The hot and humid summer season is flying by. Sweltering days spent in social distance are blending together, leaving some of us to scramble for a moment of quiet and peace. We can all use an excuse for a walk on a breezy day, realign our nature connection, and take in the color and diversity…
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…
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…
By Neil Foley, Education Coordinator and Ecologist Sunrises on Nantucket are worth the effort every time, even for a night owl like myself. Before most of the island wakes for the day and the rotaries jam with the traffic, it’s a spectacular feeling to face the fog banks and listen to a chorus of songbirds…
If the fog would ever lift this summer, the view of the eastern Middle Moors from Altar Rock might look a little strange at the moment. Large swaths of scrub oak in the Moors have been completely defoliated for the third year in a row. The culprit is an outbreak of a native species called…
We are rounding out Pollinator Week, and what a week it has been! June is always an incredibly busy month here at NCF with field work keeping us moving in all directions. I can’t stress this enough: Junes on Nantucket are beautiful. They are filled to the brim with blooms of all sizes, colors, &…
This year, everyone’s favorite dream job on island went to an enthusiastic young ecologist, Rachel Brubaker! Hear her tell the story that brought her here this season. By Rachel Brubaker I genuinely wish I had a warm backstory about how I was always interested in the natural world when I was a child and spent…
Moonlight, warm waters, and high tides are the perfect conditions to bring in the one of the most mysterious marine animals to Nantucket shores. In late May through June, horseshoe crabs will start their journey from the the ocean floor to shoreline to lay their eggs. The females are noticeably larger in diameter as compared…
When most people think of earthworms, they probably picture them tunneling through compost or garden soil, turning old banana peels and yard waste into rich, dark soil. One such species is the nightcrawler, Lumbricus terrestris, often found on the surface of the lawn at night or coming up for air after a soaking rain. While…
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…