21 Oct, 2013 Author: gid

With the cloudless October nights, cooler air meets moisture evaporating from the still-warm earth to create swirling morning mists - an exhilarating sight for early morning walkers.

As we bring in pumpkins and squash, Donny brings up the water on the bogs west of Beaver Dam Road signaling the start of our harvest. On October 20th, the last trailer load of berries is on its way to the Ocean Spray plant.

A few days before harvest starts, Jon Woodruff, Assistant Professor of Sedimentology and Coastal Processes, brings 20 students from U of Mass Amherst to visit Tidmarsh and learn various techniques for extracting sediment cores. The vibra-core system allows Jon to extract 3 10 meter deep cores over the course of the day. The analysis will add a longer time horizon to our detective work which could help answer the question, why did the Tidmarsh kettles fill with peat instead of water following the glacial retreat some 10,000 years ago?

With the lion’s share of the funds needed for the planned restoration now secured, thanks to the hard work of our partners at the USDA NRCS Wetlands Reserve Program and Massachusetts’ Division of Ecological Restoration, we now move from planning to permitting and implementation. Preparatory projects include the collection of 20,000 Atlantic White Cedar cones; once seeds are released from the cones, they will chilled for 3 months, before being set out to germinate in the spring. The saplings shown below were germinated in April 2013 by Irina Kadis and Alexey Zinovjev. They are now 9 months old!

Atlantic White Cedar saplings at 9 months

Another critical effort for us this fall will be to find the 3000 large stumps and long hardwood logs needed for the project. These large wood pieces will help secure the stream structure, will offer shade, and will help create the diverse habitat along the constructed stream channel. Last year, we were ill prepared to locate and transport the trees downed by NEMO as she ravaged the landscape. This year we have put in place a more responsive system. If you have large trees or root wads and stumps that might fit the bill, please get in touch with us at 508 224 7720.