Mattapoisett’s Open Space Committee has been plugging away at updating the 1998 Open Space Action Plan document that helps steer the committee – with the cooperative efforts of other town boards and commissions – towards land conservation in various forms.
Members from the Recreation Department, Planning Board, Bike Path Committee, Highway and Sewer Departments, Conservation Commission, and Community Preservation Committee work in harmony with the Open Space Committee to give Mattapoisett and its residents a healthy and environmentally sound place to live.
During their recent meeting, they put some additional finishing touches on the Action Plan that sorely required updating. They have already completed a working draft and are now editing and fine tuning the document. During the January 29 meeting, they were working on the Goals and Objectives portion of the Action Plan document. What I found interesting was just how much has been accomplished.
Barry Denham of the Highway Department said that, “75 to 80% of all lands they wished to conserve have been acquired.” Those lands run along the Mattapoisett River Valley Aquifer. A total of 1,166 acres are now in permanent protection status. Bonne DeSousa of the Bike Path Committee acknowledged that land acquisitions were in fact “the most productive strategy” for assuring protection of those vital acres. Denham said, “We have to give lots of credit to the residents who have given 100s of acres or sold (at reasonable rates) land to the town.” “If it hadn’t been for the cooperation of long-term residents, the land would have been gone.” The Buzzards Bay Coalition and the Mattapoisett Land Trust were noted as being instrumental in protecting lands along this sensitive corridor and other watershed locations as well.
The committee noted that the lands were acquired into permanent protection status despite the town not having adopted any by-laws specifically for wetlands protection and that vigorous enforcement of the Wetland Protection Act was actually more effective than having by-laws.
In addition to land acquisition as part of the ‘goals and objectives,’ the updated Action Plan document will contain: a new herring ladder; new tot lot; new tennis courts; environmental educational programs for school-aged children including water sampling; improved access to public restrooms and bath house facilities; increased number of moorings in the harbor; expansion of launch services; a waterfront management plan; completion of a shellfish study at Pine Island Pond; clock tower renovations; and Center School and library historic façade restoration.
Other major accomplishments for the town that roll up into this Open Space document were the improvements and repairs to the storm water drainage systems and completion of sewer projects. With drainage and/or sewer projects completed along North Street, Point Connett, Ned’s Point, Crescent Beach, Pico Beach, Brandt Beach and parts of Mattapoisett Neck, Denham explained that these types of improvements work hand-in-glove in protecting the health of the harbor and the quality of life for the residents.
Denham also discussed that even though the herring ladder had been renovated, unknown factors in the ocean negatively impact herring populations. In recent years, there have been both a boom and a bust in the number of herring swimming upstream to spawn. He said that one fishing net could easily disrupt the number of herring able to reach spawning waters.
There is still plenty of work that this committee can monitor and/or offer assistance. On the horizon are more storm water drainage and sewer projects, more recreational opportunities that need exploring, more historic locations that need repairing, more lands that need protection status, sidewalks that need fixing, trees that need protecting, and community support that needs to flow.
For more information on the work taking place by the Open Space Committee and when the next meeting is scheduled, contact Mattapoisett Conservation Agent Elizabeth Leidhold at eleidhold@mattapoisett.net or call 508-758-4100 ext. 229.
By Marilou Newell