Quashnet River

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Quashnet River, also called Quoshnet or Moonakis River, is a 5.1-mile estuary on Cape Cod in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The surrounding watershed is about 1 square mile. The river connects by a ditch to John’s Pond in Mashpee, just north of Route 28. It is fed by groundwater and flows south into Waquoit Bay, which leads to Nantucket Sound.

In colonial times it had many brook trout, but a dam was built in the mid-1800s for water power. After the mills burned and the dam broke, the valley became cranberry bogs in the early 1900s. The bogs were abandoned in the 1950s. Beginning in the late 1950s, the state bought the land, and in the 1970s groups like Trout Unlimited began restoring the river for trout.

Today the river is an important home for migratory fish such as alewife and salter brook trout, and also hosts herring and eels. It is Waquoit Bay’s largest source of fresh water. Parts of the watershed have been purchased by various groups, and the area is now a wildlife management and conservation preserve managed by the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.