Conserving the Irreplaceable Open Space and Recreation Plan 2017 Pembroke, MA Devan Arnold, Ben Covino, & Ben Rippe The Conway School Winter 2017 PEMBROKE OSRP 1 PEMBROKE OSRP 2 Section 1: Plan Summary Pembroke is a growing south shore community with a rich history and wealth of natural, cultural, and historic resources. Foremost amongst these are copious ponds, rivers, streams, and wetlands that dominate the landscape. It is a town that many of its residents identify as being semi-rural, and possessing a charming, small New England town character. This character and the sense of community that accompany it are some of the most highly enjoyed aspects of living within Pembroke. Part of what makes up this character is the abundance of open spaces where people can enjoy recreating or simply basking in the beauty and wonder of undeveloped natural landscapes. The 2017 Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP) Update provides guidance for protecting and enhancing the many valued natural and cultural resources within the town. Through two community meetings, an online survey, and conversations with members of assorted town boards and committees, five main goals have been articulated to satisfy Pembroke’s conservation and recreation needs moving into the future: 1. Pembroke’s abundant water resources are clean and sustainably managed. 2. Future development is consistent with and protects Pembroke’s environmental, historic, and cultural resources. 3. An interconnected network of forest, riparian and wildlife habitats enhance Pembroke’s ecological integrity and sustain a resilient landscape. 4. The citizens of Pembroke enjoy better access and increased recreational use of town open space. 5. Planning and management for Pembroke’s extensive open space and recreation lands is more efficient and coordinated with an accessible database. To achieve these goals, this plan recommends that the Town of Pembroke, in cooperation with neighboring towns, private and nonprofit organizations, and landowners, undertake the following: Protect the town’s ground and surface water resources; Prioritize areas of environmental, historic, and culturally significant resources for protection; Explore smart growth strategies to focus development away from valued resources; Increase public awareness of existing resources; Extend and connect protected areas to create contiguous corridors; Educate the public about the value of healthy ecosystems; Increase and improve access to open spaces; Connect existing trail systems for enhanced recreational use; Create an accessible electronic data repository for information pertaining to Pembroke’s open space and recreation lands; Monitor and manage open space lands in Pembroke; Provide adequate staffing for the planning and management of open space lands; and, Improve inter-departmental and inter-town communication regarding open space. PEMBROKE OSRP 3 PEMBROKE OSRP 4 Section 2: Introduction A. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE ● ● ● PEMBROKE OSRP 5 ● ● B. PLANNING PROCESS AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PEMBROKE OSRP 6 PEMBROKE OSRP 7 Section 3: Community Setting 3.A REGIONAL CONTEXT Pembroke is located in the South Shore area of southeastern Massachusetts, 26 miles southeast of Boston and 12 miles east of Brockton. Pembroke has a total area of 23.5 square miles. The predominant land covers in town are forests (40.9%), wetlands and water (21.3%), and residential (21.3%) (MassDEP, 2006). Pembroke shares its borders with Hanover, Norwell, and Marshfield to the north, Duxbury to the east, Kingston, Plympton, and Halifax to the south, and Hanson to the west. Pembroke’s proximity to Boston has a large influence on the town in terms of its development pressure. Over the last forty years the South Shore has been rapidly developing as improvements to roads and other transportation infrastructure has enticed commuters to live further away from the city and their places of employment. Today 92% of Pembroke’s working residents commute out of town for work (towncharts.com). Pembroke also shares numerous water bodies with neighboring towns, including two rivers, and five ponds. Two of the major waterbodies in Pembroke serve as reservoirs for neighboring towns. Given these shared resources, and the fact that many of these water bodies are hydrologically connected with other water resources in the area, regional efforts to protect and manage these resources are incredibly important to ensure the long-term health of these water bodies and the sustainability of their continued use. According to Biomap2 (see Map 4.9 Wetland Habitats) core habitat areas are shared across town boundaries to the north with Hanover and Norwell, and to the east with Duxbury. Efforts to adequately PEMBROKE OSRP 8 protect these areas need to be coordinated across town borders. The Wildlands Trust of southeastern Massachusetts, a regional non-profit land trust, is carrying out this work. Water is a dominant feature in Pembroke’s landscape, and is present in a myriad of forms. It has defined the town’s character and has had a strong influence on its history and development. It is also an invaluable resource for recreation and municipal use. Pembroke straddles two watersheds (Map 3.2). Most of the town is in the South Coastal watershed which drains to the Massachusetts Bay, while the southwest corner of the town is located in the Taunton River watershed, which eventually drains into Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Both bays are considered important resources in the region for their recreation, scenic and cultural qualities. Efforts to maintain healthy waters are needed throughout their watersheds to attain a healthy coastline. The Indian Head River and North River form Pembroke’s northern border and are connected hydrologically to the town’s many water bodies. These rivers once served as a major transportation route in the region and ship building along the rivers was one of the first industries in Pembroke. Multiple brooks and streams meander across Pembroke’s landscape, connecting the lakes and ponds to marshes and to the rivers to the north. In addition to their historical value once powering mills significant to the town’s economy, these brooks provide migration routes for species, such as herring, which have historic, cultural, and ecological value to Pembroke and the region. Pembroke has a Herring Fisheries Commission dedicated to the protection of these fish and their habitat and migration routes within the town. The largest concentration of surface water is located in the western side of Pembroke where there are six major lakes and ponds. This is one of the most densely populated areas of the town where once seasonal cottages have been converted to year-round residences. Two of these water bodies are shared across town borders: Oldham Pond is shared with Hanson to the west, and Silver Lake on Pembroke’s southern border straddles both Halifax and Kingston to the south. Two water bodies serve as reservoirs for neighboring towns: Great Sandy Bottom Pond is the drinking water for the Abington- Rockland Water Supply; and, Silver Lake provides water to the city of Brockton. Marshes and wetlands scattered around the town have strongly influenced Pembroke’s development pattern which has largely been directed to available dry land and avoided the wet areas. With continued development pressure, the town is seeing increased encroachment upon these wetland areas. PEMBROKE OSRP 9 Pembroke’s abundance of water in combination with its sandy soils once made it an ideal location for the cultivation of cranberries. Bright red berries would fill these bogs in Fall, contributing to the town’s rural character as well as its economy. Ice-skating on these flooded bogs in winter was common. While these bogs were culturally and economically significant, they did negatively affect water quality. Synthetic water-soluble fertilizers were commonly used which would run off into connected waterways, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Today, cranberry bogs in the region are struggling to remain economically viable. There is only one cranberry bog left in operation within Pembroke, a couple of others lay fallow. There are many decommissioned bogs in Pembroke which continue to contribute to the town’s semi-rural scenery as they make their slow return to forested wetlands. Tubb’s Meadow located off Route 36 is a large area of protected open space highly valued by town residents as a recreation space for walking and nature watching. It has multiple bogs and irrigation ponds intersected by trails. Pembroke draws its potable water from a large aquifer via six wells located around town. Due to the low water table and highly permeable soils across the town, efforts to protect the aquifer from pollutants and contaminants are particularly important to maintaining water quality (NRCS 2016). 3.B HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY Pembroke has a long and rich history intimately tied to its resources. The lands today called Pembroke were once home to the Massachusett and Wampanoag tribes, who settled in the area and relied on the abundant fertile soils and copious fish and other wildlife. In the 1600’s, European settlers came to the continent, settling first in Plymouth and eventually making their way farther north and west. Sometime around 1650, Robert Barker, Dolor Davis, and an accompanying servant traveled along the North River, eventually coming to, and overwintering at the area today known as Herring Run. It is believed that these were the first white settlers in what would eventually become the town of Pembroke. In the proceeding years, there would be other European settlers to make the journey from the established settlements in the south and east, and in 1662 Josiah Wampatuck, grand sachem of the Massachusett tribe, sold a large tract of land known as Mattakeesett meaning “the place between the two lakes where the corn grows best”, to the European settlers for twenty-one English pounds. This land deal included areas to the north that would later become Marshfield, Norwell, and Hanson (Pembroke 300th Anniversary Committee 2012).