Barbara Moran | WBUR | November 26, 2019
https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2019/11/26/transforming-cranberry-farmers-wetlands-cape-cod
Alex Hackman picks up a shovel and digs in to what used to be a cranberry bog. Down through an inch or two of tough green cranberry vines, down into the sandy soil beneath. Down, down, down.
“It’s tough going,” says Hackman, stopping to catch his breath. “This is, you know, a century of effort by the prior farmers to have this beautiful dense layer of cranberry vines.”
Hackman is a restoration ecologist with the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration. He runs a state program dedicated to turning cranberry bogs back into wetlands.
The state program partners with the UDSA’s Wetland Reserve Easement Program, which has been around for decades. But lately there’s been an uptick of interest from local farmers, says Brian Wick, executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association. That’s because the cranberry business has been tough in recent years, with prices driven down by competition from Canada and Wisconsin, and the trade war with China. One of the biggest challenges the bog-to-wetland program faces, says Wick, is finding enough money to meet the demand.
“As the price of cranberries has been down, a lot of growers have been turning to that [program] as a possibility,” Wick says. “This is a good option for the growers, because short of that it’s selling off house lots that surround the bogs. So you’re left with very limited options of what you can do with that property.”
It’s a potential win-win situation. Farmers get much-needed cash. The state gets a wetland, which can absorb water and prevent flooding — an increasing risk with heavier rainstorms and rising sea levels linked to climate change. Wetlands also absorb pollutants, store carbon, and provide homes for fish and wildlife.
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