HCT's Priority Ponds Project

The Trust's first land donation in 1990 was a pondfront building lot on Mill Pond. Over the years, the Trust has helped protect over 66 acres with 5,508 feet of shoreline across seven different ponds. The goal of the Priority Ponds Project is to provide landowners with land conservation options that help protect pond water quality and wildlife habitat. The Priority Ponds Project is a campaign under the Trust's broader Save Land - Save Water Initiative to save lands that help protect both fresh and coastal water resources.

The Trust's Priority Ponds Project is important since according to a two-year regional study called the Cape Cod Priority Ponds Project (www.compact.cape.com, click Regional Projects) conducted by The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, a land trust service center, many Harwich ponds are at risk. Capewide, The Compact identified 200 high priority pondfront lands, which, if acquired as open space, could help protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. Harwich holds 10% of the total Capewide priority acreage. Lands are strung across 14 ponds in Harwich, tied with Barnstable for the most ponds with priority parcels. With its Priority Ponds Project, the Trust hopes to protect some of these sensitive ponds.

The most recent Priority Ponds Project success occurred in the spring of 2009 when 5.86 acres with an estimated 300 feet of frontage on Long Pond was donated by anonymous property owner. The habitat assemblage of red maple as well as upland dotted with tupelo, beech, oak and pitch pine stretches along part of Long Pond that is easily visible from a nearby public beach.

The Trust has helped conserve sensitive pond resources throughout Harwich, including:

• as HCT's first land donation) 0.33-acre building lot with 95 feet of frontage on Mill Pond in 1990;
  
• 5.9 acres with 775 feet of frontage on Sand Pond in 2001 (purchase);
  
• 8.7 acres with 600 feet of frontage on Katie's Pond in 2002 (purchase);
  
• 5.3 acres with 660 feet of frontage on Long Pond in 2002 (privately owned with a conservation restriction held by HCT);
  
• 5.2 acres with 483 feet of frontage on Hinckleys Pond in 2003 (privately owned with a conservation restriction held by HCT);
  
• 13.3 acres with 600 feet of frontage on Walkers Pond in 2003 (HCT holds a conservation restriction over the Town Land Bank purchase, which enabled the Town to qualify for and receive a $250,000 State Self-Help Grant that reduced the Town's cost from $725,000 to $475,000) [Note that Walkers Pond is a coastal plain pond, a globally significant habitat harboring rare plant species];
  
• 24 acres with 754 feet on Hinckleys Pond and 1,254 feet on Seymours Pond, plus a total of 959 feet on two herring runs;
  
• 5.86 acres with approximately 300 feet on Long Pond, Cape Cod's largest pond and also a herring spawning pond.