A different kind of hospital patient

Like an ailing patient at Cape Cod Hospital next door, the former cranberry bog land along Bayview Road in West Yarmouth will soon undergo a comprehensive assessment for ways to bring it back to good ecological health.

Cape Cod Hospital, which owns the 89-acre bog area, announced recently that the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) has designated “Bayview Bogs,” as a “Priority Project” for ecological restoration.

The Cape Cod Conservation District (CCCD) has agreed to work in partnership with Cape Cod Hospital and will be the lead entity on the project, said Michael Lauf, President and CEO of Cape Cod Healthcare, Cape Cod Hospital’s parent company.

“We are very excited to partner with the Conservation District and with our community to create a project that will not only help restore the original state of the land to its natural habitat, but also provide incredible opportunity for our patients, visitors and community to witness the transformation and eventually be able to experience and enjoy the area,” he said.

The initiative is one of nine in the state that were recently designated as Priority Ecological Restoration Projects by DER, a part of the state Department of Fish and Game. As such, the project is eligible for technical and financial assistance from DER.

CCCD will coordinate assessment efforts with DER and the hospital and will act as the coordinator for input from stakeholders in the bog area, said District board chair Mark Forest of Yarmouth.

“We’re on the first step of potentially a long and productive journey,” he said. “The arrangement we have is that the District and DER would, on behalf of the hospital, undertake an assessment of the site, look at the ecological health of the site, find out what the problems and issues are, look at water quality issues there and identify design and treatment possibilities.”

Down the road, all parties are hopeful that the bogs can be brought back to a healthier ecosystem that can offer hospital patients and family members a tranquil place for contemplation and healing, a space for passive recreation for neighbors and community members, and possible climate change mitigation benefits by restoring the ebb and flow of water into nearby Lewis Bay.

“As the impacts associated with climate change are felt throughout the Commonwealth, our Administration continues to support projects in communities across the state that increase Massachusetts’ climate resilience,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in a press release about the DER grants. “This ecological restoration work directly aligns with our goals, which will have lasting benefits within the many regions of the state.”

Bayview Bog was used for growing cranberries from the late 1800s until the late 1990s, when CCH ended farming activities there. In the years since, the area, which includes 50 acres of upland, has become overgrown with invasive vegetation that has prevented public use and attracted unwanted activity. While the land includes several buildable lots, CCH’s parent company, Cape Cod Healthcare (CCHC) has no plans to use the land for expansion or for any other use, said Lauf.

“We want our patients, staff, visitors and community to be able to visualize nature at its very best,” he said. “It just fits so nicely with who we are and, as we build a new oncology and cardiac center on (the CCH) campus, we really love the fact that Mark Forest and the District partnered with us to preserve, enhance and improve something in the environment.”

Four other projects on Cape Cod were included in the DER Priority Projects designation awards and all are now eligible to receive technical and program management support from DER staff, as well as financial assistance. The Cape projects include other former cranberry bog restorations along the Bass River (Yarmouth) and Marston Mills River (Barnstable), and two other projects in Chatham. One is spearheaded by the Chatham Conservation Foundation to restore natural tidal exchange in the Frost Fish Creek estuary, and the other is led by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to restore salt marsh, increase tidal flow and restore estuarine habitat in Ryder’s Cove.

As Priority Projects, they are able to receive DER staff expertise and financial assistance through the life of the project, dependent on annual state budgetary allocations. During the assessment, design, and permitting phases, DER also collaborates with partners on fundraising for construction including state and federal grants. DER also has pre-qualified restoration consultants that can be contracted directly by DER to provide technical services for projects.

DER also has pre-qualified restoration consultants that can be contracted directly by DER to provide technical services for projects.

“Priority Projects will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for services from those consultants, or in some cases, direct funding. DER will make decisions about the type and level of assistance based on individual project needs and availability of funding,” said Jessica Cohn, ecological restoration specialist for DER’s Cranberry Bog Programs.

CCCD will be the lead agency to meet with a variety of stakeholders in the Bayview Bogs area, such as abutters, neighbors, the Yarmouth Conservation Trust, and the Town of Yarmouth, throughout the assessment and treatment project. Community input is very important to all of the entities involved in the assessment and restoration project, said Forest.

“There are a variety of groups that it will be the District’s responsibility to bring together,” he said.

A Therapeutic Setting

Forest said he has long admired the Bayview Bogs land, especially as a complementary neighbor to the hospital’s Mugar Patient Tower, which overlooks the area. When the hospital approached the District about finding a way to restore it to good health, the District welcomed the opportunity, he said.

“I’ve been at the hospital numerous times with family and friends, and the Mugar center is an incredibly special place. Its siting and its design are very therapeutic,” Forest said. “You have these spectacular views (from patient rooms) of Nantucket Sound and the (Hyannis) harbor, and then to the east is this (bog) area that is screaming for attention.”

The Bayview Bogs restoration project, along with the Bass River and Marston Mills River bogs project, hope to replicate a completed wetlands restoration effort on the Coonamessett River in Falmouth. The area has seen the return of herring in the river, as well as the return of healthy and indigenous plant and wildlife activity. While the construction process can be quite disruptive to the land – such as the removal of layers of sand added by cranberry growers over the years – the results for such projects have spoken for themselves.

“We have to address the legacy impacts of farming that continue to affect the landscape after farming stops,” said Cohn. “By filling ditches, removing small dams, uncompacting the sand layers, we can set the stage for the ecosystem to heal itself. We typically see buried and dormant seeds of native wetland plants germinate and re-establish quickly, for example, following restoration earthwork.”

She cited a cranberry bog restoration project the state was involved in in Plymouth over a decade ago that saw the blossoming of an Atlantic white cedar swamp when the impediments to its health were removed.

“I see a future healthy wetland full of life and diversity, with walking trails, that is an important neighborhood amenity, as well as a quiet place for healing next to the hospital,” Cohn said.

Lauf agreed and said the hospital wants to ensure it stays a place that the community can enjoy.

The benefits of restoration of wetland areas go beyond the return of native plants and animals, Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod Andrew Gottlieb told the Cape Cod Times recently.

“From a human perspective, one of the primary ecological values of properly functional wetlands is to absorb floodwaters and provide opportunities for floodwaters to get processed through the plant matter and make their way down to the groundwater without carrying all these pollutants through them, as opposed to floodwater having no place to go and ending up on someone’s backyard and flooding public infrastructure,” Gottlieb told the Times.

Whether those benefits and others related to climate change mitigation will be seen after the Bayview Bogs are restored is still to be determined, Forest said.

“These are some of the aspects we are going to have to examine. We know that Lewis Bay is an impaired waterway and one of the questions we need to assess is could (restoration of the bogs) be part of the solution?” he said. (The Town of Yarmouth is already addressing the issue of pollution into Lewis Bay and other waterways through its comprehensive wastewater plan, he added.)

“We will be looking at restoring that wetland into something that might help address and buffer the effects of climate change. But that’s going to be a topic of discussion once we get a much fuller assessment of the site.”

According to the DER, the estimated timeline for the Bayview Bogs project includes:

• Assessment – one to two years
• Design – one to two years
• Permitting – six to nine months
• Construction – six to nine months.

A web page is coming soon to the Cape Cod Healthcare site, which will be dedicated to the Bayview Bog Restoration project. The page will provide a way for the public and other interested parties to leave comments and suggestions for the project. Stay tuned for further updates.