Cranberry farmers turning old bogs into wetlands

Carver, Massachusetts – It’s peak season for cranberry growers in southeastern Massachusetts. The Bay State ranks second behind Wisconsin in cranberry production across the United States

“Massachusetts has an incredibly strong cranberry industry,” says Karen Cahill, deputy executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association.

She told FOX that a 2023 economic study showed a $1.7 billion contribution to the state’s economy and support of nearly 6,400 jobs in the region.

But one cranberry grower in the state says it’s becoming more difficult to grow them in Massachusetts.

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Jarrod Rhodes, a fourth-generation cranberry grower in Carver, Massachusetts, produces 50,000 barrels — or 5 million pounds — of cranberries annually on his family farm. His family founded Edgewood Bogs LLC in the early 1940s. The Rhodes launched Cape Cod Select in 2009, processing a portion of their own fruit for the frozen retail market, he said.

But rising costs and changing weather patterns are adding to the pressure.

“It all kind of adds up, and it becomes a lot more expensive to grow here than in Wisconsin or Canada,” Rhodes said.

“Massachusetts is an expensive place to do business overall, driven by high labor, utility and real estate costs,” Cahill added.

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She also says one major difference is the size of Massachusetts compared to Wisconsin alone.

“The area in Wisconsin is much larger — more than twice the area in Massachusetts — and doing anything on a large scale tends to make it less expensive,” she said.

With these pressures in mind, Rhodes turned to a government program to retire and restore more than 30 acres of ancient swamp.

“The property was in distress and needed to be rebuilt,” he says.

Cranberry bog in Carver, Massachusetts (Chelsea Torres)

The state Department of Ecological Restoration (DER) manages the cranberry swamp program, which converts retired swamps into native wetlands.

Over the past decade, DER has restored several unprofitable marshes, including restoring the headwaters of the Eel River. The DER website says Atlantic white rice has rebounded, wetlands now cover the roofs of former plantations, and river herring have returned upstream.

This old, unprofitable swamp will become a wetland in the spring of 2026. (Chelsea Torres)

Rhodes learned of the unprofitable swamp and applied for the program, which is funded by state and federal grants.

“We decided not to rebuild this place, but rather take the money and buy a better property,” he said.

Now the Rhodes farm less, but the retired bog will be permanently protected as a wetland, and the family invests the proceeds in higher-productivity fields.

DER describes this approach as a “green exit strategy,” in which families like the Rhodes are compensated through restoration grants and conversation facilities to convert swamps to wetlands.

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DER’s Christa Haas said the land must be legally protected before construction can begin.

“This places restrictions on land ownership, which restricts some activities such as development,” Haas said. “Conservation easements are often implemented through the Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).”

The state Department of Ecological Restoration says this is the first restoration project, the headwaters of the Eel River near Plymouth. (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Restoration)

As more projects emerge, Rhodes said many farmers are considering the same path. Some are approaching retirement, and younger generations “aren’t as interested,” he said. The Rhodes wetland restoration is scheduled to be completed in spring 2026.

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The agency’s goal is to restore 1,000 acres over the next 10 to 15 years, said Beth Lambert, DER’s executive director.