First the bad news. In 2006, we dredged Post Island marsh, built a giant sand dune
and planted it with over 10,000 stalks of American Beach Grass, and about a 100
beach shrubs along the back of the dune to act as an anchor for the dune itself. By
the fall of 2006, the dune looked great. The shrubs were growing strong and the
grass was very tall and loaded with millions of seed heads that fell into the sand,
waiting for spring.
In early April 2007 vandals pulled out every beach shrub and about 1000 of the grass
stalks and threw them into the salt water. I replanted them, but they all died. 3 weeks
later we were hit with the worst Nor’Easter in 30 years. Without the “anchor shrubs,”
the dune was severely damaged.
I was so stunned by this setback I was not sure what to do. So I decided to do
nothing for this season to see what seeds might grow back, and where. We will come
up with a plan this winter and implement it in early spring of 2008.
I’m not going to let a few punks mess up a project this well designed and all paid for
with grants.
     Now for the good news!! We now have an engineering report for the Parkhurst
Street Marsh that may show an easy fix. The City and the State are working together
to come up with a plan to enhance the wetlands while getting control of the flooding
issues. This marsh borders our newly acquired Boatyard and playground at beautiful
Perry Beach. Special thanks to Mayor Phelan and Councilor Kelly for acquiring this
land at no cost to the taxpayer. Hough’s Neck will benefit from this for generations to
come.
I’ll schedule our annual Marsh Madness meeting for October as always, and post it
next month.
     Check out a map of your part of the Neck at
WWW.MARSHMADNESS.ORG.
Feel free to call or e-mail me anytime.
Hope all is well,
PJ Foley. H-(617) 479-3800        
pjjul@aol.com
     
SALT WATER
MARSH
RESTORATION
PROJECT
HOUGH'S NECK
QUINCY, MA
Contact:
PJ FOLEY
KEEPING YOU INFORMED OF OUR ON-GOING WORK