by: Jen Karberg, Ph.D.; Science and Stewardship, Research Program Supervisor To celebrate the first week of spring, volunteers from island conservation groups and Madaket homeowners gathered together (socially distant!) to finally stabilize the washover dune area near the Millie’s Bridge end of Hither Creek. In about 5 hours, we planted approximately 5000 plugs of beach…
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By Dr Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor 30 miles off the mainland, anchored in the Atlantic Ocean, Nantucketer’s know better than many how water shapes our natural world. Wetlands are the places where water comes in contact with land and surrounded by the ocean and our many harbors, it can be easy to think that…
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The ecological work of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, both the property stewardship activities and research properties require extensive field work. If you ask any ecologist, this is the fun part of the job! Most of us came to our careers as ecologists through a love of the outdoors. Seasonal ecology field employees are the backbone…
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By Dr Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor On an island like Nantucket it’s hard lately to not read something about climate change, sea level rise, coastal resilience, erosion, etc. These buzz words can be heard all around the island from the flash flooding on Easy St to storm erosion near Hummock Pond. From south shore…
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By Dr. Jennifer Karberg, Research Program Supervisor The Nantucket Select Board has officially recognized September as Climate Change Awareness Month and there are many local events to help learn about climate change particularly on Nantucket “We, the Select Board of the Town of Nantucket in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hearby officially proclaim the month…
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by Dr. Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor As we dive into the warm steamy months of summer on Nantucket, we are also approaching the season of harmful algal blooms in our freshwater ponds. Algal blooms have made headlines in recent years as concerns have increased over harmful impacts to pets and humans. What should you…
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In many conservation and restoration projects, ecologists work hard to protect native things or bring native things back to a place. But this last year, Nantucket Conservation Foundation Staff acted as predators and aggressively removed a native crab from a few salt marshes in Polpis Harbor. Our prey? The purple marsh crab (Sesarma reticulatum). The…
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By Dr. Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor Last Saturday was World Wetlands Day – a day designed to celebrate the beauty, ecology, value and uniqueness of wetlands around the world. These days, it’s no argument how important wetlands are from marshes that provide homes for ducks and fish to raingardens in splendid summer flower capturing…
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by Dr. Jennifer Karberg, Research Program Supervisor The impacts of climate change: increased sea level rise, increased occurrence of strong storm events, increased and more variable temperature and rainfall, temporal ecological disjuncts (ie plants flowering before their pollinators are around), and changes to natural communities (to name just a few impacts) all feel very immediate…
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Salt marshes and shrub wetlands buried under the eroded sand dune at Hither Creek will likely never regenerate but new vegetation is recolonizing on top of the bare sand. Horseshoe crabs, piping plovers and even a state-listed plant are making there homes in the new habitat around Millie’s Pond.
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