Eel River Goings On

November, 2007

Beginning in the spring of 2007, Southeast Mass TU has been involved in gathering stream data from the headwaters of the Eel River in Plymouth. This is part of an ambitious restoration project currently underway in which the town of Plymouth, along with Inter-Fluve, will restore 39 acres of non-productive cranberry bogs to its original, pre-agricultural state with the ultimate objective of a self-sustaining habitat for wild brook trout.

The Town of Plymouth and Inter-Fluve

The town acquired the land a few years ago after it had been a productive cranberry bog since the late 1800’s. The last harvest on this property took place in the late ‘90’s. Dave Gould, Environmental manager for the town, has hired Inter-Fluve (www.interfluve.com) to handle the project. This company has a long, successful track record in these types of projects. For an example of the quality and thoroughness of their work locally, you need only to travel to Brewster Gardens near the Plymouth waterfront. The before-after is impressive indeed. The town made a wise choice to bring them back for Eel River.

About the project and the ecosystem

This project is expected to take 4-5 years to complete and some of the logistics are large in scope. The vital element for this watershed and the star of the show is the Atlantic white cedar. (Chamaecyparis thyoides). Marty Melchior of Inter-Fluve, estimates that 22,000-25,000 saplings will need to be produced and planted on the property in order to achieve the desired result. Before that takes place, some of the sand, used by cranberry farmers to insulate their bogs from the harsh winter elements, will have to be removed in order to enhance the development of a necessary layer of peat which serves many purposes in this type of environment. What we have here is vegetation growth outstripping decomposition which creates your layers of peat. This results in an area which is a carbon and nutrient sink (storage area). This type of ecosystem is vital in both local and global climate by virtue of its powerful control of hydrological cycles and carbon/nutrient balance.

Enter Trout Unlimited

Southeast Mass TU’s involvement began in 2006 when Peter Motyka, a resident of Plymouth and an Environmental Management major at Bridgewater State College got news of the project. He saw this as an opportunity to gain experience in water quality and stream restoration issues by doing field work. Motyka contacted Dr. Kevin Curry to arrange the use of the needed monitoring equipment. Although the actual work on the site will not begin until the summer of ’08, it was decided that the pre-project data gathered would be beneficial to the town and Inter-Fluve. Since May of 2007, monthly data has been gathered and charted at 3 sites in the headwaters area. The data categories are Ph, water temp, dissolved oxygen in mg/L, percent saturation of dissolved oxygen, stream depth and flow discharge rate. Motyka has been ably aided by Barry Guaraldi, Wayne Perry, Charlie Fortier and other members of our Chapter and the Mass/RI Council.

Stream readings are taken on the third Saturday of every month and will continue year round. We meet at the Nature Conservancy office on Long pond road at 8:30 AM. And we are usually done by 10:30.

What’s in the immediate future

The town has announced preliminary plans to begin planting Atlantic white cedar saplings in the summer on 2008 and will need volunteers over an extended period of time. More information will be available about this next spring.

For more information on the progressive goings-on at Eel river and what our chapter is doing, contact Peter Motyka, project liaison at peterbigbass@aol.com

You can get there from here……..

Directions from rt. 3 south: Get off at exit 5. Bear right at the bottom of the ramp onto Long Pond road. You will travel 1.8 miles, passing Boot Pond Road. You will then cross over the site. The Nature Conservancy office driveway is just past that on the left.

Directions from rt. 3 north: Get off at exit 3. Take a left at the end of the ramp and go over the highway. At the stop sign, turn right onto Long Pond road and you’ll travel 3.7 miles from that intersection. The entrance to the Nature Conservancy office driveway will be on your right just down from Gunner’s Exchange road.

Link to town reports

There are two reports on the town website, A Conceptual design report and a Conceptual design plan. To access the page that these are on, click on the link below.

http://www.plymouth-ma.gov/Public_Documents/PlymouthMA_EnvironManage/projects

Link to a October 2006 blog report:

http://blog01.kintera.com/troutunlimited/archives/2006/10/bogs_and_brooki.html#more