DARTMOUTH The Allens Pond salt marsh is drowning, says ecologist Danielle Perry.
In her tall waterproof boots, she stands atop an old stone wall transecting the marsh s western edge and points to two sizeable pools of water, naturally demarcated by the tan marsh cordgrass.
On the other side of the stone wall in some parts visually distinct with a lighter, windswept marsh grass water pools, too. Saltmarsh hay (which likes drier conditions) has slowly migrated upland into the bushy brush to escape the water line creeping up higher and more frequently.
Years ago, cordgrass would have jutted through the pool s water line. But today, some areas are bare: muddy flats at low tide and pools of water at high tide. Perry says with more frequent inundation due to accelerated sea level rise, some cordgrass has died off.
Wicked Local
LINCOLN A pair of Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuaries have been awarded $150,000 through an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program to promote resilient ecosystems of clean water, healthy diverse habitats, and sustainable communities in Southeast New England.
The funding is provided through the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Grants, a partnership between EPA and Restore America s Estuaries, which selected Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth and Great Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Wareham among its 2020 grant recipients. Mass. Audubon will use the grant to restore saltmarsh habitats and make them more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
Community partners for the saltmarsh restoration project include the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, Wareham Land Trust and town of Wareham, Providence-based Save The Bay, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
After reading the November 12 column, Ruth Blakney contacted me to let me know she had done a little more research into loon relocation. Ruth lives in Brooklyn, CT but has spent summers in western Maine since she was nine.
Ruth did additional research on the Fall River, MA bird which was relocated from upstate New York and successfully raised a chick with its mate this past summer. After multiple attempts, Ruth connected with Gina Purtell, Director at Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary, a property managed by Mass Audubon. Gina shared the horror of getting a call in April of 2003 informing her a Bouchard barge had run aground, ruptured and spilled 98,000 gallons of oil along the southern Massachusetts coast. Gina rushed to the shoreline and, with others, worked to save the thousands of oil-soaked birds struggling to get out of the water. April is a particularly bad time for an oil spill. Southern New England coasts are a gathering place for thousands of mi
Bird sightings from Mass Audubon
Greater Boston: A Pacific-slope flycatcher found approximately two weeks ago at Lusitania Meadow in the vicinity of Fresh Pond in Cambridge is still being observed and continues to head the list of last week’s Massachusetts rarities. Also noteworthy in the Boston area was an eared grebe on Jamaica Pond in Jamaica Plain and a red-necked grebe on the Mystic Lakes in Medford. At Nice Acre Corner in Concord there were five killdeer, and a late spotted sandpiper was observed at Menotomy Lakes Park in Arlington. At Horn Pond in Woburn, two redheads were seen, and a very late black-throated blue warbler was reported from Cambridge. Elsewhere in the suburbs there continues to be a scattering of red crossbills, common redpolls, and evening grosbeaks, so keep your eyes on your bird feeders. A Barrow’s goldeneye has been present for over a week now, as has a yellow-breasted chat in the vicinity of Longfellow Pond in Wellesley.