The Oyster Pond Environmental Trust Newsletter Fall 1996
OPET, P.O. Box 496, Woods Hole, MA 02543-0496
Now that the Fischer Parcels are securely in OPET's hands (transfer of title to OPET was achieved just in time before the Annual Meeting on July 13, the day hurricane Bertha bore down on Cape Cod) the Land Conservation and Acquisition Committee has been busy identifying the next most urgent objective. The result was the laying of plans for the creation of an Oyster Pond Conservation Area. Such a Conservation Area ideally should be a tract of contiguous, undeveloped land large enough to serve as a safe (rain) water catchment and recharge area for Oyster Pond. A "natural" for this is the pond's headwaters area containing the main spring that feeds Oyster Pond, between Fells and Ransom Rd.
In our plan the Oyster Pond Conservation Area would extend from OPET's property to the Spohr Gardens, including the land in between the Park and Gardens, marked WHOI in the drawing at the right. This land was recently given to WHOI by Holger and Friederun Jannasch, and although there are no plans for any development in the near future, we feel it is very important that some of this properly be secured now for conservation. This parcel also contains the connecting path between Ransom Road and Fells Road that the Jannasches have allowed people to use for many years. This path is the only direct connection from Tree Tops and Ransom Road to the Spohr Gardens and the bicycle path. OPET is currently discussing its plan for an Oyster Pond Conservation Area with the owners of the property as well as with the 300 Committee, and hopes to interest the Town of Falmouth in this undertaking.
We want to express our special thanks to several individuals who have made significant ($1000 or more) contributions to OPET during the past year and thereby made possible our continuing payments of the remaining mortgage on the OPET property: Elizabeth Davis, James Ferguson, Eleanor Garfield, Arthur Pardee and Ruth Sager, Werner and Birgit Loewenstein.
Memorial gifts in honor of James "Spike" Coles and Donald Zinn, totaling $1250.00 were gratefully received by OPET. They are "living" tributes to the memory of these two men who each made important contributions to their respective worlds. Spike Coles was president of Bowdoin College, Maine, and of the Research Corporation (the latter created a James Coles professorship at Bowdoin in recognition of Spike's invaluable contributions to both Bowdoin and the Reseach Corporation). Spike was very concerned about Oyster Pond which he loved dearly, and he and his wife Cecily Seiby (Co-president of OPET) have been most generous supporters of OPET. Don Zinn was a biologist of note and an avid nature lover. He has served on the board of Salt Pond Areas Sanctuaries as well as on OPET's board of directors and was for many years a volunteer Pond Watcher on Oyster Pond.
A donation to OPET's Land Conservation Fund may be the wisest investment you can make at this time. If you are a properly owner around Oyster Pond, this is where you need to invest -- in the future of a healthy pond. The value of your property is inextricably linked to the quality of its environment, in this case Oyster Pond. OPET is hard at work to ensure that Oyster Pond will become the best it can be -- a healthy ecosystem that can sustain itself even though surrounded by development. To achieve this, controlling the salinity level in the pond (by construction of the weir) is not enough. We also must preserve open space in the Oyster Pond Watershed area to guarantee that fresh water feeding the pond indeed is "fresh" and not loaded with road runoff, phosphates (from fertilizers), pesticides, and nitrogen and toxins (from septic tanks). We need to act now while such open space is still there. Make a generous donation to the Land Conservation Fund.
For those of you who love to walk or bike to the beach or to work via the footpath that connects Ransom to Fells Road, or who use the path for jogging or walking the dog, here is another reason for contributing to OPET: the property through which this path meanders has changed ownership, and we are hard at work to secure this property for conservation and thus to guarantee the continued existence of this pathway to and from the beach and Shining Sea bikepath. We need your generous financial support NOW.
OPET is alive and growing! OPET's board of directors had high hopes for a membership of 100 this year, and you have made it happen! Thanks to all of who joined as members for the 1996/97 membership year (June 1, 1996 to May 31, 1997), we now are 102 members strong (27 sustaining and 75 regular members). Thisimpressive membership count is an indication of the high level of concern for Oyster Pond among the residents in the Pond's watershed. However, we must not stop here if we want to achieve our objectives -- a healthy future for Oyster Pond. And so we ask you who already are members, to talk to your neighbors and friends into joining OPET, and to urge those of you who are not yet members to become involved and to join OPET> Membership dues are tax-deductible. They cover expenditures such as the legal fess incurred for the incorporation of OET as a tax-exempt organization, and for title transfer of the Fischer parcels to OPET, mailing expenses, stationery, copying, printing of educational materials and, and.... Most importantly, howeverl become an active member, contribute your skills, knowledge, knowhow or time and join one of OPET's committees, or just share the concerns you have about the Pond and its environs. Let us hear from you so that we can work together towards a healthy Oyster Pond. -- B. Rose
P.S. We have created a new member category: Lifemember $5000.00 -- any takers?
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