Waquoit Bay is worth fighting for.
Citizens for the Protection of Waquoit Bay is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the restoration, preservation and protection of Waquoit Bay and its estuaries through research, advocacy, stewardship, education and collaboration.
Latest news
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Falmouth boards meet to coordinate draft plans for cutting nitrogen, with sewers and new septic systems
Falmouth’s Select Board, Board of Health and two committees met October 16 on draft watershed plans that combine sewer expansion with nitrogen-removing septic systems, with state submission due by 2029.
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Barnstable County series profiles AdvanTex, a nitrogen-reducing septic system sold on Cape Cod
Barnstable County’s System Shift series interviews an Orenco sales manager on AdvanTex I/A (nitrogen-reducing) septic systems: rising Cape demand driven by nitrogen rules, and phosphorus as the next challenge.
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North Shore study tests whether green crabs or poor spawning are behind the soft-shell clam decline
Northeastern researchers and local shellfishers on Massachusetts’ North Shore are using mesh-covered boxes to test whether invasive green crabs or failed reproduction explain the drop in soft-shell clams. Early results point to…
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Mashpee tightens septic rules for new homes, while a state ADU change raises worries
Mashpee’s Board of Health voted to extend nitrogen-reducing septic requirements to drinking water protection zones, and the town’s health agent warned that a proposed state ADU rule could undercut local septic limits.
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Mashpee officials say town’s flow neutral bylaw is too vague and needs a rewrite
Mashpee’s Environmental Oversight Committee backed a plan to ask the town manager to start rewriting the town’s flow neutral bylaw, which staff say is too vague to enforce and could put state…
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Red Brook landowners hear the latest on reconnecting the brook and its wetlands
About 26 landowners joined an October 6 update on Red Brook: the Red Brook Road culvert is funded and in permitting, and planning has begun for the wider river and bog restoration.
Events
- Mon, Nov 2 · 5:30 pm · Falmouth Town Hall
Falmouth Board of Health: Local Septic Regulations and I/A Systems
The Falmouth Board of Health meets in person in the Selectboard Meeting Room. Around 6:30 PM it returns to a draft revision…
- Wed, Nov 4 · 7:30 pm · Online
WHOI Ocean Encounters: Seafood Security
Ocean Encounters, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s online event series, turns to the future of food from the sea. Commercial fishing, aquaculture…
- Thu, Nov 5 · 6:00 pm · Mashpee Town Hall
Upper Quashnet River Restoration: Community Meeting
The project team presents the 50% design plans for the Upper Quashnet River restoration and gathers input on trails, parking, signage and…
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Storm Drain Adoption
Don’t let Waquoit Bay go down the drain.
Every storm drain in Falmouth and Mashpee carries rainwater, and whatever it picks up, straight into the watershed. Pick a drain near you, check it once a year and after heavy rain, and log what you see.
Learn about the bay
Plain-language explainers and research summaries on the science and the policy.
Start here
About Waquoit Bay
The bay, its rivers and its watershed in one overview: its long history, why nitrogen is the core problem, how a warming climate adds to it, and why recovery is possible.
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Too much of a good thing: what extra nitrogen does to Waquoit Bay
Extra nitrogen sets off a chain reaction under the surface: seaweed smothers the eelgrass, floating algae then shade out the seaweed, and the dead algae become oxygen-hungry muck.
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How clean must the water be for transplanted eelgrass to survive? A nitrogen threshold from Danish estuaries
In 120 test plantings across seven Danish estuaries, transplanted eelgrass generally gained shoots only where growth-season dissolved nitrogen averaged below about 3.7 micromoles per liter. Nitrogen-rich inner waters lost shoots.
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Are U.S. estuaries warming and losing oxygen? Twenty years of sensor data from 29 reserves, including Waquoit Bay
Twenty years of sensor data from 29 U.S. estuaries show rising algae and water temperature at about two-thirds of sites and falling oxygen at half. Changing nutrients, more than warming, appear to…
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How will climate change reshape seagrass meadows? A global outlook and a three-part plan for resilience
A 16-author review says warming, darker water is already replacing long-lived seagrasses with opportunistic ones that store up to 11 times less carbon in their tissues, and urges planting climate-ready meadows.
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Can restoring an old farmed wetland stand in for sewers? A southeastern Massachusetts test
A restored wetland in southeastern Massachusetts held back 28% of the nitrate flowing into it, about half what natural wetlands manage. Most of its nitrogen came from wastewater and lawn fertilizer.
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How well do woodchip nitrate filters work, and how should they be built? A global review of 353 site-years
A review of full-size woodchip bioreactors found they removed nitrate in every site-year of farm drainage, with a median 58% of the nitrate in treated water removed. Performance fell with age mainly…
Newsletter archive
Past issues of CPWB’s printed newsletter, each with a summary of what’s inside and the full PDF.