Although the calendar says that we still have a few days of summer left, fall is definitely in the air. The days are shorter, the nights are cooler, the humidity is lower, there is a touch of fall color in the foliage and the stores are full of apples, pumpkins and other fall produce. It’s…
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It’s mid-July on Nantucket, and a number of harmful algae blooms (or HABs) have already been documented within the island’s freshwater ponds. In past years, this phenomenon has occurred later in the summer. However, the unusually warm spring weather seems to have created earlier-than-usual conditions that favor the excess growth of Cyanobacteria, a particular type…
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Nantucket is home to a remarkably high number of rare and endangered species. These plants and animals occur here for many of the same reasons that people find Nantucket so special–its undeveloped conservation lands and unique, windswept vegetation communities. Nantucket County has one of the highest concentrations of rare and endangered species in Massachusetts: of…
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April is a busy transition time for ecologists. Winter data analysis and writing projects need to get wrapped up. Early season field work – such as nesting shorebird and turtle monitoring – gets underway. Planning and preparation for other projects that will be taking place over the coming summer, which once seemed very far away,…
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The Nantucket Conservation Foundation recently received news that we have been awarded a $24,075 grant to undertake a sandplain heathland and scrub oak barren habitat management project on 24 acres within our Middle Moors properties in the central portion of the island, just north of Altar Rock. This funding comes from the Massachusetts Division of…
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As we get ready to close out 2020, we would like to commemorate the Foundation’s 57nd anniversary on December 28th. On this date in 1963, a group of Nantucketers met at the home of W. Ripley Nelson, who was then the President of the Nantucket Civic League. They came together to discuss the growing need…
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With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it will soon be shotgun deer hunting season here on Nantucket and elsewhere across Massachusetts. Although archery season has been underway since October 5th and runs through November 28th, the most concentrated hunting activity takes place during the two-week shotgun season window, which is scheduled this year between Monday…
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Our Science and Stewardship Department is excited to move forward with a new phase of habitat management work within the Serengeti area on the north side of the Milestone Road. For many years, residents and visitors have enjoyed the wide-open vistas across this portion of the Middle Moors, thanks to grassland restoration and management work…
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Our Science and Stewardship Department has been busy re-envisioning the future of Windswept Bog, one of the Foundation’s most popular properties, since cranberry cultivation was retired at this site in early 2019. We have been working with restoration ecologists at the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Program (Mass. DER) and soil scientists at…
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These days, it seems like everything we took for granted as normal is getting cancelled, closed or postponed due to COVID-19. From a socio-economic perspective, it is apparent that this coming summer will be nothing like recent seasons here on Nantucket. For those of us who love nature and the outdoors, the ongoing rhythm of…
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