Wareham Approves Plans for Marks Cove Restoration and Helps Fund New Coalition Bog Purchase at Beaverdam Creek

A former cranberry bog at the northernmost edge of the Marks Cove Conservation Area will undergo a restoration to return to its natural, resilient wetlands.

A year after the organizations that co-own the area gathered with neighbors and town officials for a site visit and a public meeting at the Wareham Free Library, the town’s Conservation Commission has given the go-ahead to plans developed by engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill.

Cranberry farming ended here in 1998. Since then, invasive shrubs and trees have begun dominating the former bog cells while upland trees have filled in the driest areas of the bog, resulting in a lack of diversity and poor wildlife habitat.

Removing remnant agricultural features would allow water to flow naturally through the site again, allowing expansion of more valuable salt marsh habitats and promoting greater biodiversity.

A construction firm will fill in the ditches and remove the pipes that were installed decades ago for agriculture.  They will also grade the area to make it more conducive to wildlife, wetlands recovery, and coastal adaptation over time.

Located in Wareham, the entire conservation area is an assemblage of properties that includes approximately 118 acres of former cranberry farmland, freshwater wetlands, saltmarsh, and forest.

The trail network that residents have grown to love will remain. Boardwalks will be built over the spaces where berms would be opened for water to more naturally move through and the marsh to migrate. The restoration will improve the resilience of this land to climate change and increase its value as a community resource.

“While the restored site could function as a healthy freshwater marsh for now,” says Senior Restoration Specialist Sara Quintal, “a low-lying wetland so close to the bay will likely transition into a salt marsh over the next few decades.” Mass Audubon, Wildlands Trust, Wareham Land Trust, and the Coalition own separate abutting parcels of the land, which feature 2.5 miles of walking trails. Access and parking is available at the end of Nicholas Drive.

Timeline

1942                             Formerly known as Stone’s Bog, land here was farmed for cranberries.

1998                             Bog was retired, and land was used for passive recreation.

2015                             The Coalition purchased the property.

2016                             The Coalition begins to convene the abutting conservation landowners/partners to cooperate in coordinated stewardship of their adjoining properties.

2024:                           Mass Audubon partners with the Coalition and others to secure NOAA (Making Space) grant to design and implement salt marsh migration pathways into former low-lying cranberry bogs, including at the Marks Cove site.

2025                             Conservation area partners conducted a workshop soliciting community preferences for restoration designs. Coalition obtained invasive species management permission from the Wareham Conservation Commission.

2026                             Invasive species management begins. Site restoration plan is approved by Wareham Conservation Commission. One additional federal permit is under review and needed before work can begin.

2026/2027                Construction by late 2026 with completion in Spring 2027

Also in Wareham, at this spring’s Annual Town Meeting voters approved $700,000 in Community Preservation funds for the Conservation Commission to purchase a Conservation Restriction on the Beaverdam Creek cranberry bogs. This will help the Coalition to purchase, restore, and preserve 100 acres of land along this coastal stream a mile to the west of the Mark’s Cove Conservation Area.

The Coalition will purchase the property, located along Route 6 just west of Cromesett Road.

Agriculture is expected to continue while restoration planning, design and permitting progresses.