OLD HARBOR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN COMPLETED

    The Friends' two-year capital campaign to raise funds to refurnish the interior of Old Harbor Life-Saving Station is essentially complete! Friends raised $120,000 due to the generosity of its members and other donors. The fact that we have received so many in-kind donations of artifacts of the 1901 era aided Friends in the completion of the campaign, and is very much appreciated.  The newly refurbished station has been extremely well received by all who have seen it, resulting in a marked increase in the number of visitors in 2011.

    If you have not yet seen the transformation at Old Harbor, we encourage you to visit in 2012 when the station reopens in mid-May. Old Harbor becomes the only historical life-saving station of its type in the U.S. that is completely refurnished, bringing to life this remarkable era of American maritime history.

Here is a serendipitous story about the acquisition of the kitchen pump and sink for Old Harbor:

    "Back in late August of 2011, it was clear to me that we should pursue finding and funding a kitchen sink, hand pump, and drain board as per the 1898 specs for building Old Harbor Station. I had hoped to have the sink and stand all in place in time for the re-dedication event that was to be held in September. I searched the Internet for a Gould's of Seneca Falls, NY hand pump of the era, and found one on eBay for less than $80.00. But, I was expecting to have to go to a local welder to have the 'pressed steel, galvanized, 18" x 30" x 6" sink' made for us.  

   "Shortly after receiving the pump, I happened to cruise through the metal pile at the Eastham Transfer Station, as I have been known to do with some regularity (and success I might add.) There, right in front of me, lay a pressed steel sink of the absolute correct dimensions! Big time find! I had researched such sinks on the Internet and discovered that they were no longer being made. So, I started to build the wooden structure that was needed to hold the pump and sink.

    "The specs also called for a 'hardwood drain board.'  Friends board member and Keeper Dave Spang gave me a section of glued-up maple that he just happened to have saved from somewhere, which I cut down to the right size. I only had to buy a new router bit with which to cut the grooves, and before you knew it, the whole thing had been sand blasted, painted, assembled and delivered to Old Harbor in time for the rededication event.

   "The total cost was less than $170.00. Talk about serendipity!  The entire fund raising campaign for Old Harbor has been like this. I feel the project was meant to be."

Richard G. Ryder

Cape Cod Lifesaving Historian

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WINTER FILM SERIES AT SALT POND VISITORS CENTER

    Touching on topics as diverse as the resources and stories of Cape Cod, this film series covers whaling history, marooned shipwreck victims, the Wampanoag People, marine conservation, and a tale with a sci-fi twist. Beginning Sunday, January 22 and showing each Sunday through February 26, the Winter Film Festival will be held in the Salt Pond Visitor Center auditorium at 1:30 PM.

VOLUNTEERING THIS WINTER

    A Friends' volunteer records ice on Snow Pond, Truro, as part of the Seashore's long-term phenology monitoring study.

    Volunteers are checking three Outer Cape ponds three times each week.  Taken on January 20, 2012, this photograph shows more than 75% of the pond iced over (thin as it may be!) 

BECOME A CITIZEN SCIENTIST

      Would you like to be a part of real scientific research? The Seashore is seeking a group of dedicated volunteers to assist with data collection for a phenological monitoring study beginning this December. What is phenology?!  It is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena - the timing of life cycle events in organisms.  For example, when a kettle pond freezes or when spring peepers begin to call. One of the questions to explore is whether climate change will affect phenology of Cape Cod's flora and fauna.

    Friends is taking the lead in providing volunteers for this fascinating project; the park will supply the monitoring tools and training.  We still need volunteers for two of the three projects:

    #1   Monitoring various shrubs at Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown and High Head, Truro. March - June, 2012

   #2   Monitoring formation of ice on Snow Pond, Truro, Great Pond and Long Pond, Wellfleet.  December - March 2012

    You may also do your own independent monitoring at a chosen location and add the data to the study.

    We are looking for two or three teams for each location to allow for sufficient coverage and flexibility for volunteers. If interested in volunteering or learning more, please contact Fred Guidi at friendsccns@gmail.com.  To learn more about phenology visit  www.usanpn.org.

BALLSTON BEACH DUNE REBUILDS!

     Last spring Friends of Cape Cod National Seashore joined forces with Safe Harbor and other groups to restore the coastal dune damaged by severe storm erosion at Truro's Ballston Beach.  

      Friends coordinated contributions for the project and its volunteers helped to install fencing and plant beach grass all along the over-wash. The effort paid off!  During the recent late October storm an extra 3 feet of new sand was deposited on the Ballston Beach dune according to Safe Harbor's founder, Gordon Peabody. The dune's elevation is now nearly 10 feet above what it was 11 months ago.

     (Photo by Gordon Peabody)   

Nauset Light

NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS DAY

In 2010 approximately 170,000 volunteers participated in the annual National Public Lands Day  nation-wide at more than 2,000 sites, contributing, in effect, more than $15 million in improvements to public lands.

Saturday, September 24, 9 a.m. to noon, is the date for this year's event at Cape Cod National Seashore. Friends of CCNS has participated with park staff in this annual event for many years. We invite you to join us in this group project - helping to maintain the national seashore, all the while enjoying a magnificent autumn morning at the park.

There will be two work projects this year at Nauset Light in Eastham and Old Harbor in Provincetown.

• Nauset Light: help repair trails and walkways around the site, adding new gravel and replacing steps leading to the lighthouse.
• Old Harbor: clean up trash and debris in the area around the Old Harbor Life-Saving Station at Race Point.

To sign up to help, and for more details, contact volunteer@fccns.org, indicating which project you prefer. Remember to bring work gloves, water, and sunscreen. CCNS and Friends will provide tools needed. JOIN US!

HISTORIC  BIDDLE  PROPERTY

 Friends Sustainers' Event

In the planning stage for October is a Sustainers/Patrons event, a tour of the Biddle Property on Wellfleet's Bound Brook Island, recently acquired by the CCNS through The Trust for Public Land. The 10-acre parcel consists of four antique homes, dating from approximately 1690 to 1850. 

The oldest of the houses was likely used in whale processing, a link to Wellfleet's fishing, whaling and oyster harvesting roots prior to the town's incorporation in 1743. Lorenzo Dow Baker -- known as the Banana King -- a nineteenth-century merchant who founded United Fruit Company, was born on the property. Among the more recent former owners was Judge Francis Biddle, who served as U.S. Attorney General during World War II and was the primary judge during the post-war Nuremburg Trials, and his wife, poet Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle.

"We are thrilled to see our beloved family retreat pass into the caring, imaginative hands of the CCNS and Park Service," said Judge Biddle's grandson Stephen Biddle. "The past is again preserved."
 

Sustainers and Partners will receive invitations once a date for the tour is set. Stay tuned!

 PCCS image: NOAA permit 932-1489

      WHALE DISENTANGLEMENT:

Up close and personal

       The highlight of the Friends 2011 Membership Meeting was an inspiring talk presented by Scott Landry, Director of the Marine Entanglement Response Team of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. The Center has been the major responder to entangled whales in the western North Atlantic.

       Due to the immensity of the response area, they are training other teams and have formed a response network. Scott told what it is like to attempt to disentangle large, sometimes belligerent animals using very creative methods. He described the use of a cross bow that can shoot specially designed rope-cutting arrows. While saving a single whale can have a significant impact on the dwindling population, it is, unfortunately, not the answer.

      The word for the evening was "by-catch", the unintended capture of fish and other animals in fishing gear. Despite their large size, whales are frequent victims of by-catch. Over 70% of highly endangered Northern Right Whales bear scars left by fishing gear and these are the survivors!  Many more whales die, unnoticed, from entanglement. In fact, by-catch, together with ship strikes, is the major reason why, in the absence of whaling, the population has not rebounded.

    Scott also described the work of the federally mandated Take Reduction Team, a coalition of government agencies, scientists, fishermen and conservationists to develop methodologies and policies that would significantly reduce by-catch without unduly restricting commercial fishing efforts

                  FRIENDS' BENEFIT

      On the evening of July 30, Friends hosted a benefit for its Old Harbor Life-Saving Station Fund at Addison Art Gallery in Orleans.  The exhibit, "Inspired by the National Seashore," a juried show celebrating the National Seashore's 50th Anniversary, featured more than 50 works of arts by some 30 artists.

     Friends members and other guests were treated also to a small display of artifacts from the Life-Saving Service era, such as a USLSS barometer and a surfboat speaking trumpet, courtesy of Dick Ryder. Many thanks to  Helen Addison for hosting this benefit, and to Nauset Fish and Lobster Pool, Mac's Seafood, Shaw's, and Stop & Shop for providing the splendid refreshments.  Contributions will go toward the completion of the Friends' effort to refurnish the interior of Old Harbor

The Province Lands Bike Trail rehabilitation project is complete, and will be officially opened with a public ribbon cutting ceremony at Province Lands Visitor Center Amphitheater on June 30 at 1 PM as part of the 50th Anniversary celebration.

The trail, originally dedicated in 1967, was the first bike trail designed and constructed in a national park area. At the original opening, the ribbon was cut by Massachusetts native, and President Eisenhower's personal physician, the eminent cardiologist Dr. Paul Dudley White. The new improvements include widening, pavement markings, retaining walls, and native vegetation plantings to prevent sand from drifting across the trail.

Herring Cove Beach, Race Point Beach, the Beech Forest, and the Province Lands Visitor Center can all be reached by this beautiful trail through the dunes.   

FCCNS has joined a consortium with Cape Cod National Seashore and several Truro agencies to address the recent severe storm erosion at Ballston Beach. The Truro Coastal Restoration Partnership is raising funds to purchase native dune grass and will organize local volunteers to do the planting and install fencing along this gorgeous ocean beach.

Sand overwash at Ballston Beach

Friends is coordinating contributions for the project and will assist with the planting. Those wishing to help underwrite this effort may send checks to FCCNS, PO Box 550, Wellfleet, MA 02667, with a memo citing the Ballston Restoration. You may also donate via the Network for Good Button in the left margin, and put Ballston as the designation.  

Ivan Ace, Nat Goddard and Betsy Richards helped Interpretive Ranger Sue Haley install six concrete animal track displays along Buttonbush Trail near Salt Pond.

Nat Goddard and Sue Haley working on Buttonbush

Each circular concrete 'block' contains the imprints of both feet of an animal commonly found in the woods of the Seashore's trail.  These animal track displays are part of a new educational program on Buttonbush Trail that encourages children and adults to explore and learn about the kinds of living creatures who inhabit the water, ground, shrubs and trees here.  A new trail brochure will be available to explain the program to visitors.