Since 2019, NCF has been working with the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Program (DER) to plan a watershed-level wetland restoration project for its Windswept Bog property, located off Polpis Road in the northeastern portion of the island. Years of research, monitoring, engineering plan development, permitting, and grant writing will all be coming together in January 2024 when the project is scheduled to go to construction. NCF is extremely grateful to our project team members who worked so hard to get us to this stage: Jessica Cohn from DER and Michael Soares and Dr. Julianne Busa from Fuss & O’Neill, Inc. engineers. This project is being funded by DER and generous grants from the Southern New England Estuary Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Program and a private family foundation.
NCF has contracted with SumCo Eco-Contracting, a firm that specializes in ecological and environmental improvement projects with experience restoring wetlands at other retired cranberry bogs elsewhere in Massachusetts. The restoration work at Windswept is scheduled to take place over 2-3 years, with construction activities happening only during the winter dormant season (from November to mid-March) to avoid impacting rare plants, nesting birds and breeding wildlife on the property. Construction this winter will be taking place in the southwestern and northeastern portions of the property and will then proceed to the center and property entrance areas in subsequent years. Although the site will need to be closed to the public during construction for safety reasons, access will be reopened when the work is completed. Visitors will be able to view the restored wetlands as they become re-vegetated over the coming growing season via walking trails and boardwalks that will be installed across the property.
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