FOX RUN
Formerly known as the Curtis Conservation Lands, Fox Run was acquired by the town in 2004 and is an essential part of the Provincetown Greenway. The out and back trail showcases dense forests of beech, oak, and maple, as well as active wetlands. The stars of this site however, are sections of white cedar swamp, which are rare on barrier beaches like Provincetown, and also because they have been steadily diminishing on Cape Cod since European colonization.
Provincetown's Atlantic White Cedar Swamp
Fox Run’s White Cedar swamp is of particular importance. This type of habitat has been steadily diminishing with the start of European colonization and continued encroachment. The diaries of early explorers and colonists (Archer 1602 and Brereton 1602 [in Emerson 19811; Emerson 1981) would suggest that Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands once had a great many Cedar stands.
The White Cedar Swamps of Cape Cod generally exist in glacial kettles. Cedars cluster on hummocks that are scattered throughout the basin. On these hummocks one might expect to find ericaceous shrubs, sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) and ferns atop a sphagnum carpet.
In Massachusetts, the northern parula warbler (Parula Ameri-cana) now primarily breeds in a few white cedar swamps, due to the rapid lose of its preferred nesting materials from outside the swamps (the lichen Usnea) .