Duck Harbor was once a navigable waterway between Bound Brook Island and Griffin Island about a mile north of Wellfleet Harbor. In the mid-1800s, shifting coastal sediment gradually shoaled off the Duck Harbor channel. When the dike obstructing tidal flow between the Herring River and Wellfleet Harbor was built in 1909, the Duck Harbor basin gradually became a freshwater wetland, like the Herring River floodplain.
By late 2020, the barrier sand dune between Cape Cod Bay and the Duck Harbor basin had eroded to the point where particularly high tides and storm events caused seawater to overwash the dune and flood the Duck Harbor basin. Saltwater inundating the floodplain has killed off the exposed freshwater trees, shrubs, and grasses in the 120 acres of wetlands.
This naturally occurring event provides a preview of the intentional saltwater inundation of the Herring River wetlands that will be an integral part of the Herring River Restoration Project. Like the Duck Harbor project, the dead trees in the Herring River floodplain will be cleared with heavy equipment capable of converting a small pine tree into wood chips in a minute or two. (See Cape Cod National Seashore news release and Friends of Herring River newsletter article.)
The Duck Harbor basin will be inundated with seawater twice a day upon implementation of the Herring River Restoration Project because the basin is contiguous with the Herring River floodplain. During high tides, both wetlands will be flooded with seawater to the extent regulated by the new Chequessett Road bridge sluice gates.
Whereas the Herring River project is being managed by the Friends of Herring River, Ducks Unlimited is managing the vegetation removal at Duck Harbor with a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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