Cranberry farming is not what it once was in Southeastern Massachusetts. Between farmers retiring, climate change, and falling prices with the rise of corporate-scale farming, there are fewer cranberry growers here than a decade ago.
But the decline has also provided an opportunity. The Mass. Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Restoration Program offers farmers what it calls a “green exit strategy.” Working with a list of state and federal programs and environmental organizations, farmers can put their land into conservation.
"We certainly find that there's a pretty strong environmental ethic and kind of tie to the land in cranberry growers," said Mass. Division of Fish & Wildlife Southeast District Supervisor Jason Zimmer. "They've worked and cared for the land for, you know, in some of these families, decades and decades. And they want to see the land continue and be protected."
Zimmer is in charge of the Red Brook Wildlife Management Area, in Plymouth and Wareham. The latest addition to the area is Century Bog, a former working cranberry bog.
"And that kind of represented the complete protection of Red Brook from the headwaters, which are actually White Island Pond, all the way to Buttermilk Bay," said Zimmer.
Zimmer is working with the Cranberry Bog Restoration Program to restore Century Bog to a natural functioning wetland and stream channel. He hopes that work will benefit around 60 species that the state identifies as in greatest need of conservation, including native fish like herring, eel and a unique variant of eastern brook trout known as “salters.”
"Because of the fact that they do have access to the saltwater environment and during certain times of the year, particularly mid-spring through the summer, they'll go out into the saltwater environment," Zimmer explained. "Partially because the waters warm up sometimes in cold water streams. But also to take advantage of the abundant food resources in the saltwater estuaries in Buttermilk Bay.”
To date, the Bog Restoration Program has completed nine projects, restoring more than 500 acres of wetlands and over ten miles of associated streams. Another ten projects are in the works, in addition to Century Bog.
