The news that cars were pulling into the recently improved parking area at Grassi Bog was inspiring to Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission Chairman John Rockwell, who shook off Vice Chairman Alan Harris’s report that the area “is getting a little muddy and dug up.”
Harris told MOSAC members during their February 4 Zoom meeting that he had called up Jonathan Cote with National Resource Conservation Service, the inspector for the Wetland Reserve Program, and “wanted to make sure we had permission to do things. He was not wild about putting gravel there.” The obvious concern is that sediment doesn’t wash down into the bog, but Harris said the gravel had hardened up.
To lend the story some context, Rockwell shared a brief history of Grassi Bog with the story of how MOSAC was just starting out when Betsy Grassi went to the commission about planting a bog on Route 6. According to Rockwell, the land had been appraised at $200,000 and sold to MOSAC for $72,000.
Things got better as they got worse, as nine water-control structures on the property began to fail within a few years, all of them needing repair. But MOSAC had no full-time employee to do the work of adjusting water levels or making the necessary repairs. MOSAC reached out to the National Resource Conservation Service, an arm of the US Department of Agriculture. The agency gave MOSAC $60,000 to turn the bog into a wildlife area.
“The deed restriction said anything we did there has to go through them and be compatible with what that $60,000 was all about,” recalled Rockwell. “It lowered our cost from $72,000 to $12,000 – pretty good deal for 30-plus acres, and the property hadn’t been properly surveyed or marked.”
The federal government did those chores and drew up a plan to fix the water-control structures to maintain the bog as an emergent marsh. When the plan failed, NRCS came back at its own cost to draw up more plans. “Our out of pocket is still $12,000,” said Rockwell. “It’s a great walk and a great financial deal for the town.”
Harris called the land “quite diverse” with “a lot of birds there in the winter.”
Unfinished business relating to Grassi Bog includes an unwanted culvert made up of a black tube measuring 42 inches in diameter and 26 feet long. “We want someone to take it off our hands,” said Rockwell, who thought he had an arrangement several years ago with the Marion Department of Public Works. “Five years later, we offered it to neighboring wetland projects – still there.”
The Hoff Property Conservation Restriction was sent by Marion’s Board of Selectmen to Allen Decker at the Buzzards Bay Coalition, which technically owns the property. Rockwell said he was not clear if MOSAC signatures were on the CR. Jim Bride of the Sippican Lands Trust made an amendment to the baseline survey. Rockwell said he does not consider that to be a holdup.
Rockwell reported on a visit to Little Neck Village, where rocks and a sign needed to be moved to comply with the National Heritage & Endangered Species Program that requires all bounds of the Conservation Restriction to be permanently marked. Harris noted that some residents think the sign is too large. Rockwell explained that the CR was required in return for a permit to build Little Neck Village.
In a brief Point Road Path Update, Rockwell said he and MOSAC member Jeff Oakes made a list of items that the DPW wanted checked out. Rockwell appealed to the public for help if there are any engineers and surveyors who can donate an hour or two of their time. MOSAC Vice Chairman Alan Harris asked if MOSAC can advertise for such assistance, and Rockwell said he would look into it.
MOSAC broke into an executive session to discuss a land acquisition and did not return to open session.
The next meeting of the Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission is scheduled for Thursday, March 4.
Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission
By Mick Colageo