As you make your way along a commercial stretch of Route 6 south near Kool Kone, at one point you will find yourself sandwiched by cranberry bogs on either side.
But these weren’t always bogs. What you’re actually crossing over is a stream you’ve never heard of: Beaverdam Creek, a small tributary of the estuarine portion of the Weweantic River.
More than a century ago, Beaverdam Creek was converted into a cranberry farm with the stream itself becoming a ditch that flows down the center of the bog. A dam was built at the southern end to keep the saltwater tide from flowing in and another dam was built at the headwaters of the creek to impound water into a reservoir for farming the bog.
The small tidal creek and all of the fish, wildlife, and pollution-filtering benefits it provided to the Bay were lost. Until now.
The 100 acres purchased by the Coalition with this recent deal includes the entire former Beaverdam Creek footprint, making it possible to restore the original creek back to its original form and function.
These bogs were recently owned by Keith Mann, former president of the Cape Cod Cranberry Association, whose family has been in the cranberry growing business for several generations and owns 145 acres of bogs in Bourne, Plymouth and Wareham. Plans are to continue cranberry farming for the next two years. Mann Cranberries will continue to farm the land while the Coalition studies the site, and plans and raises money for the restoration.
Conservation will allow eventual ecological restoration of the existing cranberry bogs, which will benefit water quality in the river, aquifer, and downstream waters, protect critical habitat and the scenic character of this significant frontage on Route 6, and expand lands available for public access and recreational use by all. This land also adds to a growing corridor of conserved land along the Weweantic River.
