From fire management to cranberry bogs and tidal streams, the habitats of the Mashpee Refuge are always a work-in-progress. The Friends and other Refuge Partners employ diverse methods to ensure that both flora and fauna can thrive in their natural habitats. Learn about some of the programs that have been supported within the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge.
The Quashnet Bog cranberry complex used to be the longest in the world, with cranberry production starting around the turn of the 20th century. From the 1950s to the 1990s, these bogs have gone out of commission due to hurricanes, concern over pesticides, groundwater contamination from an Air Force fuel spill, and a drop in cranberry prices. Read more…
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast Regional Fire Program, with support from partner agencies, plan to conduct a series of controlled burns on the Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) off of Red Brook and Great Oak Roads in the town of Mashpee and on Falmouth Rod and Gun Club Property off of Carriage Shop Rd. in Falmouth MA to reduce the risk of wildfire to nearby homes and improve habitat for the New England Cottontail Rabbit. Read more…
Rabbits having a tough time maintaining populations? Normally, you wouldn’t think so. But in New England, conditions are far from normal for the region’s only native rabbit species, the New England Cottontail, Sylvilagus transitionalis. In the wake of human development, fire and other natural disturbances that once maintained thicket and brush habitats, the species have all but disappeared from the landscape. Read more…
Through a grant from Mass. Coastal Zone Management, Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR), one of the Mashpee Refuge Partners, hired a consultant to develop a River Restoration Master Plan for the seven tributary streams into Waquoit Bay. Rather than looking at the rivers, and even impediments, on an individual basis, we used a watershed approach to identify and prioritize potential restoration projects so that we would be ready when construction funding becomes available. Read more…
The Falmouth Rod and Gun Club, which owns much the surrounding land, is working together with partners and associates to rehabilitate the upper Childs River. Read more…
Abigail Brook is a small, tidal stream that enters Jehu Pond on its northern shore. Near Jehu Pond, it crosses an ancient cart way that proved access to the salt marsh hayfields that began here, winding through Falmouth, Mashpee and ending in Sandwich. In this area, the stream and associated wetlands are part of an abandoned cranberry bog. Read more…
