Stand outside on the warm nights of June, as spring folds into summer, and turn on a light. Soon enough you will hear the engine-like thrum and eventual collision of a June Beetle (sub family Melolonthinae) clumsily seeking the source of illumination. Keep the light on and hang a sheet to attract the multitudes of…
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Each year, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s Science and Stewardship staff hires 2 Seasonal Ecology Field Assistants to help completely all of our many research and management related objectives over the summer and early fall season. Each year we look for people with strong experience in plant research, wildlife monitoring, invasive species management and an overall…
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Nantucket’s fauna is very unique – maybe more so for what is not here than for what we have. Numerous species that are common elsewhere in New England are missing from our assemblage of terrestrial wildlife, including chipmunks, possums, raccoons, skunks, fox, woodchucks, and coyotes. What we do have on Nantucket are several species of…
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by Elizabeth C. Buck It may seem like August has just arrived, and there is still plenty of summertime to be enjoyed by all, but our shorebirds are already thinking about fall migration. Nantucket is home to many nesting shorebirds that now have young fledglings ready to make their journey south to their wintering grounds.…
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By Kelly A. Omand If you spend a lot of time looking upwards in the forests of Nantucket, you may have observed something sinister occurring in the canopy of our black oak (Quercus velutina) trees. When first noticed several years ago, it seemed like damage from the usual suspects; fierce storms and salt spray often…
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Each summer, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation’s Science and Stewardship Department hires two seasonal Botany and Ecology Field Assistants to help us collect data on a variety of projects throughout the field season. This year, we are very lucky to have Jacob Erle and Scott Fuchs on our team! Jake and Scott will be helping us…
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Spring is the time of year when there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the work day for our Science and Stewardship Department’s full-time staff. There are winter writing projects that need to be wrapped up, early season field work to fit in when Nantucket’s fickle spring weather is cooperative, preparations to be…
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Each year, the NCF Science and Stewardship Department hires a few lucky and talented people to help us through the field season with all of our various research, monitoring and restoration projects. We try to hire individuals with a passion for botany and the natural world and each year we are excited to meet and…
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by Natalie Pawlikowski, NCF Seasonal Botany Field Research Assistant Five months on Nantucket have come and past. Most of my days have been spent working with the island’s diverse shrub, grass, and forb species. Some highlights of the season included seeing the Turk’s Cap Lilly (Lilium superbum) bloom at Squam Farm, monitoring Broom Crowberry (Corema…
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By: Kaitlyn Evans, NCF Seasonal Botany Field Research Assistant This summer I had the privilege of working on Nantucket as seasonal botany/ecology field assistant. I was able to participate in many different projects within the science department. These projects included vegetation monitoring, rare plant surveys, invasive plant management, a salt marsh food web study, bat…
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