Back River is a small tidal
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...
in
Bourne, Massachusetts
Bourne ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census.
For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Bourne, please see the articles on Bourne (CDP), ...
on the eastern shore of
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since ...
. It lies just south of the
Cape Cod Canal near the village of
Monument Beach. It is separated from Buzzards Bay by Phinneys Harbor. The river's length is .
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed April 1, 2011
Since 1989, Back River has been listed as an
Area of Critical Environmental Concern
Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (F ...
by the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
List of ACECs
/ref>
See also
* Pocasset River
References
External links
Massachusetts Estuaries Project - Back River
Estuaries of Massachusetts
Estuaries of Barnstable County, Massachusetts
{{BarnstableCountyMA-geo-stub