Marstons Mills Cranberry Bog Eco-Restoration Project
Comprehensive Study Area
Draft 9/24/2026
The Comprehensive Study Area (CSA) is a 17-acre area within the Marstons Mills Cranberry Bog Eco-Restoration Project. Through a design-build approach, BCWC and its partners are adapting designs during construction to compare nitrogen-removal treatments and their costs. Long-term monitoring, an outdoor classroom, and onsite facilities will connect the experiments with science education and outreach.
Promising results from small experimental systems called mesocosms are informing larger, side-by-side field scale trials of different wetland types. Pumped nitrogen-rich groundwater will provide comparable concentrations at each treatment-cell inlet. Lawn fertigation trials will also demonstrate an approach homeowners could use to reduce their nitrogen impact. The study will examine how treatment performance and construction costs compare, helping guide future restoration decisions.
Atlantic white cedar plantings and sphagnum relocation are also part of the work. Living Observatory will investigate how planting conditions affect cedar recruitment, survival, and growth. The construction team will be preserving and relocating existing sphagnum to help insulate disturbed peat and to reestablish vegetation after construction. Young cedars will be planted and seeds sown on upland islands, including in relocated sphagnum.
Explore pages for Design Build, Monitoring, and the Outdoor Classroom.
- Barnstable Clean Water Coalition: Zenas Crocker, Heather Rockwell, Luke Cadrin, Michelle Motley
- Interfluve: Nick Nelson, Becca McCue, Sondra Shah
- Wilkinson Ecological Design: Dan Sammartano, Duke Bitsko, John Bennett, Nick Bruce, Ben Eichman, Stephen Lee, Mark Borrelli
- MassDER Cranberry Bog Restoration Program: Jess Cohn
- Horsley Consulting: Scott Horsley
- Living Observatory: Adrian Wiegman, Glorianna Davenport, Brian Mayton
Advisory group
Laura Erban (EPA), Tim McCobb (USGS), Casey Kennedy (USDA), Lealdon Langley (MassDEP), Neal Price (Horsley Witten Group), and others.