Ducks Unlimited To Continue Cape Cod National Seashore Project

CAPE COD, MA — Ducks Unlimited and the Cape Cod National Seashore are set to continue their partnership in the new year, officials said.

The organizations will continue to remove dead trees and shrubbery from the Duck Harbor area of the park. Clearing the dead vegetation has helped promote the growth of native saltmarsh vegetation, as well as lower fire risk by reducing fuel loads, officials said.

Over 80 acres of dead woody vegetation, killed by saltwater overwash events that began in January of 2021, were cleared last winter and spring. Overwash events continue to be observed at Duck Harbor and roughly 40 acres of dead woody vegetation in the area remain to be cleared, the added.

The continued clearing will promote the natural recruitment of salt marsh plants and increase the ecological productivity of the area, while helping to minimize breeding habitat for mosquitoes by facilitating flow and drainage of water, a news release said.

Park scientists are set to work with the Center for Coastal Studies to monitor changes in Duck Harbor and said they are optimistic about the revival of native salt marsh species, as saltwater tolerant plants have already been observed returning to the area.

This comes as part of an ongoing project hoping to restore the Herring River estuary on Cape Cod.

In February, Ducks Unlimited officially partnered with the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center, Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration, Wellfleet Conservation Trust, Friends of Herring River, the town of Wellfleet and others on a $60 million project to replace a dike built in 1909 with a bridge, and implement vegetative and sediment management to reestablish natural salt marsh conditions.

Read more: Ducks Unlimited Joins $60 Million Herring River Restoration Project