The Wilderness Conservation Area

The Wilderness Conservation Area (WCA) is a two-thousand-acre parcel of contiguous woodlands across Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, spanning various core habitats and critical natural landscape areas in both towns. The WCA is managed by the Manchester-Essex Conservation Trust (MECT), one of many conservation partners on Cape Ann dedicated to preserving the area’s cultural and ecological heritage.^{1 2}

In addition to providing recreational opportunities, the WCA protects built cultural heritage, including agricultural stone walls and the old inland road linking Manchester-by-the-Sea and Essex. The land provides various ecosystem services (such as a buffer zone that protects the drinking water supply) and also supports unique ecosystem assemblages, including vernal pools, that are unique to Cape Ann’s uplands. Vernal pools, also known as ephemeral pools, are seasonal water bodies that provide a habitat for an array of plants and animals. Cape Ann’s vernal pools are home to three obligate species — spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and fairy shrimp — whose life cycles depend on the ecosystem. Another conservation group, the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team, spearheads a citizen-scientist conservation effort to identify ponds and perform community outreach about the ecosystems and their species.³

This strong social network of conservation organizations, however, cannot stop the effects of climate change on Cape Ann’s ecosystems. There is already a brush fire risk across the WCA. In addition, New England forest species are migrating northward as rising temperatures change alter plant hardiness zones.⁴ Cape Ann is currently designated Zone 7A by the USDA, but may be in Zone 8A by 2050. This shift will signal heat-stress-related decline for many native species, including red maples in the WCA’s lowland swamps and eastern white pines in rocky uplands.^{5 6} These stresses create opportunities for introduced species that outcompete native species and destroy niche habitats such as vernal ponds.⁷ In short, the unique ecosystem assemblages that characterize conservation areas like the WCA — and Cape Ann more broadly — already face inexorable changes.⁸

Storm events will only exacerbate these stresses, especially in areas of Cape Ann with south- and east-facing slopes, rolling topography, and mature trees.⁹ Outside of the coastal storm surge, wind will carry and deposit salt miles inland, changing the inland soil chemistry and killing off grasses, crops, and wild bushes and trees weeks to months after the storm has subsided.¹⁰