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Owner: Decas Cranberry Co. (now Fruit D’ Or)
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Volume of Earth Removed:150,000 minimum
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Permit: Yes Carver ERC granted permit for 150,000 cubic yards. See: March 30, 2016 ERC Minutes of Public Hearing.
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Area Impacted: Not known
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Claimed Reason for Mining: “the shortage of water and modest expansion to dig two bogs beside water holes where one is about 5 acres and the other about ½ arce…The amount to be removed was stated as approximately 150,000 yards by Mr. [Iain] Ward.” ERC Minutes.
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Solar: unknown
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Plymouth Carver Sole Source Aquifer: Yes
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Wetlands and Waterways: Unknown
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Archaeological Impacts: Unknown
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Environmental Justice Population: Unknown
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Other: On Carver’s 2019 Climate Change and Water Resource Study three of Decas Cranberry Co. Inc. site acreage is listed as “abandoned” (Bogs 161, 162 and 163)
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Update: In 2024 Fruit d'Or Cranberry submitted a application for a earth removal permit for 640,000 cubic yards of sand for a 10.5 acre tailwater recovery pond.
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On April 16, 2025, the Carver Conservation Commission voted unanimously that wetlands laws apply to a sand and gravel mining project proposed at a cranberry bog site. The project, which will mine sand and gravel from the Sole Source Aquifer, was first proposed by cranberry company Fruit d’Or in 2024. Scott Hannula, chair of the Earth Removal Committee, has proposed to carry out the excavation and mining.
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Recently, the bog site was sold to the Haseotes companies, a sand, gravel, and real estate consortium based in Halifax, MA.The Commission’s vote is a major victory for the protection of wetlands and waterways. For decades, the cranberry industry has conducted sand and gravel mining in wetland areas under the claim that it was “agriculture” and thus exempt from permits. This has led to major destruction of wetlands, rivers, streams, and wildlife habitats.For the past several years, CLWC has been working with its legal team and experts to demonstrate that industrial-scale mining is not cranberry agriculture. An internationally recognized hydrologist submitted a report to the Commission outlining the threats to water resources posed by the project. The Carver Conservation Commission carefully considered CLWC’s scientific and legal information and agreed that the law does not exempt the project from requiring a permit. Read the comment letter submitted to the Carver Conservation Commission by expert hydrologist Scott Horsley here.