The Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore (FCCNS) hopes to hire a full-time Executive Director to further our mission. We raise funds to help preserve, protect, and enhance the park's fragile environment, visitor experience, and unique cultural heritage. We are contacting businesses and individuals to help us hire an Executive Director.

The Seashore adds $548 million to the local economy and attracts about 4 million visitors annually. In the National Park’s 2023 report, CCNS is ranked 23rd out of 393 parks in visitors. The Seashore’s only admission charges are for parking at its six beaches between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The National Seashore budget does not cover the park’s needs. Money is needed for many projects, including buying new beach wheelchairs since the old ones are obsolete, rebuilding a trail for the visually impaired, working with the Wampanoag to share their history, continuing to study shore birds, and digitizing the archives.

Our action plan aims to increase our membership by 10% annually and establish a donation and membership strategy. In the long term, we strive to raise more money to fill in the gaps that the federal budget cannot cover. Dealing with climate change, which includes rising seas resulting in erosion, the park will need funds beyond what the federal government provides, which will be crucial to the continued use of the seashore. The Board feels that potential money could be raised by tapping into Cape Cod's businesses and corporations and the region from Cape North to Boston. Except for a few local businesses, this is an area in which we have yet to receive financial assistance.

Working closely with a dedicated volunteer Board of Directors, the Executive Director will be pivotal in providing leadership and management for the FCCNS. Initially, the Executive Director’s primary focus will be philanthropy and fundraising. Subsequently, the Executive Director will carry out the FCCNS’s mission by developing, implementing, and monitoring the organization's goals, policies, strategic plan, and annual work plan.  

We need your help to raise the initial cost of hiring a full-time Executive Director. While we have put aside half the funds, we must raise an additional $50,000 to $60,000. We are applying for grants, but we could use your help. If you work with a company that has a philanthropic program, we would like to work with you to apply for financial assistance. If you own a business, especially on the Cape, or are philanthropic, we welcome any donations. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at drbern@comcast.net.

Why Every Cape Codder Should Read At Least One Mary Oliver Poem

by Bill Burke, Park Historian

On June 14, 2024, Cape Cod National Seashore hosted a first of its kind event as part of the Poetry in Parks initiative. Seashore staff along with Ada Limón, 24th U.S. National Poet Laureate, unveiled a simple picnic table at Beech Forest in Provincetown. Etched on the top is the poem, “Can You Imagine”, by Pulitzer Prize winning poet and former Provincetown resident Mary Oliver (1935-2019).



As public works of art, these picnic tables, with the seashore’s being the first of seven to be installed in national parks this summer including Mount Rainier and Great Smoky Mountains, will each feature a historic American poem selected by Limón. The initiative marks the first partnership between the National Park Service, Library of Congress, a U.S. National Poet Laureate, and the Poetry Society of America.

Limón described her passion for the initiative: “I want to champion the ways reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world. Never has it been more urgent to feel a sense of reciprocity with our environment, and poetry’s alchemical mix of attention, silence, and rhythm gives us a reciprocal way of experiencing nature—of communing with the natural world through breath and presence.”

So how did our national seashore find itself as the inaugural centerpiece of Poetry in Parks? And why Mary Oliver and Beech Forest in particular? For one, Limón developed a Provincetown connection when decades ago she was awarded a Fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center. Further, Cape Cod has long captured the imagination of writers, artists, and poets. Think Thoreau’s Cape Cod, Beston’s The Outermost House, Provincetown’s eccentric poet of the dunes Harry Kemp, and another Pulitzer Prize winner, playwright Eugene O’Neill.

Oliver’s simple childhood explorations of her rural Ohio home sparked her remarkable career as a nature poet. In a 1992 interview she stated, "I don't know why I felt such an affinity with the natural world except that it was available to me, that's the first thing. It was right there. And for whatever reasons, I felt those first important connections, those first experiences being made with the natural world . . .”. By the 1960s, Oliver moved to Provincetown with her lifelong partner, photographer Molly Malone Cook. It was here that Oliver cherished her forest and pond ramblings in places like the Beech Forest – places that she featured in new poems like, “Have You Seen Blacksnake Swimming?

Let Mary Oliver’s poetry and personal journey reenergize you. Slow down and take in the beauty of the seashore – sip it a little at a time like a good tea. And like Mary Oliver – who hid small pencils in the trees around the Beech Forest in case inspiration came to her unexpectedly – look for the effervescent moments in nature that always occur when you least expect them.

For more information, click here. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/literature/poetryinparks.htm

Poetry in Parks Event a Success!

On Friday, June 14, the park hosted U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and the Library of Congress to kick off Ada’s signature project, “Your Are Here: Poetry in Parks”. The project was two-fold, with seven national parks selected to host a unique picnic table with a poem inscribed on top, combined with the launch of her new anthology, “You Are Here.”  

The picnic table (tabletop pictured) was installed at the Beech Forest Trailhead in Provincetown and features Mary Oliver’s poem “Can You Imagine?” Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who lived in the Provincetown area for more than 50 years. She was known for her nature poetry, and Beech Forest was a special respite for her. She spent hours walking the trail and finding inspiration in the area's natural surroundings.

The morning picnic table unveiling event at Beech Forest featured over 100 visitors in attendance, as well as speeches from park Superintendent Jen Flynn, Library of Congress Literary Director Clay Smith, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon. In the afternoon, the park hosted a minor event for park partners with Ms. Limón to discuss her special connection to Cape Cod as a former Fine Arts Work Center fellow and promote future poetic programming through park partnerships. Learn more about the "Poetry in Parks" program here.

Cape Cod National Seashore Through the Artist’s Eye Are you or someone you know an artist who would like to see their work hosted at Salt Pond Visitor Center? For the eighth year, the park is hosting Perspectives: Seeing Cape Cod National Seashore Through Art, a series of month-long exhibitions of artists who find inspiration from the seashore’s resources and stories and whose works reflect the natural beauty, cultural significance, and recreational aspects of Cape Cod. The exhibitions will occur between June 2024 and September 2024 at the Salt Pond Visitor Center.

Artwork accepted for the series should reflect seashore resources and be acceptable for a diverse family audience. An attempt is made to exhibit various media over the year, ranging from paintings and photographs to mixed media and three-dimensional works. Past exhibits have included historical images, landscape artwork developed by Nauset Regional High School art students, national seashore-inspired quilts, Wampanoag culture, and art and literature inspired by the beauty of the national seashore. Interested artists should contact Zach Gostlin at Zachary_Gostlin@nps.gov

Spring Projects Are Complete!

Marconi Beach Stair Replacement (photo)

Fee Booth Replacement: Race Point Beach and Head of the Meadow Beach

Sign Plan Installation: Phase 1 completed.

Hazard Tree Stabilization at historic properties: Nauset Lighthouse, Captain Penniman House, and Atwood-Higgins House.

Roads/Parking Areas Paving: Pilgrim Heights, Head of Meadow Beach parking lot, and Old Dewline Road in Truro all have fresh-topped pavement! Get out there and enjoy!