back from the edge of a sixty-foot-high eroding cliff in 1996. Today, Nauset Light serves as a private aid to navigation used by the fishing fleets and small recreational boaters who navigate close to shore.
The current mission of NLPS is to operate and maintain Nauset Lighthouse, to interpret the site to the public, and to raise funds to keep Nauset Light lit. To accomplish our mission we require the assistance of volunteers to conduct tours and to assist in maintaining the lighthouse and the oil house. The work of the NLPS is funded entirely through the support of donors. We encourage everyone to become a member of the NLPS and we are always in search of enthusiastic volunteers to help us tell the story of Nauset Light to visitors from all over the world.
In 2021, we completed a major restoration project. The work, which was supported by the Eastham Community Preservation Act, NLPS members, and Cape Cod Potato Chips, accomplished repairs to masonry, rusting metal work, water leaks in the lantern room, and a full exterior and interior painting. (photo courtesy of NLPS)
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Natural Resources in the New Year
by Geoff Sanders, Chief, Natural Resources Management
The Natural Resource Management and Science Division is actively planning for a variety of research, monitoring and restoration projects for this year. There will be a lot to do but we are extremely excited to see what 2022 will bring!
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Our shorebird crews are a constant fixture on the beach each season and play a crucial role establishing protective measures for nesting birds while also ensuring continued access to recreation on the park’s beaches. Related to shorebirds, we are planning a study on coyotes in the park to better understand the population numbers, dynamics and how coyotes are impacting breeding shorebirds. |
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A large focus will once again be on kettle ponds in the park. Pond water quality will be monitored along with continued studies of plankton communities. We will continue to partner with other organizations to monitor ponds for cyanobacteria blooms. Finally, the park received funding to perform a condition assessment of the kettle ponds. This assessment will utilize existing data to assess the ecological condition of these key resources. |
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Vegetation monitoring staff will visit more than 40 long-term forest plots this year to continue to track the condition of forest communities in the park. In addition to standard monitoring, crews will also collect cores from trees at each of these plots to help ascertain the historical growing conditions and the age of the forests.
Finally, ecological restoration will be a major focus for the park this year. First and foremost, the permitting is almost complete and funding opportunities are promising for the Herring River Restoration Project. The hope is that certain restoration activities could begin this year!
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Other ecological restoration efforts include a habitat assessment and horseshoe crab study in East Harbor, the removal of a water control structure on Fresh Brook in Wellfleet to restore what was historically the only brook trout spawning stream on Outer Cape and continued efforts to assess and restore saltmarsh lost to crab herbivory.
Click here for more information about Natural Resources at Cape Cod National Seashore.
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Link to the Cape Cod National Seashore's
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The Winter Film Series
is back!
The National
Parks—America’s Best Idea, a Film by Ken Burns
All movies at the Salt Pond Visitors Center are every Sunday,
January 23 to
February 27,
at 1:30 pm, FREE.
Seating limited. Reservations required.
Link here for details about registration and more.
January 23
The Scripture of Nature
(1851-1890)
January 30
The Last Refuge
(1890-1915)
February 6
The Empire of
Grandeur
(1915-1919)
February 13
Going Home
(1920-1933)
February 20
Great Nature
(1933-1945)
February 27
The Morning of Creation
(1946-1980)
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The Hidden World of Another Pandemic
by Bill Burke, Park Historian
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In a foreboding corner deep within the Province Lands and flanked by impenetrable swamps lies a cemetery. It contains 14 individuals who perished from smallpox in Provincetown in the mid-1800s. The victims ranged in age from 22 to 73 and included residents and travelers arriving by sea. The marble gravestones lack names and are engraved with single numbers. They are laid out in ascending order in a semicircle facing northwest. Curiously the terrain here is flat and covered by an emerging grove of Beech trees which creates a pleasant and open canopy. Access by foot today is difficult due to steep terrain and thorny underbrush. Beyond the stones is another faint path that leads to a 15 foot x 17 foot cellar hole, the site of a crudely built smallpox hospital known as the “Pest House”.
The cemetery is a grim symbol of the fear that gripped the region. Provincetown followed the New England custom of burying the victims of extremely communicable diseases in isolated gravesites rather than in town or church cemeteries. Centuries earlier, smallpox’s 30% death rate killed American Indians and European settlers in great numbers. Victims were buried immediately without ritual, apart from friends and families, with personal effects burned. Town leaders expressed frustration over the difficulty of finding work teams to transport patients and bodies, resistance to compulsory vaccination, and the reluctance of citizens to report the disease. The board of health fined citizens for gathering in groups, schools were closed, physicians were confined to hospitals and family pets were kept indoors.
Provincetown eradicated smallpox by 1873. Yet smallpox remained a menace worldwide. Despite Jenner’s first smallpox vaccine in 1796, over 300 million died of smallpox in the last century. It wasn’t until 1980 that the 33rd World Health Assembly declared the world free of smallpox. Today, Provincetown’s smallpox victims are memorialized with a marker in town, and the town’s “Book of Deaths” preserves for all time the names of those who endured shame and loneliness in the wilds of the Province Lands.
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Gratitude
We are thankful to our members and donors for their generosity as we continue to fund the many Cape Cod National Seashore projects that rely on our financial support. We particularly acknowledge the significant memorial donations received in memory of longtime member Kenneth Muzykewicz. We are grateful to have been named a beneficiary in honoring his memory.
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Creature Feature
by Agnes Mittermayr, FCCNS Board Member
If you have visited the Cape Cod National Seashore, chances are you have encountered a green crab (Carcinus maenas). Green crabs are what we call an invasive, or introduced, species to New England and indeed most of the globe. They came to our shores from Europe in the early 19th century, in the ballast water of large ships, or so the theory goes.
Green crabs proliferate on Cape Cod, out competing native species for food and habitat and are being held responsible for the decline of soft-shell clams in the region. Over the past few years, ideas to help decimate the green crab population have gotten creative and a few recipes have popped up to make the most of the edible crab species. I hear they make good broth!
Click here to learn more about the Coastal Zone Management Marine Invader Monitoring & Information Collaborative.
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TRIBUTES to all who contribute
by Daniel Blankenship, Ranger Supervisor & Volunteer Coordinator
In 2021, Cape Cod National Seashore developed its first digital volunteer newsletter, TRIBUTES. The newsletter is one aspect of a new effort to increase communication and participation among those who actively volunteer within the seashore, regardless of the organizations through which they serve.
The newsletter includes:
• invitations to join events with park staff
• updates about park policies and operations
• access to current and future volunteer opportunities
• features highlighting the work of volunteers
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TRIBUTES served as a conduit for several opportunities in its initial year. With park historian Bill Burke, volunteers toured historic sites and rarely seen museum collections. From a chilly Race Point, Natural Resource Specialist Kelly Medeiros provided the shorebirds’ perspective on summer shoreline survival. Dr. Sophia Fox presented historical and ongoing research related to the park’s kettle ponds, and plant ecologist Stephen Smith led a group walk through Provincetown’s West End Marsh to unearth his research into salt marsh dieback.
If you are interested in learning more about what’s going on in the park, wish to partake in upcoming Volunteer Activities or want to become active with a FCCNS or NPS VIP program, you can sign up to receive the next digital issue of Tributes scheduled to come out in February. Click here to subscribe.
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Special Thanks to a Special Volunteer:
A Tribute to Carl Sylvester
by David W. Crary, Jr., Fire Management Officer (retired)
Thank you to Carl for a decade and a half of coordinating FCCNS volunteers for weekly cut-pile-burn projects.Through his coordination efforts, fifteen consecutive years of 1000+ volunteer hours annually improved the resource and fire management status of Cape Cod National Seashore.
Carl's efforts mustered over 1000 volunteer person hours each year that focused on cutting and clearing trees, brush and shrubs from areas surrounding National Park Service structures, facilities, and resource areas. Cut vegetation was then piled and burned, effectively creating areas of reduced fuels, open vistas, and healthy and resilient landscapes. As non-native vegetation was often targeted for removal, the ecosystem health of the Seashore’s forests and grasslands has been vastly improved.
The group Carl fostered and named the “Woodchucks” never (well rarely!) complained, attacked projects with vigorous endeavor, worked safely (no injuries in 15 years except for a Band-Aid or two) and fully participated in the weekly AARs (after action reviews) where each member spoke of project safety, efficiencies and sometimes told a tall tale. It is very complimentary to state that few other groups could maintain the high standards of weekly attendance, solid work effort, exemplary safety record, crew cohesion and camaraderie - - all attributed to stalwart, consistent, and competent leadership.
Carl patiently worked with an AmeriCorps Cape Cod members to ensure cut-pile-burn project locations were identified, permissions obtained, equipment maintained and available, safety gear on-site, and water and coffee ready. Project locations, often revisited on a 2-4 year rotation, are too numerous to list – notable projects sites include: Fort Hill, Captain Penniman landscape, Salt Pond Visitor Center, Richardson Property, Nauset Light, Marconi Heathlands, MITRE Site, Highland Center and the Jenny Lind tower, Biddle’s, Pilgrim Springs, the Chicken House, Stacy May, Atwood Higgins, fire roads, and Doane Rock.
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A FEW WORDS FROM VOLUNTEER IVAN ACE
Carl was the perfect straw boss. When the Friends trail maintenance work expanded to the cut/pile/burn (c/p/b) work, under the direction, tutelage and sufferance of Dave Crary, Jr., Carl stepped up. He was chief communicator, organizer and recruiter as the original small corps grew to today's score or more of volunteers. The most challenging chore in recent years was probably recording attendance! Carl also set a fine example at work sites. I often thought of him as "no-breaks" Carl. He can take much credit for the work ethic of the c/p/b crew. He was all the more effective with us because of his low-key man-of-few-words style. Carl and Dave complemented each other. Many thanks to Carl for his dedication and unflappable leadership and for coining the nickname "Woodchucks."
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Park Report
by Sue Moynihan, Chief of Interpretation and Cultural Resources Management
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Seashore Soundings with Superintendent Carlstrom
Did you miss Superintendent Brian Carlstrom's Seashore Soundings presentation at the Salt Pond Amphitheater in October? Brian provided updates on many of the seashore's 2021 projects and programs and also shared a look-ahead to 2022. Recently, Brian sat down with Lower Cape TV Executive Director Teresa Martin for a Q & A session that covered many of these topics. Watch here: https://vimeo.com/653795568
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One Person's Trash is Another Person's...Yep, Still Trash!
The national seashore is embarking on an exciting project in 2022-23 to develop exhibits and learning opportunities to raise public awareness about the issue of marine debris. The project, which comes with funding, is a collaboration between the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aimed at using education and art to highlight marine debris concerns. Seashore staff are partnering with the Center for Coastal Studies' Marine Debris and Plastics Program, a regional leader for this issue. Along our beaches we see significant amounts of debris, ranging from snack bag trash and plastic bottles left behind by beachgoers, balloons that blow in from nearby and far away release sites, and fishing line, plastics, and Styrofoam that wash in with the tide. There is also debris in our waters--fishing gear that causes serious entanglements to whales, and plastic bags and balloons that are ingested by turtles and other marine species. Seashore staff look forward to highlighting this issue in creative and compelling ways that will encourage each of us to make choices to help reduce marine debrisI
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Continued COVID-19 Recovery and Impacts
As is the case locally, regionally, and around the nation and the world, the national seashore continues to deal with the impacts of the global pandemic. Seashore staff remain flexible and adaptable, adjusting operations as needed and as opportunities arise. In mid-November the Salt Pond Visitor Center lobby reopened and is operating under the National Park Service 25% capacity requirement for communities experiencing high or substantial community transmission. Sixteen people are allowed into the space at one time, which is feasible during the off-season, but would have led to impossibly long waits during the busy season, when several hundred to over 1,000 people visit each center daily. Staff and volunteers are happy to be engaging with the public indoors again. The park store operated by Eastern National is also open, with a variety of seashore-related items for sale. As we proceed through winter, seashore managers will look at community transmission in deciding when to reopen the theater and museum.
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Highland Light Rehabilitation Project Heads for the Finish Line
The $2 million full rehabilitation of the Highland Lighthouse is nearing completion. Many years ago staff and the public began noticing cracking and spalling on the exterior of the masonry tower. After collecting and analyzing data, National Park Service engineers and preservation specialists determined that excess moisture was leading to masonry and mortar failure and corrosion of metal elements.
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Several factors contributed to the elevated moisture level, including layers of non-breathable coatings applied to the exterior of the tower over its 160+-year history, deficiencies in the venting at the top of the tower, and a cement-like filling installed in the spaces between interior walls at the tower base to stabilize the structure before its 1996 relocation. These inner walls are part of the tower's original architecture, intended to promote ventilation and reduce moisture. The rehabilitation project included removal of tower coatings and installation of a breathable coating, repair and replacement of masonry and metal elements, new windows, and repair and reinstallation of venting processes. Park managers look forward to welcoming the public back to this significant historic building in summer 2022.(NPS photos)
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Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore, PO Box 550, Wellfleet, MA 02667 508-957-0729
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E-News Editor: Betsy Bray Layout: Marianne McCaffery Photos courtesy of the National Park Service |
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