From the Falmouth Enterprise · August 31, 1979
About 35 people came to Mashpee Town Hall on August 30, 1979, for the second public meeting on naming Waquoit Bay an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, a state designation that adds protection for sensitive places. Wendy Franklin, Cape Coastal Zone Management manager, and Gary R. Clayton, a Coastal Zone Management marine biologist, said designation would stop new dredging except for circulation or shellfish, still allow maintenance dredging, bar new outfalls, and give the bay higher priority for state open-space money. Public access and local zoning would not change.
Since the first meeting, in Falmouth that May, the boundary had been redrawn, dropping the Childs River, Seapit and Seconsett areas among others and adding land along Route 28. The selectmen chairmen and conservation commissions of both towns had signed the nomination, and a formal hearing was set for September 27 in Falmouth. The bay was designated later in 1979, and as the Enterprise later reported, that status helped keep the Washburn Island development plan from moving past the planning stage.
This is CPWB’s summary of a news article. The full article and its photos are published by the Falmouth Enterprise. The page is in the Falmouth Public Library’s digital archive of the Enterprise.
Drafted with AI assistance from the linked source.
