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Vol. 4: May 2025
Photo credit: Spencer Kennard, capecodphotos.com
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Dear Friend,
As 2025 unfolds, we are celebrating Friends of Pleasant Bay’s 40th Anniversary and invite you to join us! Since 1985 and with your support, FoPB has worked to preserve and promote the environmental, cultural, and recreational importance of Pleasant Bay and its watershed. Now, we invite you to celebrate this legacy at our Annual Meeting & Anniversary Bash on Thursday, August 7, from 4-6:30pm at the Wequassett Resort & Golf Club in Harwich. Enjoy wonderful food, stimulating conversation, see old friends, meet like-minded people, and learn about current and planned projects to help protect the bay for generations to come.
Once again, we are deeply grateful to the Wequassett Resort & Golf Club for hosting us at its incomparable Pleasant Bay venue. Please mark your calendars and invite your friends to celebrate with us. We look forward to seeing you on August 7th!
Sincerely,
Allison
Allison Coleman
President
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The Pleasant Bay watershed: a primer on environmental impacts and remedies
The Pleasant Bay watershed has been a focus of water quality concerns for years. The 21,000-acre watershed is a source of nutrient pollution to the bay, particularly nitrogen from septic systems, stormwater runoff, and fertilizers. State, regional, and local efforts to study, address and correct damaging impacts are robust and ongoing. Following is a summary of the state of Pleasant Bay's health based on relevant data and reports from the Pleasant Bay Alliance, as well as state and regional environmental agencies.
Water Quality Status: Excess nitrogen (or nitrogen pollution) continues to be the primary issue impacting the watershed's water quality. Read more.
| | From the Department of Birthdays | | |
Namequoit Sailing Association celebrates 75 years on Pleasant Bay!
In 1950, a handful of local sailors hatched a plan to inspire people to race in small sailboats in the waters of the Pleasant Bay estuary. Their mission was “to develop an interest in sailing and to promote a knowledge of safety on the water, instill the joy of sailing, and to teach sailing and racing skills to both junior and adult sailors.”
That vision inspired the creation of the Namequoit Sailing Association (NSA), whose members have been enjoying "the wind in our sails, sunshine on our bow, and the occasional seal popping its head out to say hello" for 75 years on Pleasant Bay. With a clubhouse near Kent’s Point on Frost Fish Cove, NSA teaches sailing to youth and adults, offers weekend racing series, and so much more. For information about NSA and a list of anniversary celebration events, read more here.
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Friends of Chatham Waterways launches new Chatham Water Pledge campaign
The Friends of Chatham Waterways (FCW) recently launched the Chatham Water Pledge campaign, which is aimed at protecting the health and quality of the town's fresh and salt water resources. Modeled after the Orleans Pond Coalition's H2Orleans Pond Pledge, the Chatham H2O
Pledge is a town-wide campaign to raise public awareness about ways to conserve water, reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and ensure healthy waters going forward.
Straightforward, impactful, and easy to implement, the program encourages residents to:
● Skip the fertilizer
● Avoid pesticides
● Conserve water
● Grow a Cape-friendly lawn.
A community of pledgers will help raise public awareness about the simple, positive actions all can take to protect Chatham’s 66 miles of shoreline and 37 ponds. For more information about the campaign and to take the pledge, click here.
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Events
Cape Cod Conservation Calendar
Spring has sprung and walks, talks and events in and around Pleasant Bay and Cape Cod are flourishing. Check out FoPB's Cape Cod Conservation Calendar for the latest news! Click here or below to view the entire calendar.
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What the heck's an NSA? (Psst ... nitrogen's got something to do with it!)
Nitrogen pollution in coastal waters, including estuaries and embayments, can cause an overgrowth of algae, invasive plants, and weeds that cut off support for naturally occurring plants and animals. Today, many of the bays and estuaries on Cape Cod violate state water quality standards for nitrogen based on the waterbodies’ use.
In response and effective July 7, 2023, the Commonwealth's Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection (MassDEP) amended its Septic System (Title 5) Regulations (310 CMR 15.000) and its Watershed Permit Regulations (314 CMR 21.00) to reduce nitrogen loads that impact coastal waters. Thirty watersheds on Cape Cod, including Pleasant Bay, were automatically designated Natural Resource Nitrogen Sensitive Areas (NSAs) as their nitrogen levels measured above those listed in the MassDEP water quality standards where the discharge of nitrogen through septic systems would be detrimental to the environment or public health.
In these newly designated NSAs, the community as a whole or individual residents must update septic systems with nitrogen-reducing technologies. Read more.
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Friends of Pleasant Bay
P.O. Box 1243
Harwich, MA 02645
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Friends of Pleasant Bay is a private nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.
All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
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JOIN HERE.
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