Concerned residents in Barnstable County took action in 1996 to clean and protect West Bay, North Bay and Cotuit Bay. Increasing congestion around Cape Cod has degraded water quality, so that whole populations of shellfish have disappeared. Three Bays volunteers have made substantial improvements, including creating an intensive water monitoring system that provides data to the Massachusetts Estuaries Project — a six-year, $12.5 million study of pollution problems and solutions in 89 embayments. Three Bays’ installation of a shellfish upweller propagation system in West Bay nurtures and protects seedling clams. Volunteers dredged 230,000 cubic yards of sand and put it on Dead Neck Island, effectively flushing Cotuit Bay, improving shellfish beds and providing a nesting site on Dead Neck for endangered piping plovers and terns. This bird sanctuary was deeded to Three Bays in July 2004, which now daily maintains it in partnership with the Mass Audubon Society. Three Bays’ work is privately funded; your help is needed to continue to improve and protect the fragile ecosystem it serves.