The project site is located within the larger Mark’s Cove Conservation Area, approximately 118-acres of protected open space owned collectively by the Buzzards Bay Coalition (BBC), Wareham Land Trust, Wildlands Trust, Mass Audubon, and the Town of Wareham. The restoration site itself includes abandoned cranberry farmland, two small agricultural ponds, trails, and a small creek and bordering wetlands.
Ecological restoration will encompass approximately 20-acres of abandoned cranberry farmland, adjacent uplands, and downstream salt marsh. Wetlands on the former cranberry farm are degraded from legacy impacts of agriculture including a sand fill layer, ditches, small dams, compacted soils, and more. Prior restoration actions on the cranberry farm by USDA NRCS helped to repair wetland hydrology but left some stressors in place; for example, earthen berms that limit aquatic connectivity and future marsh migration. Downstream wetlands are damaged by large stands of aggressive invasive plants.
The project is a pilot for low-lying cranberry bogs, marsh migration, and community engagement for the 2023 federal award to Mass Audubon and partners entitled “Making Space: The Southeastern Massachusetts Marsh Migration Initiative.”
