Do You Love our Waters???
It’s Time to Dive In and Get Your Feet Wet
We’re recruiting for multiple water-related volunteer activities. Make new friends, help watch over our waters, learn more about how your actions can make a difference to water quality. It’s fascinating…. And fun!
Cyanobacteria Monitors. OPC in conjunction with APCC is monitoring Crystal and Pilgrim Lakes, Uncle Harvey’s, Icehouse, and (starting this year) Cedar Ponds. Help us track this threat to our ponds and provide safety warnings to humans and pets. For more information and to sign up, click below and:
CELEBRATE OUR WATERS!
Approved by Orleans Select Board for September 16-18, 2022. Multiple opportunities from event hosts and car parkers to “sign placers”, Family Fun Tent assistants, social media helpers and more. For more information and to sign up, click below to:
Fresh Water Pond Samplers: The Town of Orleans collects water samples and monitors oxygen and temperature in 20 freshwater ponds in April and August. If you have a kayak or canoe, equipment and training will be provided. Help add to a robust data set of over 20 years which assists in tracking the health of our ponds. For more information and to sign up, click below and:
Estuary Samplers: The Town of Orleans in conjunction with the Pleasant Bay Alliance and SMAST collects water samplers and monitors oxygen, salinity and temperature at multiple sampling stations in the Cape Cod Bay, Pleasant Bay and Nauset Estuaries 5 early summer mornings. Boat captains are desperately needed for Nauset Estuary stations. This data helps inform our wastewater plans and provides essential information for tracking water quality progress. For more information and to sign up, click below and:
Herring Counters: The Shellfish and Waterways Committee keeps track of herring counts on their annual migration into fresh water for spawning. The Town is now using a fish counter so it is not yet known if an actual count will be needed. (This year’s count may be validating videos online or doing an actual count at the bridge over the run.) If interested in participating, we’ll get your name on a list for updates and information. The counts are just 10 minutes once a week! To sign up, click below and:
Pollinator Pathway of Cape Cod: Have you yet placed your property on the pollinator pathway? And why is a water association a founding partner to the Pollinator Pathway of Cape Cod???
The same things that threaten the health and safety of our bees, butterflies and other pollinators – pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers – also negatively impact our waters. Most everything we put on our lawns and ground or down the drain eventually gets into our groundwater and travels to our ponds and bays and oceans. By eliminating use of these chemicals as much as possible, minimizing lawns and planting native grasses, ground covers, shrubs and flowers, you save our pollinators and our waters. Just add a few natives, go green and sign up to connect a pathway across the entire Cape.To learn more please click below and visit:
Hope to see you out on our waters and at Celebrate our Waters September 16th thru 18th and
Thank You!!
