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The Buzzards Bay Coalition has acquired the 1,652-acre Slocum-Gibbs Cranberry Company property, which consists of land in the towns of Carver, Wareham, Rochester, and Middleboro, for permanent protection as open space. Vast forested uplands, cranberry bogs, and floodplain wetlands in two large contiguous components along the rivers will be protected, contributing to the growing corridor of conserved land here.

It will benefit water quality in the rivers, aquifers, and the Bay, and conserve critical habitat for fish and wildlife.

While retirement and ecological restoration is planned for 165 acres of the existing cranberry bogs, the Coalition plans to continue agricultural operations where feasible. The more than 35 acres of the highest-producing and environmentally friendly bogs will continue to be harvested, maintaining the heritage of farming on this land.

Like the recently restored Mattapoisett Bogs project, lands will be restored so that much is available to the public for enjoying its scenic beauty and passive recreational use.

The Coalition has worked to purchase this land from John “Gary” Garretson III, owner of Slocum-Gibbs Cranberry Company. Garretson is the third-generation operator of the farm that his grandfather started back in 1919. “Gary and his family had decided that conservation should be the next chapter for the Slocum-Gibbs Cranberry Company, and we worked together to bring that vision to reality,” says Mark Rasmussen, president of the Buzzards Bay Coalition. “They made this decision in the face of huge pressure to convert the land to residential development, or sand and gravel mining, or clearcutting for solar arrays.”

Garretson received the Buzzards Bay Guardian Award, the organization’s highest honor, at the Coalition’s annual meeting in May for conserving his property as his family’s legacy and working out this complicated purchase and sale with the non-profit.

The Coalition worked closely with a variety of partners to make this acquisition possible, including the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program, the towns of Carver and Wareham, which each contributed community preservation funds to the deal, and private donors.

Project funding came from a variety of sources, such as $5,547,150 in state grants by way of the Landscape Partnership and Cranberry Bog Acquisition for Restoration programs; $2 million from US Fish and Wildlife Service to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation; $150,000 from the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program; and $375,000 each from Carver and Wareham’s community preservation funds. Private donations were also crucial to the purchase.

The land will be permanently protected by conservation restrictions held by partner organizations, including the Wareham and Carver Conservation Commissions, Rochester Land Trust, and the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game.

“Gary Garretson’s legacy of conservation is a model, which others have already begun to follow,” says Brendan Annett, Vice President of Watershed Protection at the Coalition, noting that cranberry growers throughout the region are taking note of Garretson’s decision to choose land conservation. The Coalition has purchased many bogs in the watershed over the years for restoration and hopes that more local cranberry growers take advantage of the opportunity to partner with the Coalition when retiring bogs, instead of selling them and the surrounding land for development.

With the purchase complete, the Coalition will now begin a planning and assessment process for both the ecological restoration to take place on the retired bogs, as well as how the land can be made available for the public’s use and enjoyment.

An official opening in the spring of 2027 is expected.

Overhead of Sippican River in Rochester looking east

Overhead of lands surrounding Sippican River in Rochester looking east.

Spirits were high as more than 270 eager swimmers dashed out in five waves from Shell Point Beach, swam around Wickets Island, and emerged onto the shores of Onset Beach to a crowd of more than 300 cheering them on.

The Buzzards Bay Swim, one of the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s signature events, was held in Onset this past Saturday due to threats of rain that may have caused sewer overflows in New Bedford’s Outer Harbor, its usual location.

“With the uncertain forecast, we implemented the backup plan to ensure this annual event would take place, rain or shine” says Buzzards Bay Coalition President Mark Rasmussen.  However, Rasmussen announced to the crowd in Onset that the Swim’s commitment to New Bedford Harbor will never cease. “We are not abandoning New Bedford,” he said. “That’s where the Swim belongs and where we want it to continue.”

Rasmussen said that the Swim continued the legacy of the group of only 17 who first swam across New Bedford’s Outer Harbor to promote clean water in 1994. They raised $2,000 that year.

After this year’s Swim, participants reveled in their accomplishment and enjoyed a pancake breakfast, beverages, live music from El Caribe, and dancing with the Coalition mascot C.W. Participants received an event t-shirt and a custom-made bronze finisher’s medal.

Swimmers were encouraged to form teams, and this year boasted a record 19 teams. With 37 members, the largest this year was Team For Emma, which also won the Youth Team Quick’s Hole title and had the highest fundraising team total. (Read about their inspiring story here.) The Wheeler Watershed Challenge Cup, which goes to the team with the fastest average time (determined by averaging the team’s three fastest individual times), went to the Salty Sea Dogs.

The individual men’s winner Will Van Fossen clocked in with 29:16. Carlyn Soares was the first woman into the finish chute with a time of 30:49. All other winners in their respective age-group categories were recognized during the awards ceremony. To look up a time of a swimmer, go here.

Swimmers who have participated in numerous Buzzards Bay Swims are honored with metal charms: 5 Swims (Six Mile Award); 10 Swims (Cuttyhunk Award); 20 Swims (Pukwudgie Award; Pukwudgies are figures from native Wampanoag folklore known for making mischief along the shores of Buzzards Bay.)

The swimmer with the highest fundraising total at the time of the race was Steve Johnson with nearly $15,600 raised. Chris Parks and Steve Kanovsky were the second and third-highest fundraisers. Nancy Smith, who is the longest running participant with her 24th swim this year, was the fourth-highest fundraiser. The highest first-time fundraiser was Ella Necheles.

Fundraising efforts still continue for two more weeks. If you would like to support a swimmer or one of the many teams, go to savebuzzardsbay.org/swim.

The Buzzards Bay Swim was made possible by sponsors SouthCoast Wind, Cisco Brewers Kitchen & Bar, Buzzards Bay Brewing, Jim’s Organic Coffee, Fiber Optic Center, Servedwell Hospitality, The Valle Group, Tremblay’s Bus Co., Lanagan & Co., Southcoast Health, TowBoat US, Open Soul Swimming, Taunton Federal Credit Union, and the Crook Family.

The date for next year’s swim is June 20. Registration will begin in January 2026.

Swimmers head out into Onset Bay from the Shell Point Beach start.

Photo by James Correia

Korrin Petersen testifying

Clean Water Advocacy Vice President Korrin Petersen testified in front of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on July 1 on Beacon Hill.

Coalition Clean Water Advocacy Vice President Korrin Petersen testified in front of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources on July 1 on Beacon Hill to support S. 638 and H. 1000.

These concurrent bills filed at the beginning of the session by Massachusetts State Sen. Mark Montigny (2nd Bristol and Plymouth) and State Representative Christopher Markey (9th Bristol) seek to establish a commission to study and recommend specific funding alternatives for essential wastewater improvement projects.

The Buzzards Bay Coalition has estimated that more than $2 billion is needed to combat wastewater pollution that adversely affects the health of the Bay. The state’s current revolving loan fund does not meet the need.

In 2024, the State Revolving Fund awarded just over $817 million statewide for new wastewater construction projects. Out of that, only about $76 million—or just 9.3%—went to non-Cape communities around Buzzards Bay.

“With a $2 billion problem, that’s not nearly enough,” said Petersen. “The lack of available grants and funding means that projects don’t move forward. The longer it takes to build these projects, the more expensive it becomes, making it even more difficult to move forward. This vicious cycle only means that more generations will be robbed of their right to clean water.”

Other areas facing similar wastewater financing challenges – from Cape Cod to Long Island to Chesapeake Bay – have developed their own funding streams.

“We believe that there is an answer to the Southcoast’s wastewater challenge too,” said Petersen. “These bills bring together the right voices—state leaders, municipal officials, environmental advocates, and financial experts—to identify sustainable, regionally appropriate financial solutions to protect our coastal waters.”

The legislation notes that this new commission should consist of 21 members and include the chairs of the joint committee on environment and natural resources, who shall serve as co-chairs.

Funds will help towns upgrade their sewer infrastructure to connect more septic systems to sewerage, expand capacity and upgrade the level of treatment at existing wastewater treatment facilities, construct additional wastewater treatment facilities to address expanded service areas, reduce combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges, and upgrade septic systems to nitrogen reducing systems.

The recommendations shall identify “fair and equitable means of financing wastewater infrastructure improvements” to address wastewater pollution, according to the bills’ language.

The first project that came to be thanks to one of the $5,000 subsidies offered by the Coalition to hook up to the Dartmouth sewer line has finished.

Dartmouth resident Kevin Duggan wished to do his part by transitioning from septic to sewer. He called contractors: “They’d give ball-park figures and never show up. Some would call back, some wouldn’t, just adding to the frustration.”

Then he got a letter from the Coalition. “I contacted them the same week I received the letter, and Korrin [Peterson] made everything very easy from that point on,” he says. “She came to my home with Pontes Excavating, which came in slightly under all the quotes I had been given.”

“They worked quick and efficiently and were finished in less than a full day,” he added.

“I couldn’t be happier to have been able to receive some help with something I had been wanting to do anyhow,” he said. “And I was able to do it sooner than I was able to on my own thanks to the Buzzards Bay Coalition and the Connect-to-Protect grant.”

To reduce the approximately 3,200 pounds of nitrogen entering the Apponagansett Bay watershed annually, this initiative has a goal to convert 28 homes this year from septic to sewer.

Nitrogen pollution is the biggest threat to Dartmouth’s water quality. Too much nitrogen fuels excess algae growth that leads to murky waters, loss of habitat for fish and shellfish, and potential health risks that impact recreational use of Padanaram Harbor and the Bay.

This project is made possible through a federal EPA Southeast New England Program grant.

Connect to Protect Dartmouth property

Pontes Excavating installs a connection to the town sewer line in Dartmouth.

This is one in a series of stories introducing you to some of our Buzzards Bay Swimmers and why they do it.

Every June, a colorful crowd of swimmers gathers at the edge of Buzzards Bay. Some are seasoned athletes. Others are just hoping not to lose a flip-flop. But for one special group—Team For Emma—this isn’t just a swim. It’s a love letter. A tribute. A way to keep Emma Whittaker’s spirit alive, one salty splash at a time.

Emma: The Girl Who Was Happiest in the Water

Emma Whittaker didn’t just love the water—she practically lived in it. My wife Jess and I swear she had gills. “She was happiest in the water,” we say, a phrase that’s become both a family motto and a rallying cry.

From her first swim lessons at the New Bedford YMCA to swimming with the New Bedford Hurricanes, and Cape Cod Swim Club, Emma was a natural. She joined the Buzzards Bay Swim at just 10 years old. She was the tiniest person with the biggest grin. We were so nervous, and she was like, ‘This is the best day ever!’”

A Family Anchored in the Bay

Emma’s love for the Bay wasn’t random—it was inherited. Jess, a lifelong South Coast resident, has spent her career protecting land and water. I am a sailor and early organizer of the Buzzards Bay Watershed Ride. Our kids grew up with sunscreen in their hair and sand in their shoes.

I remember Emma coaching me through swim drills. “She’d say, ‘Dad, you’re not a dolphin. Stop flailing.’” He laughs. “She was always my swim coach,” he says.

Team For Emma: From Grief to Goggles

When Emma passed away in 2022, her family and friends were heartbroken. But we knew one thing: We had to keep swimming. That summer, Team For Emma was born. Abbie captained the team. I swam. Jess, still grieving, waited until 2023 to join. “I cried the whole way,” she says. “And then I cried some more at the finish line.”

The team started small—just a few friends and family. But word spread. Emma’s story touched people. Some swimmers joined without ever having met her. One guy said, “I don’t know Emma, but I know love when I see it.”

Now, the team is more than 30 strong. We wear matching caps, share snacks, and tell Emma stories. There was never a dull moment with Emma. She always had surprises from throwing flips off our boat to swimming a 500 warm-up in socks.

The Emma Whittaker Fund: Her Legacy in Motion

To honor Emma’s passions, our family created the Emma Whittaker Fund. It supports access to Buzzards Bay for kids who might not otherwise get to experience it, STEAM education for girls, and mental health support for children.

For Team For Emma, the Buzzards Bay Swim is more than a race. It’s a reunion. A celebration. A way to laugh, cry, and remember.

I swim with Emma’s voice in my head. “She’d say, ‘You’ve got this, Dad. Just don’t embarrass me.’”

And so, we swim. Through tears and laughter. Through grief and joy. Through the waters Emma loved so much.

Because love, like the tide, always finds its way back.

A shot of the boardwalk to Barges and and Channel Beaches at the Coalition’s Canapitsit Reserve that was recently installed.

The boardwalk to Barges and and Channel Beaches at the Coalition’s Canapitsit Reserve was recently installed.

The Boat Pumpout on Cuttyhunk is provided by the Coalition free of charge for boaters visiting the island. It is self-service and available to all until October 15. Coalition staff monitors the pumpout daily make sure it is kept tidy and orderly.

It encourages boaters to safely and properly dispose of their wastewater and to reduce the amount of untreated wastewater that would directly be discarded into the Bay.

In other Cuttyhunk news, a new wooden boardwalk leading out to the popular Barges and Channel Beaches at the Coalition’s Canapitsit Reserve has also been installed.

The boardwalk provides greater ease of access to the popular beach. The long walk gets very cobbly and uneven at parts, which has made it difficult for those with mobility issues. The boardwalk also reduces the impact of lots of beachgoers walking across the delicate barrier beach.

The boardwalk does not extend the entire way from the entrance gate to the beach access point, but rather just the final (and rockiest) 200 ft.

“If the boardwalk meets our expectations and fares well this summer, we hope to add another 200 ft. or so for next season,” says Coalition Island Stewardship Manager Craig Willey.

The Mattapoisett River Valley, spanning from Snipatuit Pond in Rochester to Mattapoisett Harbor, is one of Southeastern Massachusetts’ most important water resources. Over the last quarter century, the Mattapoisett River Valley Land Protection Partnership between the Coalition, the towns of Marion, Rochester, Mattapoisett, and Fairhaven, and the MRV Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee has protected thousands of acres of land to maintain the quality and quantity of the region’s drinking water supply.

In late May, the Coalition purchased a 33-acre farm in Rochester and helped secure a $350K state grant that would allow the town of Marion to purchase a conservation restriction (CR) on it. That farm is less than 250 feet away from the Branch Brook Headwaters and less than 3,000 feet from a Marion town well (#5). The towns of Fairhaven and Mattapoisett also have town wells in the vicinity and the Town of Rochester draws from the Marion well mentioned.

In addition to protecting a highly valuable drinking water supply, the land will provide passive recreation opportunities and provide habitat for rare species.

The Coalition also helped the Town of Dartmouth Water Department buy a large swath of land, most of which borders the Paskamansett River, from the Cornell family. We had secured funding from the state ($350K), the Town’s Community Preservation Fund ($250K). and an additional $200K in private funds. The town now owns the land, and the Coalition recorded a conservation restriction, which permanently protects the property.

The Paskamansett River Drinking Water Land Protection Project protects nearly 200 acres of open land over a critical public drinking water supply aquifer and remove an existing gap in the growing assemblage of protected land along the river. It is part of a strategy to increase protected lands in the Paskamansett River Valley, a key source of Dartmouth’s public drinking water.

The project acreage is located directly across the Paskamansett River from existing town Water Department lands (containing three groundwater pumping wells) and abuts other lands protected by the Dartmouth Conservation Commission and Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust.

Like the Branch Brook Headwaters land, this will provide appropriate public access for compatible passive recreation opportunities, have significant benefits to existing critical wildlife habitat, and protect water quality and aquatic habitat in the river and the downstream estuary.

The project property consists of eleven parcels of land in the area between the Paskamansett River and Tucker Road (a well-travelled road connecting to the commercial corridor of US Route 6 to the north) and includes 3,320 linear feet of direct frontage on the river, important wetland areas and forest.

The project boundary lies some 1,600 feet from one Dartmouth Town Public Supply Well; two more are not that far away.

 

For more on the Coalition’s collaborative efforts to protect the Mattapoisett River Valley, go here.

For more on the origins of the Coalition’s collaboration with the Town of Dartmouth to protect these 196 acres along the Paskamansett River, go here.

Town Maps of Rochester (left) and Dartmouth (right) show in red outline important land acquisitions made to protect town drinking water supply.

Town Maps of Rochester (left) and Dartmouth (right) show in red outline important land acquisitions made to protect town drinking water supply.

The Coalition's Lilia Bartolotta and Kristin Huizenga prep the loggers.

The Coalition’s Lilia Bartolotta, left, and Kristin Huizenga prep the loggers on the dock of Onset Bay.

Coalition staffers Lara Gulmann, Lilia Bartolotta, and Kristin Huizenga lug buckets of gear out to the end of the Onset Bay Center’s dock, where the first of many new water sensors will be deployed this season.

But the new logger will not be alone. They also send down the older version of a logger that has been used for years at OB1, as the station is called.

They check the housings, secure the sensors one last time, and drop both into the Bay so they come to rest 30 cm above the bottom. Someone walking out to the end of the dock may see the line with the Coalition’s logo displayed on it. But to the rest of the world, they go unnoticed, quietly doing their job to measure dissolved oxygen, salinity levels, and water temperature, the trio of measurements historically used by the Coalition to monitor the Bay.

There are many benefits to these autonomous loggers. They measure data at short intervals throughout the day. Volunteers measure the same data once a day in the early morning. With autonomous readers, the fluctuation of data within the day, based on factors such as sunlight, wind, and tidal activity, can vary, and is not caught by volunteers going once a day.

Coalition staff check these monitors regularly, to download data (self-reporting monitors using wireless technology are very expensive), check on the conditions and clean the devices if necessary. “Aquatic organisms love to grow on these,” says Bartolotta. “Barnacles, mainly, but also calcareous worms and tunicates.”

The staff spent time calibrating these monitors in the Marion location throughout the spring. The scientists say that the new loggers are better for integration with the volunteers.