On May 16th at 10AM, The Brewster Ponds Coalition presents an educational program entitled POND-FRIENDLY LANDSCAPING at the Brewster Ladies Library, 1822 Main St, Brewster, MA.
Learn what you can do as a homeowner to reduce pond pollutants on your own property and simultaneously create beautiful landscapes. Discover how to build a rain garden that minimizes run-off and lowers the risk of pathogens and nutrients from entering ponds. Identify ways to eliminate toxins from entering pond waters and eventually your drinking water. “Many homeowners do not know the important role they can play in improving pond water quality,” said Brewster Ponds Coalition President, Karen Malkus-Benjamin. “Even if you don’t live next to a pond, creating landscaping that allows water to infiltrate instead of running-off will help ponds and water quality,” she said. “Preventing polluted stormwater from going down the storm drain - which often leads directly to a pond or the bay, is important. Diverting run-off away from ponds and allowing rainwater to filter through native plants helps to protect water quality. It also creates healthy habitat for pollinators and discourages geese who like open areas,” she said. “Pond front property owners can also play an important role by adding vegetative barriers that preserve their view and beautify their yard, plus add a level of natural treatment for stormwater,” she said. Presenters include: Sue Phelan, a founder and director of GreenCAPE, a nonprofit community advocacy organization, formed in 1998, whose goal is to educate the public about the hazards of pesticides and other harmful chemicals above the Cape’s vulnerable water supply and to encourage/inform Cape Codders about safer alternatives to chemical use. She has been an enthusiastic organic gardener for 45 years (and a beekeeper for 27), having been converted after reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. After working as a medical microbiologist for many years, Sue returned to the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture where she graduated from the Environmental Horticulture program. Subsequently, she conducted research and development on insect pheromones and light mediated changes in plant growth and development. Barbara Conolly, A Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professional and owner of Gardens by Barbara Conolly, Inc. a design, installation, and management firm. Barbara brings a unique blend of knowledge and experience in the art and science of sustainable garden design and management. She is a certified Landscape for Life trainer and teaches professional training courses for The Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals and The Cape Cod Landscape Association. Barbara earned a Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, in horticulture and a master’s degree in Public Garden Leadership, both from Cornell University, lauded as the top global university for plant science (US News and World Report 2014). Barbara is a lifetime member of Pi Alpha Xi, the National Horticulture Honorary. Her original research is published in The Journal of Environmental Horticulture, and Public Garden. Matt Rusnak and Frank DeLeo of Americorps share work for pond restoration including their recent project - Boland Pond, Orleans. The Brewster Ponds Coalition joined the annual Beautify Brewster Day, organized by The Brewster Department of Natural Resources, for the first time this year. Team BPC consisted of 25 strong who worked Satucket Road from A. P. Newcomb to Slough Road and Slough Road to the Harwich town line. The total distance is just under 3 miles, but the group covered both sides of the road for almost 6 miles of cleanup.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who made this day possible inlcuding – BPC Team Leader and Board Member Tom Vautin, BPC President Karen Malkus-Benjamin, BPC Treasurer Tony Ortiz and his wife Nancy, BPC Board Member Rick Kuzman, BPC Board Member Dawn Walnut and her two sons Eli and Jeremy Parke, Robert and Mary Mauterstock, Jake and Laura Eldridge, Diane, Arthur, Dan and Sheila Driscoll, Chu and Jeffrey Race, Allison Argo and Jim Holland, Stephen McKenna, L.W. Thompson Lincoln, Brad Keith. ![]() Saturday, April 25th Join the Brewster Ponds Coalition on Beautify Brewster Day. Help us prepare our town for spring and Brewster in Bloom! Clean-up 9:30 - 11:30 AM Free appreciation luncheon will follow at the Brewster Baptist Church Gloves, safety vests and trash bags will be provided. Rain date Sunday, April 26th. If you are interested in participating, please email us at [email protected] or telephone Tom Vautin at 508-896-7812. ![]() A Ponds Educational Program, entitled Brewster Pond Management History... will take place on Tuesday, March 31 at 6PM at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Main Street, (RT 6A) Brewster. Steve Hurley, the Southeast District Manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife will be the featured speaker. Steve is a fisheries biologist responsible for freshwater fisheries in Southeastern Mass and Cape Cod. More than one-hundred people came out to discover some surprising facts about past uses, and hear solutions concerning the problems facing Brewster's ponds, on a raw, early Spring Day. Author, Robert Finch, who lived in Brewster for nearly 20 years, read several inspiring passages from his books and articles that illustrated why our ponds are so important. Writer and producer, Paul Gasek, presented a detailed geographic history of the Cape and the hydrology of ponds in Brewster.
Did you know that one of Brewster's Ponds featured a horse racing track around its shoreline? Or, that another major pond in Brewster has been “reclaimed” not twice but three times? Or, that one of Brewster's ponds provided the water for what is considered America’s first industrial site?
Learn interesting facts and little known history as The Brewster Ponds Coalition announces two in a series of new pond educational programs themed From Tanning Mills to Fish Kills. The first program, entitled Brewster Ponds - What can we learn from their past to help protect their future? … will take place on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 10 AM at First Parish Brewster, 1969 Main Street, (RT 6A) Brewster, and is presented in collaboration with the First Parish Brewster Environmental Action Committee. Presenters include Robert Finch - a nature writer who has lived on and written about Cape Cod for more than forty years. Mr Finch's 'A Cape Cod Notebook' won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing. Also speaking is Paul Gasek – Award winning documentary filmmaker and an Executive Producer for the Discovery Channel. The second program, entitled Brewster Pond Management History... will take place on Tuesday, March 31 at 6PM at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Main Street, (RT 6A) Brewster. Steve Hurley, the Southeast District Manager for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife will be the featured speaker. Steve is a fisheries biologist responsible for freshwater fisheries in Southeastern Mass and Cape Cod. “Humans on Cape Cod have been manipulating water quality through their activities since humans first lived here,” said Karen Malkus-Benjamin, Brewster Ponds Coalition Board President. “Learn about some of the surprising ways we have devised to use our ponds… and some current practices that you may not realize are harming our ponds today,” she said. “A primary goal of the Brewster Ponds Coalition is to educate citizens about what is causing the health of our ponds to deteriorate, and what we can all do to help improve water quality,” continued Malkus-Benjamin. “We all can see the natural beauty and appreciate the recreational value of our ponds. But, there are growing problems beneath the surface. Our plan is to present a lively series of programs that will show some of the historical practices that have been employed and steps that we can all take to both protect and restore the water quality of our ponds,” she said. For more information on this growing organization, to volunteer and become a member, visit www.brewsterponds.org, email: [email protected] or telephone 508-896-6655 or mail: Brewster Ponds Coalition, PO Box 459, Brewster MA 02631 February 25-26, 2015 Cape Cod Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis
35 Scudder Avenue, Hyannis, MA 02601 Click here for registration and curriculum link. This is your opportunity to participate and advocate for clean ponds on Cape Cod. Register now! ![]() Brewster Ponds Coalition Board supports continued open space purchases before the Brewster Finance Committee. Click logo on left for video of January 14, 2015 Finance Committee Meeting. Open space reduces storm water run-off and helps to keep Brewster's Ponds clean. CLICK HERE for entire text of letter to FINCOM from BPC Board. By Rich Eldred - [email protected] - Posted Dec. 26, 2014 @ 4:45 pm
BREWSTER -- The Brewster Ponds Coalition has a brand new website for an old purpose; protecting the town’s water resources. “The goal is for it to be a tool kit,” proclaimed Karen Malkus-Benjamin, the group’s first president, “offering education, a way to connect to us and a way to connect to all the people on Cape Cod interested in water related issues.” The website design (www.brewsterponds.org) is the work of Konrad Schultz, of Save Blueberry Pond. The Pond Coalition itself grew out of a meeting last spring overseen by the Comprehensive Water Planning Committee, consultants from Horsley and Witten and follow-up gatherings. A steering committee formed over the summer and the first official meeting took place Oct. 4, at the council on aging. It is non-profit citizens group that can tap into expertise developed by other more focused pond groups in town, such as the Friends of Long Pond (of which Malkus-Benjamin was president), Sheep Pond Beach Association and the Brewster Pond and Lake Stewards (PALS). “There are three things: educate, advocate and remediate,” Malkus-Benjamin said outlining the Coalition’s purpose. “It’s a group of citizens that can use their energy with a wider view than individual pond groups. We won’t take away from those groups but we will try to use those ideas they’ve had and share them. As a non-profit I feel there is a nimbleness with how we can do testing and get a shared rate because more people are involved. ”Overarching funding might make more resources available. “If you’re protecting ponds polluted by water runoff (for example) a lot of things are easier if at all the different ponds you’re doing the same things,” she said. “You can maybe buy at a discount and use the same ideas.” In addition to avoiding re-inventing the wheel pond by pond, the coalition can act as a clearing-house for resources. “We want to start holding educational workshops, maybe have speakers talk about the history of Brewster’s ponds,” Malkus-Benjamin explained. “In 1900 the Cape was a barren sand pile. A lot has happened with the agricultural industry (think cranberries), with fish stocking, the reclamation of ponds. Bob Marley said there isn’t a bright future if you don’t know your past. We’re asking people to come to meetings and share their stories.” At one time there was a horse-racing track around Long Pond. The coalition can also provide a “green infrastructure” of landscaping tools to understand what happens to fertilizer runoff and storm water. “We can talk about how to grow a vegetative buffer zone or a rain garden, things you can do in your yard,” she said. “Things that reduce pollution by filtering water in the soil. The Blueberry Pond group has a video on ‘bioswales’, how they did it.” The PALS group has already pioneered water sampling in Brewster. Malkus-Benjamin herself started as a volunteer for them. “We love the idea of the town using optical dissolved oxygen meters that can do an instant reading. That idea would be great to share among ponds,” she declared. They’ll look at the biological components of pond life as well, herring, other fish, birds, insects, turtles, plants. “We want to look at the whole ecosystem,” Malkus-Benjamin explained. What they won’t do is become heavily political. “We need to tread lightly,” she said. Anyone interested in Brewster’s Ponds is welcome. You don’t need to live on a shoreline.“Just come to the meetings,” she said. “The website has a sign-up form. We’ll meet the first Thursday of the month. We’ll have workshops in the new-year. We all connected through the aquifer and trouble in the ponds is a canary in the coal mine for all our water resources.” Click on WXTK logo above to hear short audio clip of interview of BPC Board President, Karen Malkus-Benjamin, with News Director, Matt Pitta.
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