The state of Massachusetts recently awarded multiple grants to improve water quality and habitat for Buzzards Bay. Projects in Bourne, Wareham, and Plymouth were among the awardees.

The Agawam River Barrier Removal and Restoration Project, led by the Buzzards Bay Coalition, the Town of Plymouth, and partners will restore connectivity to 3.2 miles of headwater habitat and facilitate access to a 201-acre headwater pond for migratory fish through the removal of two dams and stream channel restoration along a critical stretch of the upper Agawam River, a major tributary of Buzzards Bay.

The Agawam River, an 11.3-mile-long coastal stream running from Halfway Pond in Plymouth to Buzzards Bay in Wareham, is one of the most important systems for migratory fish resources in Buzzards Bay. The Coalition has monitored the river herring fish run on the Agawam River since 2006.

This project will receive $210,000 to complete preliminary designs for this restoration.

Over in Bourne, Puritan Bog is a low-lying coastal bog located on Little Buttermilk Bay in Bourne. The site is separated from Little Buttermilk Bay to the north by an artificial dike with an undersized and failing culvert that was built to support a now defunct cranberry bog on what is now Town owned conservation land.

Puritan Bog is an ideal restoration site, as low-lying coastal bogs are critical opportunities for salt marsh migration and conversion to saltmarsh habitat as sea level rises.

The project will receive $250,000 to complete permitting and final designs to restore 15 acres of this coastal wetland.

Besse Reservoir Dam on the Agawam River