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IT'S A BEAUTIFUL MID-SEPTEMBER AFTERNOON
and Tara Nye, Association to Preserve Cape Cod biologist and volunteer
coordinator, is collecting and organizing field data sheets generated
from an outing into the salt marsh at the East Sandwich Game Farm. The
group with Nye is a little muddy and sweaty, but all have grins and are
eager to find a date for the next sampling day. "The response has been
way above and beyond what we had hoped for! We have over 40 volunteers
monitoring plants and salinity at five sites—and this is only the
pilot year," says Nye, adding, "I was going to put the salinity sampling
on hold during the cold, hard winter months, but these guys would have
none of it!" Nye expects that next year the program will be able to add
a site or two as well as expand their sampling to include fish and birds
at some sites. The group received additional support from ERM Group Foundation
to continue this work in 2004. Volunteer efforts such as these provide
an important piece of the puzzle. By helping to collect data at sites
before and after restoration, they are filling a need that cannot be met
by state resources alone.
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Boston, MA 02114