Nantucket Bluedot Living Green Guide

GREEN GUIDE

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POLLINATION

It’s good for us, of course — 35% of the world’s food crops depend on pollinators having healthy ecosystems. In this Green Guide, we have several stories that show us how Nantucketers do just that — provide the best possible conditions for pollinators to do their work. Healthy soil, restored bogs, parks and preserves with unsegmented pollinator pathways, advice on how to install outdoor lighting to keep bugs and birds happy. We also benefit from metaphorical pollination — that delightful result

NANTUCKET! Hello,

a whole network striving to repurpose construction waste. Intern Anna Popnikolova germinates maybe 40 ideas

process. Writer/photographer Sam Moore finds Nantucket birders trading notes with their Martha’s Vineyard counterparts about which birds are passing through.

So much collaboration, pollination, making ideas come to fruition.

We hope you enjoy the result! It’s been a blast working on this magazine, and getting to know Nantucket even better. Thank you to Remain for being such a great supporter, to all our many advertisers, our Field Note contributors, to Bill Hoenk for all his gorgeous work, and to you, our readers.

COURTESY OF BILL HOENK, NANTUCKET LIGHTS

Update: The Hive is Buzzing!

Nantucket’s newest venture is collaborative, and delicious.

By Anna Popnikolova

For a tourist town like Nantucket, the seasonal cycle can feel Sisyphean. Rolling from summer to winter to summer again is an uphill battle, especially in the food industry.

“This community is so seasonally driven, that we have folks who kill themselves in the summer to make enough to get through the winter,” said Karen Macumber, owner of the Nantucket Food Group and overseer of the island's newest sustainability venture, The Hive (see Bluedot’s story from 2024: bit.ly/Hive2024). “It’s not a particularly quality way of life; it impacts family, and we feel like we can break that cycle here.”

The Hive, Nantucket’s first and only shared kitchen facility, officially opened its doors in September of 2024. In its first few months, the project has brought in more than ten local makers and is on track for a busy, successful summer

season, with several makers soon to join the space, once their applications are approved.

The Hive and Nantucket Food Group offer six fully equipped professional kitchens — each specialized for slightly different use; state-of-the-art equipment including large-scale production technology; massive dry, cold, and freezer storage spaces. They’ve also been working on marketing projects for their members.

The Hive on Amelia Street.

Bo Siam cooking at the Hive.

COURTESY OF NANTUCKET FOODS

COURTESY OF THE HIVE/BILL HOENK

Members of the Hive can pick up to-go orders from these food lockers in the lobby.

Once the 2025 season starts, Karen hopes to hold events on the front porch space, events that her members are catering, pop-ups, tastings, and demonstrations in the demo kitchen.

“Anything we can do to give our members more exposure,” she said. During the off-season, The Hive team put together

their takeout program, and put in high-tech cold and hot food lockers in the lobby of the Amelia street building.

Now, customers can order online from any of the members participating in the takeout program, based on their weekly menus, and pick up their meal no-contact,

using a code The food stays hot or cold in the temperaturecontrolled lockers until the customer can pick it up. The Hive’s management recently put together a cohesive online programming site (here: order.toasttab.com/online/

nantucket-food-group), where customers can search all makers’ offerings for the week and order ahead of time.

“If someone is catering in the summer, nothing’s to say they can’t be participating in a meal takeout program, making their best barbeque sauce into a product that we can package here and try to sell locally in the winter. There should be multiple ways to make money throughout the year in a way that will give them a better quality of life,” Karen said.

“[And] It gives the local community the opportunity to have a new way of having food when all the restaurants are closed in the wintertime. Nothing against Stubby’s, but maybe something a step a little closer to restaurant-type food that someone can enjoy in their

COURTESY OF THE HIVE/BILL HOENK

The Porch at the Hive is a nice place to eat and see your neighbors.

own home, and at the same time people support locals.”

Alongside the meal programs, which they hope to expand to a subscription service as they amass some regular diners, Karen and Tom Pearson have been working with makers to come up with plans for how business owners can use the space. In addition to being a home for small businesses like Noemi’s Dumplings, The Hive has also provided a space for caterers and an opportunity for private chefs who typically use home kitchens to expand and experiment.

Chris Arms, owner of local catering company 8 Arms Chefs, has been using the space since November. He does private chef work, as well as catering, and cooks for The Hive’s takeout program. One of his weekly meal offerings is the fan-favorite roast chickens that Annye’s Whole Foods used to make just down Amelia street.

“You have to have a commercial kitchen space to operate as a catering business. The private chef world is one way you can get around that, but once you get into doing it for public consumption, all the licensing comes into play,” Arms said.

The process of getting licensing from the Health Department, finding a suitable kitchen and working through the paperwork while also trying to stay afloat as a business can be overwhelming, and sometimes fatal for small businesses, Karen said. Before moving to Nantucket, she worked in the Boston tech industry. On island, she started

Introducing the Grow Native for Nantucket initiative by the Nantucket Land & Water

This campaign emphasizes the importance of native plants in preserving our island’s unique ecosystem. Native plants thrive with minimal need for fertilizers, pesticides, or irrigation, making them the perfect addition to any landscape. Join us in supporting Nantucket’s natural heritage—learn how to incorporate

Council.

the Center for Entrepreneurship to help local businesses get started — of these, she realized, an astounding majority were food-related. Remain Nantucket had already been considering starting a shared kitchen facility, and once their visions aligned, the project began. Back in 2022, Remain bought the old Keeper’s restaurant building, and began renovations then.

Karen, who runs the Nantucket Food Group and oversees operations at The Hive, specializes with helping small business owners, or those who are curious about starting.

“Especially out here, where it’s always evolving as an island of food, this will be one of those places where people can come to enjoy or realize a dream,” Chris Arms said.

Karen’s focus is giving chefs a facility to cater out of, or to create large batches of products, like salsas, sauces, or other original recipes that can be canned or bottled, packaged at The Hive in sustainable packaging, and sold wholesale to local businesses.

Tom, who has worked in local restaurants for years, is working on collaborating with local farmers to help with the cost, labor, and equipment towards packaging, storage, or whatever else small farms need to help with post-harvest processing, and maintaining a consistent year-round income.

“It’s evolving almost every week; there’s always something

Karen’s focus is giving chefs a facility to cater out of, or to create large batches of products, like salsas, sauces, or other original recipes that can be canned or bottled, packaged at The Hive in sustainable packaging, and sold wholesale to local businesses.

different and new. It’s cool to be the grassroots of this place,” Chris said. “Every time I go in there, I see something new going on. It will be an ever-morphesizing kind of thing, which is cool because that’s the way food is.”

(For Siam to go, bit.ly/Siam-TheHive)

dot DEAR

by Elissa Turnbull

Dear Dot: What’s Your Most Popular Advice?

Dear Dot,

What has been your most popular advice of the past year?

–Exhaustedly, Dot

#1: Dear Dot: How Can I Tackle an Ant Problem Without Toxic Pest Control?

Dear Dot,

What a clever idea to revisit some of Dot’s greatest hits — as we all collectively drag ourselves through days, thanks in part to a head-spinning news cycle and daylight saving time, which renders many of us chronically weary and which 62% of Americans would like to abolish. We can’t seem to agree on, well, anything these days, including whether to settle permanently on standard time or daylight saving time. Result? See above: A head-spinning news cycle and chronic exhaustion. And a disoriented, tired Dot.

But Bluedot’s web wizard, Kelsey, has come to our rescue. Kelsey compiled a list of Dear Dot’s 10 most popular columns (based on web traffic). They run the gamut from investigating why cashmere, emblematic of luxury, has become so darn cheap, to determining whether wildfires give us great sunsets. We’ll break them into two columns of five, so stay tuned for Part Two. Let’s get started:

Dot offered up this ant-idote: “Dr. Death, an eco-friendly pest control company serving Las Vegas (with the industry’s greatest name), tells us that “The two specific ingredients [in Raid] that are not safe are cypermethrin and imiprothrin. … Essentially, what makes them so deadly to bugs can also make them poisonous to [us].”

So let’s consider methods that are less toxic (to humans and animals, not so much for ants).”

From baking soda to vinegar, Dot’s got thoughts (courtesy of some pestcontrol TikTokkers). Read on: bit.ly/ Dear-Dot-Pest

#2: Dear Dot: Must I Remove Packing Tape and Labels Before Recycling Amazon Boxes?

“The packaging industry is ripe for innovation, in Dot’s not-so-humble opinion,” I wrote. “Packaging that disappears upon delivery! Edible packaging! Amazon claimed it was offering tips via a QR code on its boxes for how to reuse them (a pretend rocket ship! A canine car! A kitty condo!). Seriously? I say to Amazon. Like

people haven’t been doing this without instruction since the advent of cardboard boxes? I have yet to see such a QR code on any Amazon boxes I’ve received, but if you have, please let Dot know.

Increasingly, states are enacting legislation making producers responsible for the disposal/recycling of the packaging they produce — led by Maine, whose legislation took effect in 2024, and Oregon, where laws will go into effect in 2025. In Canada, the province of Ontario began overhauling its recycling program in July 2023, and directed the cost of operating it to the producers of recyclables.

But meanwhile, you’ve got some boxes you need to get rid of. What to do with the packing tape? Or the clear plastic windows on the front that often contain invoices or shipping information? What must you do in your area? Keep reading: bit.ly/DearDot-Tape

#3: Dear Dot: What’s Behind the (Low) Price of Cashmere?

Dot was curious too! “I took your cashmere query to Derek Guy, a fashion writer with Die, Workwear,” I wrote. Guy reminded me that everything we wear has an environmental cost. “You can take literally any garment in

Illustration

your closet and then just trace it back,” he says, “and you will find some crazy environmental story.” (Incidentally, Guy has since become something of a viral social media poster. Seek him out and get great advice on men’s fashion.)

Guy laid out the crazy environmental story around cashmere. It is basically this …

You won’t want to miss it: bit.ly/ Dear-Dot-cashmere. It’s not only super interesting, but also, Guy gives the inside scoop on how to score good second-hand cashmere.

#4: Dear Dot: Is Pollution the Reason for a Beautiful Sunset?

Dot responded: “We live in a timeline in which your question is both fascinating and heartbreaking. On the one hand, we all love a gorgeous sunset (just check out social media!) But on the other, it’s perfectly reasonable to wonder if air

pollution is somehow altering, perhaps even enhancing, these sunsets. I received your query at a time when unprecedented wildfires were raging across Canada, and smoke (i.e., pollution) from those fires was traveling at least as far south as Florida and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Is all that smoke changing our skies? It’s hard to imagine it’s not. But let’s hear from the experts.”

What did they say? Dot breaks down sunsets: bit.ly/Dear-Dot-Sunset … and is schooled by Middle Dot Child’s astrophysics expertise.

#5: Dear Dot: How Do I Keep Pigeons Off My Balcony?

Dot uncharacteristically cuts straight to the chase with her reply: “While bird spikes may look barbaric, they are usually blunt on the ends and won’t hurt the birds that land on them, according to the folks at Bird Barrier, a pest control product manufacturer — they simply let

your feathered friends know that this won’t be a comfortable place for them to roost.” And there’s more, including less pointed options. Read on: /bit.ly/DearDot-Pigeons

That concludes part one of “Dot’s tired.” Hope you enjoyed these five most popular Dear Dots. Stay tuned for the second installment of the top ten. And if you have your own questions, please keep ’em coming: write me at deardot@ bluedotliving.com

– Wearily, Dot

Please send your questions to deardot@bluedotliving.com

Want to see more Dear Dots?

Find lots here: bit.ly/Dear-Dot-Hub

Check out our new Daily Dot newsletter and get a Climate Quick Tip each weekday, and an answer from Dot each Saturday. On Sunday, Dot rests. Sign up here: bit.ly/BDL-newsletters

A Thriving Nantucket Begins with Us.

Celebrating 20 years of partnering with community leaders to address our Island’s most critical needs.

Our e orts help provide a ordable access to childcare, after-school programs, behavioral and physical health services, safe shelters and food for those in need, and transportation for our seniors.

Through generous donations, CFN works with 160+ local organizations by providing critical grants. With your support we can do more.

From left: Deb DuBois, The Warming Place; Rachel Mandle, Sherburne Commons; Jamie Foster, Nantucket Boys & Girls Club; Sunny Daily, CFN; Jennifer Frazee, A Safe Place.

Photographer: Kit Noble

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: The Nantucket Land Bank

Subject: Hinsdale Park Encompasses the Nantucket Land Bank’s Mission

For over 40 years, the Nantucket Land Bank has been guided by our mission of preserving and protecting Nantucket’s open spaces for conservation, outdoor recreation, and agriculture in service to the public. While Land Bank properties typically highlight one or two facets of our mission, Hinsdale Park touches on all three. On any given Saturday morning, you can find families gathering at the playground, people hiking or biking through the wooded trails, and the young and old alike tending to their plots in the Community Garden.

CONSERVATION

This 70-acre park, nestled between busy Milestone and Old South Roads, serves as a welcoming respite in a densely developed part of Nantucket. Having this open space is essential not only for those craving the outdoor refuge it provides, but its pitch pine forest is also a critical habitat for the northern long-eared bat, a species at high risk of extinction in the northeast which resides here on Nantucket. The Land Bank Property Management and Resource Department staff ensure that these rare species thrive through adaptive management of pitch pine barrens, which are an integral feature of Nantucket’s iconic landscapes. This winter, we began forest management work at Hinsdale Park, which includes understory thinning and clearing of debris. This work, which promotes healthier trees, regeneration, and fire prevention, will preserve, protect and enhance the ecological integrity of this habitat.

OUTDOOR RECREATION

Along with conserving open space, the Land Bank provides additional active and passive outdoor recreational opportunities for residents and visitors. The Discovery Playground at Hinsdale Park is the product of a STEAM-focused design intended to engage kids of all ages, interests, and abilities. Constructed in 2019, the playground is comprised of climbing structures, zip lines, and even fitness equipment for adults. At first glance, the park may look like it is just a playground, but it has much more to offer. For those who want to venture beyond the playground, there is a trail system just behind the play area which winds through the pitch pine forest, revealing a multi-use area consisting of a mowed athletic field and a labyrinth. Our field crew meticulously maintains these recreational areas as well as the forest to sustain a welcoming environment for humans and wildlife alike. Protecting our native habitats embedded within this high use recreational area enables us to keep our community healthy and connected to the natural world.

AGRICULTURE

In protecting pastoral landscapes and providing additional acreage for cultivation, the Land Bank helps support local farmers and promotes food production by and for the Nantucket community. There are innumerable benefits to consuming locally grown food rather than imported food, not least of which is the smaller carbon footprint due to the elimination of long-distance transport. Furthermore, locally grown food decreases our economic reliance on the mainland. To increase access to locally grown food, the Land Bank opened the Hinsdale Park Community Garden last summer, offering 42 public garden plots for cultivation. While it is satisfying to see the gardeners growing their own vegetables, herbs, and flowers, it is even more rewarding to observe the variegated ways in which humans connect with one another, and the land. Creating an opportunity for novice and experienced gardeners to work side by side has allowed our gardeners to learn and lean on one another, resulting in the first of many abundant growing seasons to come at the Community Garden.

PRESERVING AND PROTECTING NANTUCKET FOR EVERYONE

Every day, the Nantucket Land Bank works to connect our community with the outdoors through conservation, recreation, and agriculture. The Land Bank continues to provide waterfront

BILL HOENK

The playground at Nantucket Land Bank's Hinsdale Park.

Hinsdale Park

The 70-acre park is between Milestone and Old South roads.

access and carefully maintained scenic trails through conservation land, promote local agriculture, and create outdoor recreational opportunities for all. Understanding how the creation of Hinsdale Park has provided so many people an opportunity to enjoy the wholesome benefits of outdoor spaces reinforces our mission to preserve and protect Nantucket's public land where unforgettable experiences abound. Hinsdale Park is a quintessential Land Bank property, beautifully reflecting all three facets of our mission and in turn a lasting testament to the Land Banks dedication to public access.

Find more info here: nantucketlandbank.org/property/ hinsdale-park/

Hinsdale Park, located on Old South Road, is a multi-use area containing mowed playing fields, a labyrinth and a trail system. From the parking area, a single trailhead leads to the labyrinth and a forested loop, which includes a connection to the Milestone Road bike path and the Land Bank’s Milestone Crossing trail on the north side of Milestone Road.

The trees on the Hinsdale Property are primarily pitch pine, which are native to the eastern United States, but were most likely introduced to Nantucket in 1847 by Josiah Sturgis who planted them along the Milestone Road to serve as a windbreak. This species quickly spread and is now one of the most common trees on Nantucket.

Directions: From the rotary, go out Old South Road and take your first dirt road on the left after Forest Avenue. There is a parking area a short distance down the dirt road.

BILL HOENK

Trails at Hinsdale.

Books About Nantucket’s History and Environment

Find them at the library or the bookstore!

By Julia Cooper

Bluedot Living may earn a small commission if you buy a book via one of our links.

Collecting Nantucket: Artifacts From an Island Community

By Michael R. Harrison

This publication from the Nantucket Historical Association explores fascinating artifacts and documents held in their collection. From fine art and furniture to whalecraft and scrimshaw, these artifacts tell the story of Nantucket. Available at the Nantucket Museum Shop: bit.ly/CollectingBook-ACK

Walking Nantucket and Nantucket: A Natural History

By Peter B. Brace

In Walking Nantucket and Nantucket: A Natural History, Peter B. Brace shares his enthusiasm for the fascinating environmental microcosm of the island. Encounter the diverse flora and fauna Nantucket has to offer with Brace’s enriching guides. Find these on Amazon: bit.ly/Walking-book and bit.ly/NatHistory-Brace

By Cary Hazlegrove

Cary Hazlegrove’s Nantucket pairs gorgeous photography that captures the island’s distinct seasons with the thoughtful writing of Nantucket residents. With images and writing that span a decade, this book is an enduring portrayal of Nantucket. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/Hazlegrove-book

Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890

by Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Away Off Shore offers a comprehensive look into a unique chapter of American history. Philbrick takes us back in time to see Nantucket as the English settlers interact with the island’s indigenous populations up through the rise and fall of the whaling industry. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/Away-Book-bookshop

Nantucket

The Movement of Stars

By Amy Brill

Brill’s novel is a love story set on Nantucket in 1845 and follows a female astronomer based on Maria Mitchell, Nantucketer and America’s first professional female astronomer and the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In The Movement of the Stars, Brill crafts a portrait of desire and ambition in the face of adversity. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/Stars-book

CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook: Savoring Four Seasons of the Good Life

By Erin Zircher, Jane Stoddard, and Carlos Hidalgo

Erin Zircher, Chef at CRU Oyster Bar, finds inspiration in Nantucket’s abundant natural beauty in this stunning cookbook. Featuring 75 recipes that draw on Zircher’s French training, love of Mediterranean flavors, and family traditions, the CRU Oyster Bar Nantucket Cookbook has something delicious to offer to home cooks at all skill levels, in any season. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/CRU-OYSTER-book

A Nantucket Hermitage

By Caroline Parker Hills

This work of historical literature was originally published in 1895. Through careful preservation, scholars have carefully reconstructed and compiled Caroline Parker Hills’ poetry into this collection, now a part of the public domain and considered a culturally important work. In the mid 1800s, Hills purchased the iconic Cliff House and lived there for nearly 50 years. Her poetry captures the Nantucket of yesteryear with a romantic nostalgia for the island’s natural majesty. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/ACKHermitage

Fishing Nantucket: A Guide for Island Anglers

By Capt. Matt Reinemo

From the basics of where to go and what supplies you’ll need to advanced pointers on how to place your lure along the edge of a rip, Captain Matt Reinemo’s Fishing Nantucket is perfect for beginners and seasoned fishermen alike. Through anecdotes and how-to tips, Capt. Reinemo shares his passion for fishing in his hometown of Nantucket. Find it on Bookshop.org: bit.ly/FishingNantucket

See more favorite Nantucket books at bluedotliving.com/nantucket

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Dr. Sarah Bois, Director of Research and Education

Subject: Resilient Restoration and Retreat at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation

On the banks of Long Pond, the Linda Loring Nature Foundation has been working on a restoration project which provides an example of how sea level rise can affect even seemingly inland areas of our island. The Linda Loring Nature Foundation (LLNF) is dedicated to preserving and protecting Nantucket’s biologically diverse ecosystems. LLNF determined that portions of the Eel Point Road property which borders the North Head of Long Pond are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise (SLR) impacts. Even some upland areas are vulnerable because the low-lying access to these areas will be cut off by rising water levels.

Long Pond is connected to Madaket Harbor via the historic Madaket Ditch which was dug in the 1660s by English colonists and the native Wampanoag. Because of this estuary connection, Long Pond itself is brackish and undergoes regular tidal turnover. This connection to Madaket Harbor means that Long Pond is subject to projected sea level

rise. Even the most conservative projections show that sea level rise will impact the shoreline of the North Head of Long Pond; home to the Linda Loring Nature Foundation.

The LLNF sees itself as a potential mitigation space for climate change impacts; protecting surrounding infrastructure, homes, and creating resilient landscapes to bolster against predicted impacts. To this end, the LLNF began its “Resilient Restoration” project in earnest with funding from the Community Foundation for Nantucket, the Remain Nantucket Fund, and the Community Preservation Committee. The design plan enables LLNF to create a native, biodiverse habitat that blends in with the surrounding upland sandplain grassland on the north side and the brackish wetland bordering the pond. The planting plan uses plants specifically tolerant to the expected brackish/saltwater conditions. Establishing a diverse, healthy pond edge and upland with native species will increase biodiversity and act as a buffer to the environmental impacts.

North Head of Long Pond.

The banks of Long Pond after invasive plant removal.

There are three aspects to this project with a focus on building a resilient landscape in the face of climate change:

RETREAT – removing any structures from the at-risk area

ACCOMMODATE – planting the bank of the pond edge with brackish-tolerant species to accommodate rising sea water. PREPARE – planting the upland with native, diverse species to restore the sandplain grassland habitat.

Beginning in the fall of 2024, the first step in making the area around the North Head of Long Pond more resilient has been to “retreat” by removing all aspects of the built environment and refraining from further building at this site. The next phase of the project involved removing a suite of non-native and invasive plants around the banks of the pond and in the nearby upland. The area was then graded to create a more natural profile and erosion control blankets put into place to help stabilize the soil for the short term. A native seed mix was strewn overtop to initiate planting to further stabilize the area.

Instead of restoring the area to what has persisted there in the past, LLNF is working toward a transitional landscape with the influence of brackish water as part of the planting plan. The plan facilitates the transition from fresh to brackish water – a restoration practice that achieves what would naturally happen, but in a shorter time frame.

In addition to the impacts projected with sea level rise, the Nantucket Coastal Resilience Plan (CRP) calls for the raising of Madaket Road and creating a bridge or multiple culverts where Madaket Road crosses over Long Pond. The LLNF project accommodates more brackish water onto the LLNF property,

which is expected with the proposed increased water flow. In taking on the brackish water resulting from expected sea level rise and storm surge, the LLNF property can help mitigate the effects of climate change protecting the surrounding infrastructure and homes.

LLNF research and conservation staff have been monitoring the salinity of the North Head of Long Pond since 2020, noting tidal influence and fluctuation. In 2022, water level meters were installed at two locations to monitor tide flow. This data will help establish a baseline of information prior to any changes.

This project has been in the planning phase for the past few years and serves as a demonstration area for resilient restoration. LLNF hopes that the direct impacts of this project will be broader within the community, allowing people to see what is possible for retreat and restoration.

To see this in-progress project in-person, go to the LLNF website (llnf.org) for information on guided walks in the area. As the project gets further underway, LLNF hopes to open the property fully to the public and provide volunteer opportunities to help with plantings and other community projects.

Of The Shore

birds

Atlantic Flyway

Setting the stage for conservation on a hemispheric scale.

Story by Sam Moore

If you visit a beach at low tide in the spring or fall, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter a unique group of transients, wheeling about and landing in sync, probing with bills of fantastical shapes in the invertebrate-packed mud, or resting, beak under feather, in moments of calm.

than a hundred years of legal protection, shorebirds are declining in North America, on the East Coast perhaps even more so than elsewhere. In 2023, a team of researchers published a paper that used fall migration surveys to calculate that 16 shorebird species have declined by at least 50% since 1980. Some, like the red knot, have declined by more like 90%. Looking at just the past three generations of each species, the trends are even more troubling.

“The counts of birds are going down,” says Paul A. Smith, a senior research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada and the lead author of the paper. “We can say that with confidence. The numbers of shorebirds on these beaches are going down. And that alone should be enough to raise concerns.”

cousin, like gulls and skimmers, from an adjacent family.)

Most species nest much further north, and Smith has spent 25 summers on nesting grounds in the Arctic. “I watched the abundance of ruddy turnstones at my

Harrington was also an author on the paper, along with scientists from Manomet and the U.S. and Canadian governments. “We know the populations of many species of shorebirds are plummeting, and that's because something has gone very wrong somewhere in their life cycle,” he says. “And so our big need right now is to figure out where in that life cycle — breeding season, south migration, north migration, wintering area — where in that chain of life they are facing issues that are causing them to die.”

To get a handle on why this is happening, researchers use all sorts of techniques to track shorebirds on their long voyages. Leg bands are a time-tested way to re-sight birds along their route, and newer technologies like tiny VHF (very high frequency), cellular, and satellite transmitters can record each flight path in granular detail.

People are also watching shorebirds closely on their summer nesting grounds. In Massachusetts, beachgoers see conspicuous evidence of this as they skirt fenced-off nesting areas for piping plovers, oystercatchers, and terns (a close shorebird

study site go from 30 or 40 pairs in the study area down to just a handful,” he says. “So I've watched the decline in abundance happen in real time."

It’s not the first time shorebirds have been in trouble, but it might be their most extensive crisis yet. The birds we see now returned to a small measure of abundance following a powerful set of laws and

ruddy turnstone.

Dunlin and

Black skimmers in flight.

DANIELLE O'DELL

A banded American oystercatcher on a Nantucket beach.

tern pair, with fish.

cooperative strategies up and down their flyways, including landmarks like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act, but their future depends on these agreements growing stronger, not weaker.

From the brink and back again

Many of us are familiar with the passenger pigeon and its dismal fate, chalked up in part to its popularity as a menu item: pigeon pie. But if you had gone to a market in Boston in the 1890s, you would also have seen red knots for ten cents a dozen. All up and down the Atlantic coastline, shorebirds were commodities to be sold, eaten, or sewed into hats.

“I mean, you've heard the stories,” says Paul A. Smith, “The punt guns, shooting buckets of nuts and bolts at flocks of birds and then stuffing them into barrels. It's hard to even imagine that kind of abundance. And so it's obvious, with that baseline, that there's been a massive decline.”

Traces of that abundance remain as windows into what we might have encountered along the coast in the early 19th century. “At Johnson’s Mills in New Brunswick,” Smith says, “You can have 120,000 semipalmated sandpipers in an area not even the size of a soccer field. Just one on top of the other. At high tide, they're all right up against the shoreline. That's astonishing, that sight.”

Looking down from the sky, the lingua franca of a shorebird is mudflat and salt panne — open beach and marsh with good visibility for approaching predators, a nutrient-packed substrate of mud and sand, and a safe place to roost at high tide. In other words, waterfront property.

Here one day, gone the next, shorebirds nevertheless have insinuated themselves into the culture of the North Atlantic for millennia. They’ve been given many names, which differ sometimes even from one state to the next. Waldo McAtee, a biologist in the early days of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, had a side hobby collecting colloquial bird names, and for shorebirds he recorded a rich assortment.

People often referred to all shorebirds, collectively, as snipes, graybacks, sandpipers or marsh-birds. In Massachusetts, they could be peckies or peeps, in Maine sand-birds or sandpeeps. Further south, some names were less whimsical — in the Carolinas people called them sand-chickens and seachickens, or even “maggot-eaters.”

Names for the least sandpiper, the smallest shorebird, walked a tightrope between affection and utilitarian scorn; in several places it was known as a “bumble-bee peep,” evocative of its small size. But McAtee recorded another name for it in Virginia: “Gunwad.” Dunlin could be known as “simpletons,” and the semipalmated sandpiper, known as a “pennywinkle” in Virginia, might be nothing more than a “medium seachicken” in North Carolina.

Piping plovers, which I have the strongest affection for, ran the gamut from “tee-o” and “peep-lo” in Massachusetts, in imitation of their inquisitive call, to “butterbird” and yet another “gunwad.” (That one, as with the least sandpiper, seems to indicate some annoyance about a bird’s small size and what it might be good for.)

Least

An aerial view of Coatue. The long sandy beaches of Nantucket, often backed by nutrient rich ponds and mudflats, make for great shorebird habitat.

CARY HAZLEGROVE, NANTUCKET STOCK

A mixture of annoyance and affection still seems to characterize human attitudes toward shorebirds — annoyance on the part of some beachgoers at the restrictions imposed during the prime days of summer, and affection on the part of many others at the dance of small birds along the waterline and the way that huge flocks of them add to the tapestry of our most beloved landscapes.

The sudden, abundant visitation of shorebirds to our beaches, and their departure from them just as suddenly, feels magical. “As we contemplate that sanderling, there by the shining sea,” Peter Matthiessen wrote in The Wind Birds, “one question leads inevitably to another, and all questions come full circle to the questioner, paused momentarily in his own journey under the sun and sky.”

Historically, the great mystery of where shorebirds go when they leave became a scientific quest for some people, but for a great many others it seems to have made shorebirds an abstraction, an almost meteorological event with no source or sink. Certainly 19th century Americans, who treated wildlife as if it would be around forever, felt that way especially about migratory birds. Year after year after year, they reduced a vast cloud of birds to just a wisp, and in some species, to nothing.

But as that crisis reached its crescendo, it catalyzed one of our first and most enduring international conservation laws. “There's a treaty between America and Canada,” says Smith. “Tariff-free, I might add. It’s been in place since 1918: the Migratory Birds Convention Act in Canada and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States. It's always been the case for migratory birds that we collaborate closely.”

Conservation at a hemispheric scale

A flyway is both a strategy for an individual species and an organizing principle for people who work with migratory birds. In 1948, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created four administrative Flyways for waterfowl (ducks, geese, and swans) and other game species. Flyway Councils were organized

One famous bird, a red knot known as ‘B95’ or ‘Moonbird,’ spent decades commuting from Tierra del Fuego to an island at the top of the Hudson Bay — 9,000 miles each way, year after year, until he might as well have flown to the moon and back.

with committees of experts from the U.S. and Canada to develop conservation plans and hunting regulations.

These government flyways guide research and resources up and down the waterfowl life cycle, funded by billions of dollars in license fees from hunting and taxes on firearms. State and federal agencies conduct aerial breeding counts in the “duck factory” in the northern Great Plains, bird banding operations across the country, and surveys of hunter harvests, which inform wetland protections and habitat improvements at stopover and wintering areas. When trends go down, there’s a well-developed system in place for decisive action.

This large-scale coordination and investment pays off. In the paper that made headlines a few years ago for reporting a loss of 3 billion birds in North America since 1970, waterfowl actually

showed an increase in abundance of 50%.

“These flyway-level conservation plans have been very useful documents to guide shorebird conservation,” says Paul A. Smith, who also worked on the 3 billion birds study.

Shorebirds — except for woodcock and snipe, which are managed as game birds — were late to the planning party, and families like sandpipers and plovers have trended in the exact opposite direction. Some funding is diverted for them, but it’s much less than for waterfowl. Shorebirds do benefit from other laws, like those that protect wetlands and endangered species, but they didn’t get a national strategy until the early 2000s, when an effort began to integrate them into broader conservation goals.

In the meantime, much of the work on shorebirds filtered up from below, supported by a far-flung network of

SAM MOORE

Red knots.

calculated precise and significant weight loss associated with disturbance, and quantified the extra calories burned by birds that are constantly spooked. Birds don’t get these calories back once they start flying, and they need all of the ones they have. In one West Coast species, the bar-tailed godwit, a single calorie sustains about 3 kilometers of flight.

There are now reliable estimates of flushing distance for various species, and hierarchies of which activities cause the most disruption. But the basic facts have remained the same for decades, even as human use of the beach has diversified.

One of the best shorebird habitats on the East Coast is Delaware Bay, which was the first site identified and protected by WHSRN. Its most famous patron is the red knot, possibly our most wellstudied shorebird. Brian Harrington was involved in the early days there, too. “We started putting color markers on them,” Harrington says. “We did it in Massachusetts and we did it in Florida, we did it in Argentina. And we were able to see, just through the re-sightings of these colored banded birds, that virtually all of them were going through Delaware Bay on the North migration.”

“It’s what I sometimes call panmixia,” he says. It’s a term from genetics, referring to the random mixing of a whole population at once. On the one hand, the crab-egg bonanza in Delaware Bay is a blessing that brings nearly all the red knots in the East Coast flyway together at one big, nutritious rest stop. On the other hand, it’s a curse — human intervention, like an overharvest of horseshoe crabs, can just as easily make the bay into a bottleneck, where scarce resources limit the whole species.

Paul Smith told me, “It’s conventional scientific wisdom that for a relatively long-lived species like a shorebird that has a small number of babies and lives a long time, the survival of the adults has the dominant force on the trajectory of the population. But we don't even know that for sure. Ideally, step one would be to define where these bottlenecks are. We have the scientific ability to do that, and we’re in the process of doing that for some really well-

studied species like the red knot.”

For some species, all we know is that some birds leave and don’t come back.

Fantastic voyages

On Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, islands with more than 200 miles of sandy coastline between them, extensive beach habitat means large breeding colonies of shorebirds. Scientists there band some birds annually after they hatch. Oystercatchers

get bands on both islands, and black skimmers get them on the Vineyard.

“We would never have known where our oystercatchers go without these big bands on their legs,” says Danielle O’Dell, Wildlife Research Ecologist at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. “And they're being reported by the public all the time. So we collect the most amazing information about their wintering territories. Most of them go to Florida, but we've had a few of the juveniles turn up in really fun places like Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Mexico.”

“Then it's like a waiting game to find out if they ever come back to Nantucket,” she continued. “We definitely worry a lot about our birds in the wintertime, because we have no control over that. And the wintering grounds are often not as protected as the nesting territories.”

This data can reveal surprises, like when a 20-year-old Nantucket oystercatcher named F2 got blown far off his annual route from Polpis Harbor to Horseshoe Beach, Florida, and wound up in Kentucky, setting a rare bird record there. “It was a huge deal to the birders in Kentucky because they'd never seen an oystercatcher there before,” says O’Dell.

A more significant finding came in 2011, when surveys identified thousands of federally threatened piping plovers wintering in the Bahamas. These East Coast snowbirds are fewer in number than the human ones who make the same journey, but they represent 30% percent of the Atlantic population. Quickly following this discovery, a key part of their wintering habitat was declared a National Park.

“We had a plover that was banded in the Bahamas in the winter and nested at Dogfish Bar [in Aquinnah] for a few seasons,” says Luanne Johnson, wildlife biologist and director of BiodiversityWorks on Martha’s Vineyard.

“The ways that we can track birds have expanded exponentially in the last 15 years,” Johnson says. “It’s incredible, and it opens up a lot more possibilities.”

The black skimmers that nest at Eel Pond in Edgartown are the northernmost colony in their range. “You wouldn't have thought that skimmers would nest here 20 years ago, but here they are,” says Johnson.

“We decided that we wanted to start banding chicks so that we could track some of these birds and where they were going,” Johnson says. “We don't know their direct path of movement, but it seems that they follow the coast very closely and kind of hopscotch their way down. There are some people who re-sight our birds in Florida and email us. This woman, Ingrid Siegert, she's down in Key West, and she's got two that have been there the past two winters that she sends updates on.”

Willet, Cape Henlopen, Delaware

A willet chick on the move, Crane Beach, Ipswich.

SAM MOORE

SAM MOORE

This can also lead to some friendly local competition. “We really, really want some of the Vineyard skimmers,” O’Dell says. “We know that they come and check out Nantucket pretty much every summer. And we know that some of our oystercatchers pop back and forth between the islands on a day-to-day basis. So, we're hopeful.”

Even very common shorebirds, like the willet, hold mysteries of their own. “We don't see eastern willets in winter plumage on the Atlantic coast, because they're gone — they molt after they migrate,” says Johnson. From 2013 to 2015, BiodiversityWorks tracked a handful by putting small geolocators on one leg.

“We would capture these willets, and then the next year we had to actually recapture that same particular bird and get the tag off and download the data. It was very hard to do because willets are so smart about predators, and they recognize us.”

And the semipalmated plovers, least sandpipers. Dunlin. All of those guys.”

Links in the chain of life

“The idea of birds going from key site to key site is the foundational concept of shorebird conservation,” says Paul A. Smith. “These birds come to these staging sites and spend a couple of weeks to fatten up and prepare for the next leg of their journey. Their annual cycle is just a linking of these site-to-site movements.”

with appropriate harvest restrictions on crabs in Delaware Bay.”

“And even if you determine that the lever you'd like to pull is climate change or something super hard,” Smith says, “maybe you pull easier levers first because you have more ability to pull them.”

For example, attentive stewardship of nesting birds can make a difference. The American Oystercatcher Working Group coordinates an effort to increase reproductive success across the species’ breeding range, which has increased oystercatcher populations by 50% since 2008. It’s an example of “improving what we can to account for the losses we can’t address,” says Smith.

The trackers, which use time and daylight to calculate latitude and longitude, revealed an incredible journey. “When they leave, they pick up and fly for three and a half, four days straight,” Johnson says. “They're airborne until they land in South America, on the northeast coast of Brazil. But on the way back north, they seem to be hitting South Carolina and North Carolina, not making a straight jump back to their breeding grounds. It's kind of amazing that they make these trips and then come back and nest within a few feet of where they nested last year.”

The willet, like many species, relies on the biological abundance of coastal habitats to flourish. “They're fueling up on fiddler crabs in our salt marshes to fuel their migration,” Johnson says. “Whimbrel too: fiddler crabs. Lots of crabs. I see flocks of semipalmated sandpipers out foraging in those salt marshes at low tide. There’s a tremendous amount of resources for them.”

“Lesser and greater yellowlegs move through here and feed,” she says. “Ruddy turnstones move through here both ways.

“You can use banding information and modern statistical techniques to understand at what time of year the birds appear to be dying,” he says. “Are they dying during northward migration or are they dying on the breeding grounds? Are they dying during southward migration? We can try to piece that together with these mark-recapture studies that rely on volunteers to contribute their band sightings into the database.”

One thing is already clear: losing even one link in the chain of life can be catastrophic.

“You’re talking to a scientist. Of course I'm going to say more research is needed,” Smith told me. “There are things we need to understand better in order to target our actions efficiently. We still need to do something in the meantime.”

So what are the levers we can pull? “The best things we can do are the things that are within our control,” he says. “It is well within our control to reduce disturbance at key stopover sites. It is well within our control to ensure that foraging conditions for the birds are good, like

In the meantime, the International Shorebird Survey continues, and is always looking for more volunteers. It’s an assignment more challenging than a backyard bird count, since the birds can appear in huge numbers and many of them are alike in stature and coloring. But it’s not so picky as to require a professional ornithologist.

“We want people to know the difference between a sanderling and a dunlin, basically,” says Lisa Schibley at Manomet, who coordinates the survey now. “I am a birder, and I actually started working at Manomet as a volunteer,” she told me. “Birders like visiting their local patches,” she says. “They know that the seasons will bring new birds, and then some birds leave.

So go visit your local patch that has shorebirds, visit it at least three times in a season, and bird it the same time each day. And count all of the shorebirds. That’s the most important part.”

When the survey started, it was almost entirely volunteer, and it stayed that way for decades. That this data exists for scientists to use is an act of community, not an act of law. “It's kind of amazed me that thousands of people have been willing to go out and do the work that needed to be done,” Brian Harrington says. “I guess I'm somewhat floored by that. I always hoped for it, but I didn't expect it.”

Juvenile American oystercatchers, calling to each other on a Nantucket beach.

VERN LAUX, COURTESY OF NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION

What You Can Do

Check out the Audubon bird migration explorer: explorer.audubon.org

Download the Merlin Bird ID app for help in identifying birds. Once you’re comfortable with your IDs, use eBird.org to submit your sightings, which helps the Cornell Lab of Ornithology track migration patterns.

Keep your eye out for colorful leg bands and flags on shorebirds, and report them to the USGS banding laboratory. Read more about these markers here: on.doi.gov/3DPqOA2

Be mindful of your presence and the presence of your

On Nantucket, contact the Linda Loring Foundation: llnf.org

pets on the beach, especially during the spring and fall. Here are some helpful guidelines from Mass Audubon on Nantucket:

• Always keep dogs on leash

• Drive slowly

• Don’t fly kites in shorebird areas

• Pay attention to all fencing and posted signs

Check out this graphic from the Atlantic Shorebird Flyway Initiative: sos.atlanticflywayshorebirds.org/ graphics-and-signage/

Learn more about the International Shorebird Survey at Manomet: manomet.org.

On Nantucket

“We have these giant stretches of relatively isolated beaches that are great for nesting birds. And it seems like every year we get more and more nests,” says Danielle O’Dell at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. “That whole Coatue to Great Point stretch is really, really amazing. The primary purpose of that property is for wildlife.”

“We also close off Eel Point to driving in the summertime, simply because we have so many nesting shorebirds out there. Smith's point is the same. For the most part, we spend our time thinking about oystercatchers, plovers, and least and common terns. We're just one of the property owners that do this on

Nantucket. There are others as well — the Nantucket Land Bank, the town of Nantucket, Mass Audubon, The Trustees, Linda Loring Nature Foundation.”

“Out on Eel Point, we have three generations of Oystercatchers nesting within a few hundred feet of each other. They're returning to the same spot each year. There's just something so special about that to me.”

“We get lots and lots of other species on Coatue: whimbrel, black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, least sandpipers. So many migratory birds. We protect the property through migration, even though I think the public wishes we would open the beaches a little bit earlier. It's a balance between wanting to make people happy and doing what's right for wildlife.”

Piping plover eggs on Coatue.

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Danielle O'Dell, Nantucket Conservation Foundation

Subject: Some Birding Tips

If you are a birder coming to visit Nantucket (or a local just getting started), you are in for a treat. Nantucket is fabulous for birding in all seasons but with spring and summer on the horizon, the current stars of the show are our rare and endangered shorebirds that nest on our beaches. It turns out the birds love Nantucket beaches as much as the tourists do and over the years, we have all become accustomed to “sharing the shore” with our piping plovers, least terns and American oystercatchers. Fortunately, with over 80 miles of shoreline and undeveloped beach, there is plenty of room for both our birds and beachgoers. The American oystercatchers and piping plovers are already claiming their territories and have begun to lay eggs despite a somewhat cold and wet spring.

They are bright and beautiful in their full breeding plumage. The least, common, and roseate terns began arriving in early May. The best places on island to view all these species are Eel Point and Smith’s Point on the west end, and Great Point and Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge to the north and east. None of these places are particularly easy to access unfortunately, especially once the beaches are closed to driving to protect the birds once the chicks hatch. Remember, unlike most songbirds that remain in their nest until they can fly, these shorebirds are precocial, meaning that just hours after hatching, they start running around under the watchful eye of their parents. This is an especially vulnerable time for these chicks and they can get themselves in trouble. When threatened they tend to

Eastern Towhee seen along the cross-island trail.

hide, often directly in vehicle tracks in the sand. They are virtually impossible to see as they blend in with the sand so well. Walking the beaches quietly and slowly is your best bet to see these birds, or if you have a kayak, paddle board, or boat, a float along the coast on the harbor side of Coatue can offer some amazing views into the lives of our shorebirds.

Nantucket has a long history of inspiring some amazing birders. One of the best ways to interact with and learn from local experienced folks is to join the Sunday morning birding group that caravans to local hotspots. The group is

Grace Bell, a shorebird technician with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, looks for birds on the beach.

open to anyone and meets at 8 am in the parking lot in front of Nantucket High School. Additionally, the “Birding Nantucket” Facebook page is loaded with extremely knowledgeable “bird nerds” (a term of absolute endearment!) willing to share “bird gossip” and help with ID – if you have a picture of a bird and need help with identification, post to the group and you’ll have an answer in minutes! Many talented photographers often share their amazing images there as well.

For those just getting into birding, I recommend a decent pair of binoculars, a general field guide and the Merlin app on your phone. So often, you’ll hear a bird but not see it, especially if you’re in the forest or in a spot with a dense, shrubby understory that is so common on Nantucket! Using the Merlin app to “listen” to the bird song you’re hearing will help you narrow down the species. The eBird app is also especially useful for tracking your birding escapades and the species you see along the way. You can view the species lists of other birders, too, to get a feel for the birds you might encounter at various points across the island.

Many of the conservation organizations on Nantucket have knowledgeable birders on staff and offer frequent birding trips that appeal to both the seasoned birder as well as those just beginning to enjoy the hobby. Some of these amazing experiences on offer include an up close and personal view of how to band songbirds with Libby Buck at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, a nighttime owl prowl with Ginger Andrews at the Maria Mitchell Association, and nesting and migrating shorebird ID with Grace Bell and Woody Newell at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Check out the websites of each of these organizations for scheduled birding events!

A reminder that spring and early summer are peak seasons for shorebird nesting on Nantucket beaches. Please respect all fenced areas that protect nesting of rare and endangered birds. Avoid sitting directly next to fencing, landing or anchoring boats in front

Piping plover hatchling on Coatue.

It turns out the birds love Nantucket beaches as much as the tourists do and over the years, we have all become accustomed to “sharing the shore” with our piping plovers, least terns, and American oystercatchers. — Danielle O'Dell

fencing, or kite boarding or flying kites near nesting sites. It is important to keep your dog on a leash as even playful puppies can cause injury or stress to birds. Pay close attention to how your presence is affecting the behavior of the birds. If your presence is preventing adults and chicks from reaching the shoreline to feed or causing constant stress to the adults trying to defend their chicks, you are too close and should consider backing off to give the birds a break. For photographers, your images can inspire a great love for nature, but occasionally, the quest to get the perfect shot can inadvertently cause birds undue stress as well. If the bird is aware of you, you are likely too close. Love birds and looking for volunteer opportunities? The Nantucket

Conservation Foundation is looking for a few dedicated stewards willing to spend a few hours on the beach near nesting areas this spring and summer. Volunteers would interact with beach visitors to educate them on shorebird biology and remind folks to respect the rules by not entering fencing, keeping dogs on leash, etc. If interested, please reach out to gbell@ nantucketconservation.org.

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit land trust that relies on generous contributions from friends and supporters to fulfill our mission — the conservation and protection of Nantucket's open spaces and rare resources. Consider making a gift to support our work at nantucketconservation.org.

Sarah Swenson, in thrifted "Noises Off" varsity jacket, poses in front of Rainbow Fleet vintage store.

Misho Minevski in thrifted shirt and Rainbow Fleet leather jacket.

Marley Viselli in embroidered vintage tulip cardigan, black thrifted skirt.

On racks around The Rainbow Fleet store, Casey’s one-of-a-kind pieces — patchworked pants, skirts, and dresses — are tagged for sale, along with unique vintage curated from Kristen’s network of island clothing consignors.

Boukus. Casey works in theater costume design, sews original textile pieces, and can always be seen wearing something bright, flowy, or tie-dyed.

“I’ve always been drawn to costume since I was a little girl, then when I started sewing, I liked the idea of using secondhand fabrics rather than going out and buying something new. I love using materials that have already served one life for something and making them into something new; there’s a lot of fabric waste that goes into our landfills,” Casey said.

On racks around the store, Casey’s

one-of-a-kind pieces — patchworked pants, skirts, and dresses — are tagged for sale, along with unique vintage curated from Kristen’s network of island clothing consignors.

“I think it’s great for Nantucket because so many of our actual boutique shops are so expensive. There’s so many people out here that can’t afford to shop at the price point that Nantucket has. And, because we’re such a small finite piece of land, all that fabric, if it gets tossed away, just ends up in the pile where it just sits there, not decomposing very well,” Casey said.

Secondhand Furs at The Rainbow Fleet

The Rainbow Fleet, along with several other vintage or high-end thrift stores on the island, stocks secondhand furs. You’d think Rainbow Fleet would be busiest in the fall season when it comes to furs, but they actually sell more in the summer months than any other time of year. When I went this past spring, a dozen stunning pieces swung on the fur rack, from a mulled purple rabbit-fur jacket to floorlength mink coats in shiny black.

Of course, all the furs they sell are secondhandsourced, and sold with hope of giving the pieces a new life in another home. Rainbow Fleet staff and artisan, Casey Boukus, said that fur is always… complicated.

“Fur is, well, a sticky subject. I have sort of a weird paradoxical relationship with it, because on

“Thrifting is cheaper,” my friend Marley Viselli said, “and on-island [thriftstores are] the only places with affordable clothes.” Marley frequents the thrift stores with me, and in the pictures, she’s posed wearing one of her wardrobe staples — a thrifted black silk skirt. For her photos, I picked out a black cardigan with patchwork flowers on the front, which made me hope spring was coming soon, even though the freezing weather that day didn’t make it feel that way at all.

For me, thrifting is more than just getting new clothing, it’s like a treasure hunt. The thrift stores on Nantucket always have interesting pieces, from discontinued Talbots pieces to racks upon racks of surrendered Ralph Lauren, to handknit sweaters and skirts that have been hemmed, rehemmed, unhemmed, and hemmed again over the years.

“I love clothing, I love the cyclical nature, the idea of vintage as something that is in style and goes out of style and then back in style, the nature of it,” Casey said. “When

Marley Viselli (left) and Anna Popnikolova (right) wearing The Rainbow Fleet mink jackets.

When everyone else and their mother was flooding the bridal stores in April, I slept easy knowing that I’d already said yes to the dress.

you’re shopping secondhand or vintage you have a broader spectrum of things to find. When you go into a store and there’s 20 of the same thing, just different sizes.”.

In October of my junior year, I went to Island Treasures looking for some new sweaters for the upcoming winter. I found a long, brand-new bronze evening gown, and I ended up buying the dress for $30. I told my friends, “This is going to be my prom dress.”

the one hand, I’d rather have natural materials; I’d prefer real fur over faux fur, when you think of the process to make [faux fur]. It’s all still something coming from the Earth, whether it starts as an animal or petroleum. But, the fur industry, for a really long time, was a really unfortunate and miserable existence for a lot of creatures,” Casey explained, leaning over the checkout counter, as I sifted through the rack to find a piece I wanted to pose with.

My best friend Marley picked a full-length mink to take pictures with, while I found one that stopped at my waist. Standing outside in the parking lot of the thrift store, wrapped in our fur coats, we realized for the first time just how warm they really are. In the early January chill, our breath blew milky white clouds out in front of us. I was in a short dress and nylon tights, yet we weren’t cold. I

And I did wear it to prom — eight months later. When everyone else and their mother was flooding the bridal stores in April, I slept easy knowing that I’d already said yes to the dress.

The pieces I find myself grabbing off the hangers, every day, even now in college, are the ones I thrifted years ago. I posed with a zig-zag knit sweater that I thrifted fall of my senior year. It had no tag, no labels, just fraying seams and a ripped sleeve. I bought it, swearing that I’d mend the sleeve, but I never did, and I wear the sweater at least once a week. I still happily wear my $5 black velvet lowtops I got from Hospital Thrift last summer, and am excited to see what I’ll find next, when they inevitably fall irreparably apart. All to say, you just never know what you’ll find at the thrift store.

Anna Popnikolova lives on Nantucket and is a Bluedot Living intern. When she is not thrifting or writing stories, she is attending Harvard University, where she is a rising sophomore.

was so warm and comfortable in the jacket I picked out that I would have bought it, if only the sleeves had been a little longer.

“I think that secondhand real furs are the most ethical way that you can wear furs,” Marley said as we discussed the furs discourse. “Fake fur is just made of plastic, which is still bad in a different way. So, I wouldn’t buy real fur firsthand, but I think secondhand, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

When we changed out of our jackets at the end of the shoot, I didn’t want to take off the one I’d picked out.

“We have some people that come in and they have the coat that they love, and they come in and try it on a bunch of times, and sometimes they never come back, and sometimes they come get it,” Casey told me. “I think it’s nice that they get a second life.”

COURTESY OF ANNA POPNIKOLOVA

At the prom: Anna and her date, and the Island Treasures treasure.

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From:

Gail Walker, Founder and President of Nantucket Lights

Subject: Better Lighting for Better Gardens: Light Pollution, Plants, and Pollinators

Every spring, Nantucket erupts in a riot of color — roadsides thick with daffodils, lush gardens blooming with hydrangeas, storybook cottages covered in distinctive blush-pink roses. and wildflowers brightening our conservation lands. These flowers are an indelible part of the island’s natural heritage. They are also at risk from an unexpected source: outdoor lighting.

Artificial light at night doesn’t just interfere with our ability to enjoy the stars or get a good night’s rest. Carelessly used, it also wreaks havoc with plants and the ecosystem at large. While it’s not possible to reduce the negative impact to zero — after all, we need to ensure the safety of family and guests after the sun goes down — the good news is there’s a lot we can do to minimize harm.

DISRUPTING NATURE’S RHYTHMS

Over millions of years, plants — and the pollinators they need to thrive and reproduce — evolved together in response to natural light cycles, with the night illuminated only by the stars and the moon. Then came artificial light, disrupting these delicate rhythms.

Plants and pollinators evolved together in response to natural light cycles.

While the impact varies from species to species, every artificial light fixture alters the night in some way, with potentially negative consequences for plants and wildlife.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:

• Reduced nighttime pollination. Studies have found that nighttime pollinators like moths visit flowers 62% less frequently in artificially lit areas compared to naturally dark ones. Some depend on the lunar cycle to know when to be active; artificial light that mimics a full moon throws them off. Others are disoriented by the light, expending precious energy flying in circles until they die from exhaustion. Artificial light also leaves pollinators exposed, reducing their ability to avoid predators. Others are simply deterred by the unnatural light. The result of all this is a disruption in nighttime pollination, as important to plants as daytime pollination.

• Reduced daytime pollination. Artificial light at night has been found to alter pollination activity even during the day. In some cases, the artificial light shifts the timing of flowering into times of the year when daytime pollinators (think bees, butterflies and birds) are less active or not active at all. Even when that doesn’t happen, the light reduces the sleep and recovery time of daytime pollinators, making it harder for them to pollinate and reproduce. It can also change the scent, color, amount of nectar or other characteristics of plants, making them less attractive to pollinators.

• Harm to plants beyond the disruption of pollination. Like people and animals, plants need rest at night. When artificial light turns night into day, and they don’t get enough rest, it’s challenging for many of them to stay healthy. It can cause them to continue growing when they should be dormant, or bloom or shed leaves prematurely. It can also render their defenses to pests less effective or cause them to photosynthesize more, which in turn can kill them. If we want to avoid this kind of harm — and we should — we need to think harder about how, when and where we use outdoor lighting.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILL HOENK, NANTUCKET LIGHTS

As Above,

So Below

Gaze outward to the abundance of stars in our universe to better understand the scope of biodiversity living in our soils: There's far more there than meets the eye.

By Will Kinsella

There are 9,096 stars visible across both hemispheres of the sky. This is a tiny fraction of the stars out there; NASA's best estimates tell us that the Milky Way alone is made up of approximately 100 billion stars and that there are 2 trillion galaxies in the universe comprising approximately 200 billion trillion stars (got that?). But believe it or not, this abundance is paltry compared to the numbers of living organisms we can find beneath our feet. A single teaspoonful of soil can contain more than 10,000 species and over four billion microorganisms (each with an average of four million base pairs of DNA), as well as several miles of fungal filaments. Today our planet is populated by about a trillion individual species of microorganisms. The total number of bacteria on Earth is estimated to be five million trillion trillion, or 25,000 times the number of estimated stars in the universe.

SOIL IS CENTRAL TO ALL LIFE ON EARTH

The soil microbiome is an astonishingly diverse, complex, and interdependent ecosystem that's home to more than half of the species on our planet. Among the trillion species living in the mineral deposits and humus we think of as dirt, there are microbes that cycle phosphorus and nitrogen into nutrients plants can use, and microbes that decompose organic matter as well as pollutants; there are mycorrhizal fungi that form symbiotic relationships to plants and enhance aeration and moisture, as well as ones that secrete acids to mine mineral's particles; and there are bacteria that inhibit pathogens and others that fix nitrates and ammonia. This expansive and complex ecosystem is essential to the existence of pretty much everything that we humans need to survive on Earth — what we eat, drink, and breathe. Ninety-five percent of humans’ per

RANDI BAIRD

under current regulations. "If you are planning new construction or remodeling, one of the best things you can do is find out if you have great native vegetation on your site, and work with your designer and the people doing the construction to retain native plants and trees rather than clearing the full lot and then needing to replant — it helps retain soil integrity on some areas of your property as well as being a boost for the local ecosystem, and helps Nantucket retain more of its natural landscape appeal," recommends Nantucket Conservation Foundation plant research ecologist/botanist Kelly Omand.

“The average newly constructed residential landscape has a lot that is typically over-cleared (so the whole lot turns into a parking lot), top soil that is trucked off the job site (the subgrade becomes extremely compact from trucks, equipment, foot traffic, etc.),” says organic landscaper John Schichtel. Once landscaping begins, John says, if you don’t address compaction, you miss the opportunity for a healthy ecosystem to exist; you’re also putting stress on any irrigation systems, since water can’t percolate in those conditions. Compacted soils also eliminate the chances of natural nutrient cycling; or microbes producing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium naturally, and at a rate which plants will use, so people turn to fertilizers, he says. “Once you start feeding a plant with fertilizers, the plant will always rely on those fertilizers. It becomes a cycle of constant human interaction to support plant life. The ultimate goal of landscaping should be to put the natural ecosystem back the way it was prior to construction; not create a new ecosystem that we know nothing about and requires constant human interaction to support life.”

Regenerative landscaping aims to restore natural ecosystems and improve soil health through holistic maintenance strategies

and sustainable, site-specific plantings. To avoid the nutrient, pesticide, and water input cycle, this gardening philosophy favors native plants with deep root systems that stabilize and nourish soils and embraces the entire life cycle of plants, including the nutritionally beneficial and often even beautiful stage of death and decay in the garden. "Leaf litter" provides an incredible array of nutrients and minerals that enhance soil fertility, as well as organic matter that improves soil structure and provides shelter and habitat for insects and microorganisms. Hither Creek Gardener Julie Wood points out that naturalistic approaches require a transformed perspective on the aesthetics of what a healthy winter landscape looks like in order to reap the benefits: "My house was built by someone else in 2006. I have no idea what they did with the top soil during construction, but when we moved here in 2012 it was just a sand pit. I wanted a garden, and at the time, was just beginning to really dive into creating habitat in the garden. I used compost while planting but then let nature take over by intentionally leaving leaf litter in the beds and not doing any kind of fall clean up so that seed heads and stems were available over the fall through mid spring. The results of this passive approach are undeniable. Twelve years later, I have beautiful chunky soil, still sandy but with some bulky organic matter. The bird, butterfly, [and] insect activity has drastically increased, much to my delight. It feels dynamic to live amongst and [is] so entertaining to observe."

It’s worth bearing in mind for both landscaping after construction as well as garden soil restorations that disturbing soils can lead to surprises. Kelly Omand observes that "Seeds stored in soil are one of its treasures — or its bane; they can be either native species that are brought to the surface and help regenerate right away after restorations or construction, or they can be invasive or weedy non-natives, depending on the site’s history."

WHAT ABOUT INVASIVES?

What if the invasive plants are worse than the pesticides?

“There are some cases when using pesticides is the necessary alternative,” explains Seth Engelbourg, Naturalist Educator and Program Manager at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation. Some plants do not respond well to mechanical removal, he says, such as Japanese knotweed. Due to its extensive rhizome system, it can be hard to dig deep enough to remove the whole structure, and excavating that much dirt and plant material can also accelerate erosion. And because knotweed spreads via fragmentation, mechanical methods such as mowing may spread plant pieces over a wider area and worsen the infestation. “Using an herbicide to kill the plant in place is ecologically preferred in this case,” Seth says, but stresses that pesticides should always be applied by a licensed applicator, should be used in accordance with the product label and any applicable laws, and that areas treated with pesticides should be monitored before and after to check for potential impacts.

We are extremely fortunate that over half of Nantucket

Ruby the dog at Fog Town Farm, where low-till farming is practiced, which is better for soil health.

is conservation land and that each of us can make efforts to improve the health of our native ecosystems, whether that be by composting our kitchen waste or restoring a compacted landscape. It can take hundreds or thousands of years to form an inch of topsoil naturally, but many restoration projects require minimal input and only 6 to 10 years to regenerate healthy, sustainable ecosystems. Successful landscape soil restoration strategies often include loosening compacted soils, reintroducing nutrients and microbial components, and finally reintroducing native plants to protect the soil. Upon successful completion, landscape soil restorations can be a lot less taxing than agricultural ones that constantly remove nutrients (food) from the ecosystem, and once the soil and vegetative communities are restored, they can be self-sufficient and self-sustainable if largely left alone.

PREPARE THE SOIL

John Schictel grew up in the family nursery business and knows his plants, but it's especially refreshing and inspiring to hear him speak about the symbiotic relationships within the soil microbiome and his focus on building healthy soils for healthy plants. John’s holistic approach is informed by biology versuss chemistry, by the philosophy that “we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children,” and by a humble reverence toward nature.

Plenty of landscaping business models rely on regular application of mulches and fertilizers, but John’s goes a step further with its goal of establishing naturally occurring sustainable conditions. He knows that healthy soil is every bit as important as choosing the right community of plants. He invests heavily in preparing the soil, and while this entails additional upfront costs, it results in much healthier, pathogenresistant plant communities that ultimately don't require the endless annual nutrient inputs of a conventional garden. In the end, it is far more cost effective to treat the soil up front rather than year after year, especially when one considers the risks poor soils pose to expensive plantings. It's the landscaping equivalent of "Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and they feed themselves for a lifetime".

“The financial side of the industry goes back to ‘it’s a process not a product,’” Schichtel says. “In the process of examining how microbial life works in your soil, and gaining an understanding of the landscape, you create a self-sustaining landscape — one that does not require tons of human interaction. A landscape that can handle heavy rains or extreme drought. A landscape that requires little to no irrigation. A landscape that does not require substantial chemical inputs annually.”

REMEDIATION CAN WORK

The work of landscapers like John demonstrates that remediation efforts can lead to sustainable ecosystems that will persevere in perpetuity without further intervention. One such effort — the Nantucket Conservation Foundation's

largest restoration to date — is currently taking place at the Windswept Bog (see story, page 54), where workers are transforming nearly 40 acres of natural peat, agricultural soils, and artificially deposited sand (used on cranberry bogs to stimulate growth and bury insect pests) into wetlands, prairies, and sandplain grasslands. They’re filling irrigation ditches and removing berms to allow for a slow, meandering natural wetland flow through the landscape to help soils and plants filter out nutrients that would otherwise end up flowing into our harbor.

THE SOIL BENEATH OUR FEET MIGHT HOLD ANSWERS

History is full of tales of alchemists searching for the elixir of life, metallurgical transmutations that turn lead into gold, and divine reflections of heaven on Earth; perhaps their elusive Philosopher's Stone is healthy soil. Thanks to modern science and technology, we're beginning to understand more about the fundamental principles that allow for fungi to release minerals from rocks, microbes to transform dead organisms into life, and the connections between the soil microbiome, the trillions of microbes living within us, and human health.

But there is still much to learn, and soil science itself is in the midst of a paradigm shift. To produce enough food for a growing population on dwindling soils, agricultural research has expanded considerably to include such topics as electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and other cutting edge analytical tools; GIS, satellite and drone-based soil analysis and mapping; and various sensors to monitor soil microbial health, pH, nutrients, compaction, and moisture. And soil study is becoming fundamental to health care research: Chemists and medicine researchers are now using artificial intelligence to quickly identify and sequence molecules produced by soil bacteria that could become antibiotic medicines. Likewise, scientists are looking to the earth for solutions to climate change and environmental hazards: Researchers have identified a number of microbial soil bacteria and fungi that can break apart and digest persistent toxins, such as PFAS, and many climate change scientists and policy makers are hopeful that excess carbon dioxide may be removed from the atmosphere and sequestered in soil. Saving soil will take both scientific advances and individual conservation efforts. Education is imperative to understanding the challenges, alternatives, and various solutions, as well as developing innovative solutions (Windswept Bog) to ongoing and future problems (dustbowl disasters). But so too are public policy and individual engagement. We have the technology and know-how to restore damaged soils, as well as the foresight to save those that remain healthy, and we need to be armed with knowledge of the consequences should we fail. While mitigating many challenges of climate change seems increasingly unlikely, saving soil is well within our reach and something each and every one of us can contribute to.

What You Can Do

• First and ideally: do no harm. Fight to preserve those natural ecosystems that remain, minimize the disturbance for areas that are being developed and restore those that have been damaged or degraded.

• Eat local and soil-grown produce ideally grown with organic practices. Support methods of regenerative agriculture that restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and protect our land, waters and climate.

• Use organic products (textiles, beauty products, cleaning products). It’s not just about our food: cotton uses an estimated 6% of the world's pesticides and 10-16% of the insecticides, but only accounts for 2.4% of the world’s cultivated lands.

• Get rid of your lawn and grow native plants.

• Talk with your local farmer, landscaper, or university about soil health.

• Compost. Reduce, reuse and recycle.

• Invest in sustainable, green ventures and organizations.

• Help those less fortunate than you — climate change disproportionately impacts the poor.

• Spread the word...share this article.

AT HOME

Most soil microorganisms need the same things we do to thrive: food, water and oxygen. Home gardeners can help encourage beneficial microorganisms to improve their soil fertility and structure in several ways:

• Avoid pesticides

• Add compost

• Avoid disturbances (tilling, driving)

• Provide vegetative protection from the sun, wind, salt spray and rain

SOME MORE LOCAL RESOURCES

Toscana Corporation has been Nantucket owned and operated since 1979; in addition to demolition and home-moving services, Toscana sells a Nantucket Soil

Collection — a range of soils and compost produced 100% on Nantucket island. Their organic, kid- and pet- safe soils and compost are made with recycled, non-woody yard waste from local landscapers and homeowners. toscanacorp.com/shop

SAM MOORE

Aidan Feeney planting a row of seedlings at Fog Town Farm.

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Mass Audubon

Subject: Mass Audubon’s Youth Environmental Steward (YES) Program

YESwe can protect the nature of Nantucket in the future. YES, we will care for the more than 15,000 acres of conservation lands on the island, and YES, we are training a workforce with the skills needed to manage these precious lands.

Mass Audubon believes in the power of youth and the strength of mentorship. We want to nurture and train island youth and create opportunities for early career development, and we know that experience is the best teacher.

On Nantucket, at Mass Audubon’s Lost Farm, Sesachacha Heathlands, and Smith’s Point Wildlife sanctuaries, island students in high school, college, and recent graduates work side by side with Mass Audubon staff. Their charge is to manage our properties and share our work with the community through Nantucket Sanctuaries

Youth Environmental Steward (YES) Program.

Stewards keep

the beach with Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program and developed and delivered pop-up education programs for beachgoers. They have learned about the newest threat to our woodland, Southern Pine Beetles (SPB) (bit.ly/PineBeetles) and are following Lost Farm’s Forest Resiliency plan by monitoring for the insect and clearing land to reduce the chance of infestation.

The YES program began in 2021 with two summer stewards and has since expanded to three per season. These paid summer job opportunities allow students to learn and earn money while obtaining skills, connecting with professionals at Mass Audubon and other partner organizations, gaining confidence, and developing professionally.

Stewards assist in a variety of tasks including ecological management, educational outreach, property management, and building maintenance. They have helped monitor shorebirds on

Stewards assist other organizations with invasive species pulls, allowing for partnerships between groups and opportunities for networking.

Major funders of the YES program include the Community Foundation for Nantucket, through the Remain Nantucket Fund and the Nantucket Fund, as well as the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation, SSE Worthington Foundation, and the Nantucket Garden Club. Mass Audubon also provides annual donorsupported funding to ensure the continuation of the program.

The stewards speak highly of this program (see an essay here: bit.ly/ Audubon-steward-essay) and the first dozen alumni have moved on from the program. We are ready to welcome the next class of stewards for the summer of 2025 with new projects, new staff to guide them, and new excitement to train and engage the next generation of conservation workers and leaders.

Oh, the places they will go!

Interested in finding out more about becoming a steward? Visit massaudubon.org/jobs

COURTESY OF MASS AUDUBON

the trails in shape.

Salvage and Reuse on Nantucket: Saving History and Reducing Waste

A growing momentum to salvage, relocate, and deconstruct buildings is preserving the island’s past — and protecting its future.

By Britt Bowker Photos Courtesy of Toscana Corporation

On Nantucket, construction is constant. Turn down nearly any road and you’re bound to see something being built, renovated, or torn down. In February, islanders saw the demolition of the Downyflake, the iconic year-round restaurant on Sparks Avenue, along with several neighboring structures, all cleared to make way for an 18,000 square-foot mixed-use complex. A month earlier, a house on Sheep Pond Road was leveled, condemned just six months after it sold for $200,000, a price that factored in the encroaching erosion. Last fall, a nearly century-old downtown storefront on Cambridge

Street was razed to make room for a two-story addition.

These projects — and many more that don’t make headlines — generate a staggering amount of waste. Since 2022, at least 17,000 tons of construction and demolition debris are shipped off the island to landfills each year, usually in Maine or Ohio. That’s according to a study by Remain Nantucket and the Nantucket Preservation Trust (NPT), conducted with Bostonbased consulting firm EBP.

This steady stream of debris doesn’t just take up space in distant landfills — it also contributes to climate change. As discarded materials decompose, they emit greenhouse gases like methane, a potent driver of global warming. But there’s a more

Moving houses is a time-honored tradition on Nantucket.

sustainable way forward: The same study estimates that at least 4,500 tons of this material could be salvaged and reused instead of thrown away.

To help make that shift, Remain, the NPT, and other local leaders are working together to raise awareness and promote practical solutions for reuse — from encouraging deconstruction to envisioning an island architectural salvage yard. Goals are to create a more centralized system and circular economy that reduces emissions, cuts down on costly waste transport, and helps ease the housing crisis by supporting more affordable housing.

“There’s not a demolition permit that’s issued that someone doesn’t call and ask, ‘Can this be moved to this place? Can I have it? Who’s got it?’ The town has definitely come a long way in trying to save homes and relocate them instead of demolish them.”

– Tris Gauvin, Toscana

And already, there are signs of progress.

One recent win was the demolition delay bylaw passed at last September’s town meeting without debate. Sponsored by the NPT, the bylaw extends the required waiting period before a building can be torn down from two months to six. The extra time allows for exploring alternatives to demolition, encouraging the reuse of buildings, and salvaging valuable materials. It also requires property owners to advertise the structure in a local paper, offering the building to anyone willing to move or reuse it.

More than six months in, Mary Bergman, executive director of the NPT, says the effects are already being felt. “We’re seeing more time spent on demolition applications at the Historic District Commission, and more of them being denied — things that would have been approved years ago, like outbuildings, garages, and historic additions,” she told Bluedot. “I think there’s been more public attention drawn to this. People are just kind of waking up to how much waste there is.”

People tear down homes on Nantucket for many reasons, but it has a lot to do with how valuable land is. “They’re not making more of it,” Mary said. “It’s eroding. So it’s like, ‘I want this house. I want this property on this road in this spot. I don’t want

the house that’s there,’— which is a hard thing for me to wrap my mind around. But if it’s going to happen, I’d rather see things reused than smashed.”

While the bylaw buys time to consider alternatives, many on Nantucket also take the literal approach to preservation: they move the entire house. It’s a strategy that serves multiple purposes. Not only does it prevent demolition, but it helps provide housing for year-round residents — and increasingly, it’s part of the island’s broader resiliency strategy.

In a place where erosion and flooding are intensifying, relocating structures is also a way to adapt. “When you look at Nantucket’s coastal resilience plan, part of the plan is to reduce density in areas. Okay, so what does that mean? It means removing houses,” Mary said.

Moving houses away from vulnerable shorelines has become

an increasingly common tactic in response to sea level rise and changing topography. “Any sort of isolated community where natural resources like lumber are at a premium, you’re going to see houses moving,” she said.

And Nantucket leads the state in house moves. Last year, the town relocated 84 structures; in 2023, it moved 79 structures; and in 2022 the number was 114 structures. As of April this year, nine structures had been moved.

Toscana Corporation is one of a few island businesses equipped for that kind of work. Norman “Tris” Gauvin, Toscana’s senior house-moving crew member and a Nantucket native, has worked in the field for 24 years. He estimates 65% of the houses his team moves are due to coastal erosion or flooding. He also regularly fields calls from residents or real estate agents who hear about a house slated for demolition — sometimes

through the required newspaper ad, sometimes through word of mouth — and wonder if it can be saved.

“There’s not a demolition permit that’s issued that someone doesn’t call and ask, ‘Can this be moved to this place? Can I have it? Who’s got it?’” Tris said. “The town has definitely come a long way in trying to save homes and relocate them instead of demolish them.”

He pointed to a current project on Dukes Road where a homeowner hoped to demolish a historic structure on his property, but the town wouldn’t allow it. Though several people tried to claim and move the building, its width made that difficult for Nantucket’s narrow roads.

“So now he’s relocated it on his property,” Tris said. “He paid to get it jacked up and put on dollies because he knew the town was going to make him move it. But then everyone that wanted

Nantucket's narrow streets make for difficult house-moving.

it had it going to properties that it couldn’t get to. So it’s still sitting on dollies waiting for someone to move it.”

Beyond private efforts, nonprofits like Housing Nantucket also play a key role. The organization’s House Recycling program encourages homeowners to donate structurally sound homes to be relocated as affordable year-round housing.

“The majority of our Nantucket rental units were moved from private property to our land, which is in scattered sites around the island,” the nonprofit’s website states. “Your Nantucket dwelling could be next in providing island families with a year-round, affordable place to live.”

The program prioritizes small homes — less than 22 feet wide and under two stories — that are in good condition and accessible by paved road.

Last spring, the same property owners on Dukes Road donated another one of their structures to the House Recycling program. It was successfully moved across the island to Pochick Avenue.

Of course, not every structure can be moved. But that doesn’t mean it’s destined for the dump. An alternative is gaining traction: deconstruction, the careful dismantling of buildings piece by piece, to preserve and reuse everything from beams and floorboards to hardware and trim.

Chris Carey, owner of Carey Company Inc., has been building custom homes on the island for 20 years. Now, he’s launching a nonprofit focused on deconstruction.

“I just realized looking around that my industry is terribly wasteful, especially on Nantucket where we have such restrictive space,” Chris told Bluedot. “Every contractor I know has got a space filled to the brim with everything they could possibly save, but there’s nowhere else to go with everything, so a lot of it just ends up in the landfill and it’s a problem. I just feel bad about it.”

Chris teamed up with Remain’s Virna Gonzalez, a longtime advocate for salvage and reuse efforts on Nantucket. She helped usher along the first feasibility study with EBP (bit.ly/ SalvageReport-Phase1), and last year she brought a Nantucket cohort to a sustainability conference in Georgia, where she met deconstruction consultant Dave Bennink, known for his work with salvage operations around the world. Chris connected with Dave, and with the help of a state microgrant, Chris hired him as a consultant, and brought him to Nantucket last summer to explore how a deconstruction model could work here.

Chris and his team recently moved forward with a “test pilot” deconstruction project on a 4,000-square-foot home built in the 1990s. They salvaged what they could: flooring, cabinetry, countertops, lighting, bluestone, hardware, doors, and appliances. Some materials, like the shingles, were harder to save due to being stapled rather than nailed. “If we can find a way to bundle those up and maybe even sell them as kindling, that’s better than throwing it in the dump,” he said.

Roughly 20 to 30 percent of the materials from the house were reclaimed and redistributed through local channels like Facebook Marketplace and Nantucket Consignments. The rest was demolished — but for a first project, Chris called it a success.

House moves on Nantucket since 2012.

“We learned a lot,” he said. “It wasn’t a home run, but we tested the model.”

Chris is still in the process of formalizing the nonprofit, and said one of the biggest hurdles is storage space. A salvage storefront could make a major difference, and he’s hoping to coordinate with the town on a location. In the meantime, he’s eyeing other potential deconstruction projects.

“As a contractor on the island, I know most of the people,” Chris said. “I can reach out to designers or the people that are working on the permits, designs, or whatever for the new place and see if the homeowners are willing to participate in this.”

He added that homeowners get a “nice tax write off” when they do deconstruction. “It’s a donation for them, so they can save money on their taxes,” Chris said. “When it comes down to the checks and balances or the cost benefit of doing a deconstruction versus just demolishing a house, from the homeowners perspective, it makes a lot of sense.”

Through another connection through Virna and Remain, a recent salvage effort took place on Pocomo Road, a $19.2 million spec house that was purchased mid-construction, and then slated for demolition to make way for a redesigned mansion. The builder, Josh Brown of Brown Design and Construction, hosted a salvage event and a truckload of materials was sent to the Boston Building Resource Reuse Center — the closest salvage center to Nantucket.

“The amount of stuff that got taken out of there was unbelievable,” Tris said. “That was one of those houses that couldn’t go anywhere. It wouldn’t fit.” He said a similar salvaging opportunity also took place at a neighboring home on Pocomo Road.

“There was a piece of paper with a link that people could scan on the door, and they would have to donate to a fundraiser, but they could take what they wanted out of the house,” Tris said.

Remain has also recently partnered with the Nantucket Land Bank to advance a deconstruction initiative at the East Creek Road property along the creeks behind Our Island

NANTUCKET

These strategies — housing moving, salvage, and deconstruction — aren’t just a sustainable way forward, they’re also nods to the past. There was a time where the island had to be self-sufficient and reuse things, unable to easily ship waste off-island or import materials.

How Tax Breaks Work for Deconstruction and Reuse

Homeowners who choose deconstruction — the careful dismantling of a structure for reuse — may qualify for significant tax deductions. Like any charitable donation, the key is where the salvaged materials go.

If the materials are donated to a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) public charity, (like Housing Nantucket or Boston Building Resources), the donor can claim the value as a charitable deduction:

Under $5,000 in value: The homeowner estimates the value themselves and reports it on their tax return.

Over $5,000: A qualified, independent appraiser must evaluate the donation. Many use services like The Green Mission, which often assess materials based on photos.

After the donation, the receiving nonprofit typically signs

IRS Form 8283 to confirm receipt — but it’s the donor’s responsibility to claim and substantiate the value.

In the case of full-house donations (such as moving a home to affordable housing), the appraised value of the structure may be deductible. However, costs like moving the building might reduce the overall deduction or be considered separately.

While not many municipalities offer incentives, places like Hennepin County, Minnesota, provide grants to encourage reuse in renovation projects — showing growing interest in both supply and demand for salvaged materials. Kord Jablonski, president and executive director of Boston Building Resources, helped explain all of this to Bluedot Living, but of course, individuals should consult a tax professional for guidance.

COURTESY OF TOSCANA

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Nantucket Conservation Foundation

Subject: Next Steps in Conservation Land Stewardship: The Windswept Bog Wetland Restoration

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation (NCF) was founded in 1963 and now stewards more than 9,000 acres of open space on Nantucket, permanently protecting more than one third of the island. For over 60 years, these acres have provided bountiful habitat for plants and animals, valuable resources for scientific research, miles of trails for public enjoyment, and vital coastal protection for the island.

So, what is next? Where do we go from here? The Windswept Bog Wetland Restoration Project provides insight into the future of conservation land stewardship on Nantucket. The former cranberry bog has just been converted into a naturally functioning wetland to benefit wildlife, people, and the entire watershed.

WETLANDS RESTORED

For nearly 100 years, Windswept was operated as a commercial cranberry bog, but before that the low-lying area was a natural wetland which fed into Polpis Harbor. Over the years of cranberry growing, layers of sand were added onto the bogs to stimulate cranberry growth. Year after year these sand layers built up the elevation of the bog, and when cranberry growing ceased in 2018, upland plants began to colonize the bog surfaces, which were segmented by straight, narrow drainage ditches. If left alone, this area

Windswept Bog Wetland Restoration Project partners assess the progress of the restoration.

would become degraded upland habitat surrounded by these unnatural ditches.

One major goal of the restoration project was to restore the cranberry bogs into natural low-lying wetlands and ponds — examples of the habitats that were likely here before the bogs were developed. This was accomplished by removing the many sand layers and lowering the elevation in the middle of the bog cells. Exposing soils that had last seen sunlight in the early 1900s allowed stored seeds of native plants to take root and colonize the new wetlands.

LIFE IN A NEW WETLAND

An important metric that indicates that the restoration was a success is the changed ecology of Windswept. NCF ecologists Kelly Omand and Danielle O’Dell worked with their teams to collect data on the growth of plants, and the movement and habitat use of spotted turtles at Windswept. This data is being compared to pre-restoration data to learn if native plants and wildlife are thriving in the new wetland system.

Kelly found that the altered landscape transformed both the wetland and upland vegetation by bringing buried wetland soil and seeds of native wetland plants to the surface. In the process of restoration, the re-shaped landscape created a natural gradient from low elevation wetland to higher elevation upland, providing ideal habitat for many native species of plants to colonize and establish.

Spotted turtle at Windswept bog.

Danielle had been monitoring the movements of spotted turtles at Windswept for several years. Post-restoration she found that some turtles moved extensively throughout large sections of the new wetlands. The new wetlands consist of larger ponds surrounded by shallow pockets of water with more vegetation. This diversity of habitat allows any creature to find a comfortable home. The spotted turtles enjoy sticking to the shallow edges of the ponds, while the open water gives space for freshwater fish, eels, painted turtles and waterbirds.

TEAMWORK

The entire restoration project could not have happened without monumental efforts from all partners involved. The success of the project highlights the benefits of local organizations working with ecological contractors and state and federal agencies. To complete the Windswept Restoration Project, NCF worked with Fuss & O’Neill, Inc., SumCo Eco-Contracting, and the Mass Division of Ecological Restoration (DER). We received generous funding from DER, the Southern New England Estuary Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Program, the Richard K. Mellon Foundation, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program. To conserve and protect natural spaces we must collaborate to see effective results.

PUBLIC ENJOYMENT

Throughout the planning process, we prioritized maintaining public access and enjoyment of Windswept Bog as a core component of NCF’s mission. Pre-restoration, the property was used by walkers, bikers, kayakers and canoers, and offered a connection to the Middle Moors. Post-restoration, none of this has changed. While berms have been removed to improve water connectivity, they have been replaced with wooden boardwalks so people can enjoy an up-close view of the new wetlands. Educational signage will be installed this summer to tell the story of Windswept and the restoration. NCF will continue to lead tours of the property, allowing people to learn from our knowledgeable ecologists and educators. We hope that the restoration has created a sustained natural environment for many future generations to enjoy and we encourage anyone to get out and walk the property this summer!

As the Windswept Bog Wetland Restoration Project comes to a close, and we step back to allow natural ecological processes to proceed, NCF continues to look for other opportunities to enhance and project our open spaces. As we compete with sea level rise on our coastal properties and newly introduced harmful species inland, stewardship continues to be a high priority, ever-changing mission. We hope you will venture out to Windswept or our other properties and learn about the ongoing efforts to protect the natural places that make Nantucket so special to so many.

Part way through the process of returning the bog to a low-lying wetland and pond.

The bog before restoration.

The restored bog provides an ideal habitat for many native species of plants.

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Leah Hill, Coastal Resilience Coordinator, the Town of Nantucket

Subject: Easy Street Flood Mitigation Project is Not so Easy

When the Town’s Coastal Resilience Plan (CRP) was completed in 2021, the Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee determined the Downtown Neighborhood Flood Barrier – Initial Phase (aka Easy Street Flood Mitigation Project) was the highest priority project due to its criticality and flood vulnerability. Today, this important roadway floods pretty regularly from stormwater (rain), coastal storms, and sea level rise (i.e. sunny day flooding). In fact, in November of 2024, due to sunny day flooding, Easy Street was closed for four consecutive days during high tide. Based on the Massachusetts Coast Flood Risk Model, Easy Street and lower Broad Street could experience daily flooding as soon as 2030. That’s in five years! This has major implications for transportation to and from the Steamship Authority. Not only will this impact people arriving on or departing from the island but will negatively impact the whole island because most, if not all, of our goods and services rely solely on the Steamship.

The overall goal of the project is to reduce disruptive flooding today and in the future. But to be very clear, it will not reduce all flood risk into the future with sea level rise because it is not feasible to design for every storm event. During certain storms, water may still be on Easy Street. This portion of the project is funded by an Office of Coastal Zone Management grant for a little under $500,000 to develop designs and solicit feedback from the community. The three design options take into consideration all of the project’s goals, independently isolate the project area from flank flooding, will require a stormwater pump station, and have a design horizon to at least 2070. The first design

option, bulkhead expansion and elevation, would replace the current bulkheads with a floodwall that is about one and a half feet higher and have “speed humps” on Easy Street, lower Broad Street, and South Water Street. The next two designs are very similar but the Adaptable Road Raising elevates all of Easy Street, lowers Broad Street, and all of the adjacent roadways with the ability to increase the road height in the future. This option would be about four feet higher than the existing lowest part of Easy Street located at the Easy Street, Oak Street intersection. The last option is to raise the road about five and a half feet from the existing lowest part of Easy Street located at the Easy Street Oak Street intersection. Road raising isn’t as simple as it may seem. All of the driveway connections need to be worked out, utilities within the roadway may need to be elevated, it creates pockets for stormwater to collect, and structures that are not elevated will be below the new road grade. The road raising options will protect this roadway from future groundwater rise and the bulkhead expansion will not.

Three-year-old Isla Hill tests the waters on Easy Street.

This is the first structural CRP recommendation being implemented and we are well aware that it is the first step of a long journey. No matter which design option is chosen, it is going to be a major undertaking, large-scale, expensive, and require an appetite for transformation. There have been multiple meetings about this project at the Select Board, Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee, stakeholders, abutters and the community.

For more information, please visit the project’s webpage: www.nantucket-ma.gov/easystreet

COURTESY OF LEAH HILL

Recycle, compost, volunteer, write your rep, buy secondhand.

The ‘ KEEP-THIS ’ Simple, Smart, Sustainable Handbook

See this online at bluedotliving.com/nantucket

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING

THE TOWN OF NANTUCKET PROVIDES EV CHARGING STATIONS FOR PUBLIC USE. Currently, public EV Charging stations are available throughout the Island:

• Nantucket Memorial Airport Terminal Parking Lot (14 Airport Road)

• Airport Commercial Building (12 Airport Road)

• Washington Street Public Parking Lot (37 Washington Street)

• Nantucket Health & Natural Resources Department (131 Pleasant Street)

• Public Safety Facility (4 Fairgrounds Road)

• Nobadeer Farm Road Playing Fields (7 Nobadeer Farm Road)

• Nantucket Cottage Hospital (57 Prospect Street)

• Jetties Beach (4 Bathing Beach Road)

For a map of EV charging stations on Nantucket along with charging fees, rates, station availability, and more, visit bit.ly/ACK-EV-Charging

RESILIENCE TOOLKIT

The Resilience toolkit provides a repository of documents, articles, and visualizations for Nantucket's whole community. bit.ly/Nantucket-Resilience-Toolkit

FLOODING ADAPTATION AND BUILDING ELEVATION GUIDELINES

The Resilient Nantucket Design Guidelines document Nantucket's existing historic character (with photos!), along with ways to preserve and protect development on Nantucket from flooding and sea level rise. bit.ly/ACK-Building-Guidelines

SHELL RECYCLING

Once oysters and quahogs are consumed on Nantucket, the shells are collected by the Natural Resources Department from local restaurants, raw bars, and community members. The shells are weighed and stored at the Department of Public Works for one year to cure in the open environment. bit.ly/ACK-Shell-Recycling

WATER REFILL STATIONS, THE SINGLE-USE PLASTICS BAN, AND STOP THE STRAW

Nantucket banned single-use plastics in 2020 and is a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) island. There are filtered water bottle refill stations in 10 locations, including the Atheneum (1 India Street), Town Hall (16 Broad Street), and Jetties Beach. For a full map of water stations, visit bit.ly/ ACK-Water-Stations.

To learn more about the Single-Use Plastics Ban, visit bit. ly/ACK-Without-Plastics.

The Stop the Straw Campaign encourages restaurants and businesses to ditch plastic straws for good. bit.ly/ACK-Stop-The-Straw

CAR-FREE RESOURCES

The More Nantucket initiative encourages people to leave the car keys at home and opt to travel around the Island on foot, by bike, or on public transportation. For self-guided walking and biking tours, bus tips, and the most up-to-date information, visit MoreNantucket.com.

WALKING

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation maintains walking trails across the Island. For a full map of NCF properties and trails, visit bit.ly/NCF-trails. You can also complete a 26.4 mile coast-to-coast walk through NCF, Land Bank, Mass Audubon Society, town, and state properties. Find the map for this trail here: bit.ly/ACK-coast-to-coast.

THE NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST leads public walking tours June through early October. Find their tour schedule and sign up at nantucketpreservation.org/events/ walking-tour. You can take a self-guided walking tour created by the NPT using the resources on their website or with the Locacious app.

THE ACK TRAILS app allows users to find walking, running, cycling, hiking trails for individuals of all ages and skill levels.

BIKING

Nantucket has over 35 miles of bike paths, flat terrain, and plenty of options for renting bikes or e-bikes. Visit bit.ly/ ACK-bike-paths for a map of the Island’s bike paths.

Cook’s Cycles 6 South Beach Street; cookscyclesnantucket.com; 508-228-0800; info@cookscyclesnantucket.com

Easy Riders Bicycles 65 Surfside Road; easyridersbikerentals.com; 508-325-2722

Open daily 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Island Bike Company 25 Old South Road; islandbike.com; 508-228-4070; islandbikereservations@gmail.com

Nantucket Bike Shop 4 Broad Street, 10 Broad Street; nantuckebikeshop.com; 508-228-1999; reservations@nantucketbikeshop.com

Sandy Pedals Offers bike sharing through the Sandy Pedals app as well as private rentals. sandypedalsbikes.com; 508-680-4497

Young’s Bicycle Shop 6 Broad Street; youngsbicycleshop. com; 508-228-1151; info@youngsbicycleshop.com

The Wave You can ride the Wave bus with the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority (NRTA) for free! Find up-to-date routes and schedules at nrtawave.com.

HUNTING AND FISHING

HUNTING AND FISHING PERMITS

All permits can be obtained online at massfishhunt.mass. gov (Nantucket County is Zone 14). These permits include freshwater fishing, saltwater fishing and lobster, hunting and trapping, and sporting. You can also apply for an antlerless deer permit. For information on seasons and limits, visit bit. ly/hunt-fish-2025.

HUNTING PROPERTIES AND GUIDELINES

The majority of land available for hunting on Nantucket is owned by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. For the most up-to-date information and a map detailing which properties are open to hunting, closed to hunting, and open to hunting by invitation, visit nantucketconservation.org/ properties/hunting.

The Nantucket Land Bank has over 3,000 acres of land open to the public for hunting. The properties where hunting is not permitted include Burchell Farm, Cato Commons, and 15 Burnt Swamp Lane. For an up-to-date map and guidelines, visit nantucketlandbank.org/properties/hunting-guidelines.

See additional Massachusetts Wildlife Management Areas open to hunting here: bit.ly/MA-WMAs.

HUNTERS SHARE THE HARVEST

MassWildlife’s Hunters Share the Harvest program makes it possible for hunters to donate their venison to Massachusetts residents in need. The program also supports conservation efforts by utilizing hunting as a tool for deer population management. According to MassWildlife, free range, organic venison is a healthy source of lean protein with a low carbon footprint that provides more than 4.4 million meals of venison to hunters and families across Massachusetts each year. Learn more about the Hunters Share the Harvest program at bit.ly/ hunters-share-the-harvest.

SHELLFISHING PERMITS

Apply for a shellfishing permit online at bit.ly/ACKshellfishing-permit or in person at the Public Safety Facility, 4 Fairgrounds Road, Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm.

LIBRARIES

Little Free Libraries

Little Free Library is a non-profit organization that supports a love of reading through neighborhood book exchanges. At mail-box sized kiosks maintained by the community, passersby are encouraged to take a book, or leave a book. There are 10 Little Free Libraries on Nantucket. Find one near you: bit.ly/ACK-Little-Free-Libraries.

Nantucket Atheneum

Monday 9:30 am – 1:00 pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 9:30 am – 5:00 pm; Thursday 9:30 am – 7:30 pm; Saturday 9:30 am – 4:00 pm

Library of Things

Atheneum patrons can check out a variety of items including children’s activity kits, board games, telescopes, acupressure

mats, Chromebooks, portable DVD players, and WiFi hotspots. The full list is here: bit.ly/ACK-Library-of-Things

GREEN BURIAL

According to the Green Burial Council, “Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that furthers legitimate ecological aims such as the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.”

Typically, this entails using a casket made of biodegradable materials (soft wood, cardboard, wicker) or a shroud of natural fabric. Additionally, a green grave is free of embalming chemicals, hardwoods, metals, plastics, or nonbiodegradable items.

On Nantucket, applications for green burials are reviewed by the Department of Health for minimal environmental impact before review approval by the Cemetery Commission. For more information on Nantucket cemetery regulations, visit bit.ly/ACK-green-burial.

Sea Burial

Federal law allows for both sea burial and the spreading of ashes at sea.

When scattering cremated remains, they must be released at least 3 nautical miles from land, and the EPA must be notified within 30 days of the event. If a container is used, it must be made of natural materials that will easily decompose in the ocean.

For a sea burial, in addition to being at least 3 nautical miles from land, the water depth must be a minimum of 100 fathoms (600 feet) deep. If a casket or shroud is used, no plastic is permitted. Careful steps should be taken to ensure the body sinks quickly and naturally to the ocean floor.

Flowers and wreaths may also be included in the sea burial, provided all materials are biodegradable and will decompose naturally in the ocean.

VOLUNTEERING

OUR HOUSE is a non-profit membership organization that provides a connection for high school aged students to their peers and adult mentors.

5 WheroWhero Lane; ourhousenantucket.org; 508-233-4150; pprochourhouse@gmail.com

HOSPITAL THRIFT SHOP

17 India Street; hospitalthriftshop.org/volunteer; 508-228-1125; hospitalthriftshop@gmail.com

FOOD RESCUE NANTUCKET is a collaboration of the Unitarian Meeting House Congregation, the Nantucket Food Pantry, and Sustainable Nantucket. bit.ly/FoodRescueACK

SUSTAINABLE NANTUCKET helps make locally sourced food widely available, and educates students and the community about the benefits of healthy food. sustainable-nantucket.org

NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST can always use volunteers for office help, docent duties, and research. 11 Centre Street; nantucketpreservation.org/support/ volunteer; 508-228-1387; info@nantucketpreservation.org

NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION

seeks volunteers to help manage conservation lands. 118 Cliff Road; bit.ly/ACKConservation; 508-228-2884; info@ nantucketconservation.org

NANTUCKET CLEAN TEAM is a group of 400+ Nantucketers dedicated to keeping Nantucket’s beaches, dunes, roadsides and sidepaths free of litter. bit.ly/ACKCleanTeam

MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION helps visitors develop a life-long passion for science through education, research, and first-hand exploration of the sky, land, and sea.

33 Washington Street; mariamitchell.org/volunteers; 508-228-9198; info@mariamitchell.org

LINDA LORING NATURE FOUNDATION

promotes environmental literacy through research, education, and stewardship and by deepening connections to the natural world.

110 Eel Point Road; llnf.org/join-our-team; 508-325-0873; info@llnf.org

NANTUCKET ISLAND SAFE HARBOR FOR ANIMALS

(NISHA) is the Island’s only animal shelter, caring for homeless, abandoned, or relinquished pets. Volunteers can spend time with the animals at the shelter, or sign up to foster.

11 Crooked Lane; nishanimals.org/volunteer; 508-825-2287; info@nishanimals.org

THE WARMING PLACE offers the Island’s only daytime and overnight shelter, as well as free meals, to those in need. thewarmingplace.org; 774-325-8970; i nfo@thewarmingplace.org.

Summer Street Church; 1 Summer Street; Day Shelter: Monday and Thursday 10:00 am – 1:00 pm; Overnight Shelter: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 6:00 pm – 7:00 am

First Congregational Church; 62 North Centre Street; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 6:00 pm – 7:00 am

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY has a branch in Nantucket dedicated to making year-round housing more available and accessible for the Island’s off-season community. Volunteers are always welcome to assist in building projects. habitatnantucket.org/contact-volunteer; 508-325-8912; HabitatNantucket@comcast.net

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION works with preserving the Nantucket Historical District, historical homes and properties, and increasing public access and education surrounding the Island’s whaling and Quaker history. nha.org/administration/volunteer; 508-228-1894; ask@nha.org

NANTUCKET FOOD FUEL RENTAL ASSISTANCE works on providing resources around the Island to the less fortunate. The organization bridges individual efforts around the Island to most efficiently organize and distribute aid. assistnantucket.org/volunteer; 508-901-1320; nffra@ Assistnantucket.org

NATIVE PLANTS

A variety of native plants are available at nurseries around Nantucket, including Arrowhead Nursery and Surfing Hydrangea Nursery and via Leah Mojer at

Leah Mojer of Nantucket Wildscapes.

Nantucketwildscapes.com. Nantucket Wildscapes aims to teach Nantucketers about making ecological choices in their gardens, and providing resources to make it happen. Leah launched a native plant nursery at Mt. Vernon Farm, where she offers plants from seed-grown local ecotypes and regional straight-species Massachusetts natives. Some farms also sell a selection of native plants (see below for farm details).

SECONDHAND SHOPPING

COMMONWEALTH focuses on contemporary and designer clothing. In addition to their consignment shop on-island, they also operate an online storefront. 12 Oak Street; commonwealthnantucket.com

Open daily 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

HOSPITAL THRIFT SHOP sales benefit the Nantucket Cottage Hospital. 17 India Street; hospitalthriftshop.org; 508-228-1125; hospitalthriftshop@gmail.org

Open seasonally: Shopping Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00 am – 12:30 pm, 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm; Tuesday, Thursday 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm; Saturday 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Donating Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 am – 11:30 AM (at 17 India Street); Tuesday 8:00 am – 9:00 am (in ‘Sconset at the parking lot across from the Casino); Thursday 8:00 am – 9:00 am (in Madaket at the Long Pond parking lot off Madaket Road); Saturday 8:30 am – 10:00 am (at the storage pods in the parking lot adjacent to Gouin Village, off Vesper Lane)

COURTESY OF LEAH MOJER

ISLAND TREASURES CONSIGNMENT & THRIFT

— A consignment and thrift store with a wide variety of decor, books, jewelry, and more.

128 Old South Road; facebook.com/IslandTreasuresNantucket; 508-228-0789; islandtreasures369@yahoo.com

Monday – Friday 10:00 am – 3:30 pm; Saturday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

NANTUCKET CREATIVE REUSE is an online exchange dedicated to finding new homes for your leftover craft supplies. nantucketcreativereuse.com

THE RAINBOW FLEET is a consignment shop specializing in women’s clothing. Open year round!

167 Orange Street; therainbowfleetnantucket.com; 508-680-1159; therainbowfleet@gmail.com

Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

SECONDS SHOP Sales from the Seconds Shop benefit Fairwinds — Nantucket’s Counseling Center. They accept donations of gently-used designer clothing, shoes, art, housewares, furniture, books, media, and more.

32 Sparks Avenue; secondsshop.org; 508-228-6677

Monday – Tuesday, Thursday – Sunday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm TAKE-IT-OR-LEAVE-IT lets you leave your treasures and take home new ones. See rules at bit.ly/Take-It-Or-Leave-It. 186 Madaket Road. Wednesday – Friday 9:00 am – 1:30 pm; Saturday – Sunday 9:00 am – 11:30 am

RECYCLING

The Nantucket landfill accepts all waste streams. Summer (5/1 - 9/30) Monday – Friday 7:00 am – 3:00 pm; Saturday, Sunday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Winter (10/1 - 4/30) Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 3:00 pm; Saturday, Sunday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm. Closed on most federal holidays.

WHAT YOU CAN RECYCLE

Glass bottles and jars (Empty and rinse) Note: Window glass or drinking glasses belong in Non-Recyclable NonCompostable waste (NRNC).

• Tin/aluminum cans, foil items, lids, and bottle caps (Empty and rinse)

• Note: Metal aerosol cans go in the Scrap Metal bin. Remove lids and caps to Tin/Aluminum or Plastics.

• Plastic bottles, cups, jars, jugs, and tubs (Empty, rinse, and replace cap)

• Shipping boxes: clean corrugated cardboard (Empty and flatten)

• Note: Bubblewrap, Styrofoam peanuts and inflated air pillow packaging are Non-Recyclable Non-Compostable waste (NRNC).

WHAT YOU CAN’T RECYCLE OR COMPOST

Plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic wrappers, cleaning wipes, diapers, incandescent lights, milk cartons, waxed paper, Tetrapacks, dryer lint, individual dog waste bags, chip bags, products made from a mix of materials.

COMPOSTING

Compostable waste is sent through a large industrial composter, which turns food scraps and other compostable waste into nutrient-rich soil.

WHAT YOU CAN COMPOST

All food waste, pizza boxes, cracker and cereal boxes, paper towels, paper bags, newspapers, magazines, tissues, coffee grounds, cooking oil/grease, unbagged pet waste, bones.

• Can be delivered in a clear plastic bag. Paper bag preferred.

• Check out this great waste stream chart to see all recycling, composting and non-compostable waste in one place: bit.ly/ACKWasteStreams

BUILDING SALVAGE AND LAWN WASTE

TOSCANA CORPORATION accepts lawn waste from local homeowners and landscapers to process into organic soils and compost. Drop off your lawn waste and compost (and purchase Toscana’s locally-made soils and compost) at 19 Arrowhead Drive. Learn more about Toscana’s soil program at toscanacorp.com.

SA + C has launched Nantucket Salvage so Nantucketers can find materials such as old frames to reuse, can contribute materials so they don’t go to the landfill, and buy cool salvaged materials you previously would have had to go off-island for. Find details here: .saandc.com/salvage. They also create products out of salvaged materials — trays, trunks, bookends, coasters, and boxes, for super affordable prices. See those here: saandc.com/products

HOW TO GET RID OF EVERYTHING ELSE

See Bluedot’s guide on how to get rid of (almost) anything: bit.ly/ACK-GetRid

FOOD DONATIONS

THE NANTUCKET FOOD PANTRY

10 Washington Street; assistnantucket.org

Donations accepted year-round, Tuesday – Thursday 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm. Non-perishable items can be left in the donation bin at the front of Stop & Shop at 31 Sparks Avenue.

LOCAL FARMS

BARTLETT’S FARM MARKET sells their fresh, seasonal produce along with pantry staples, fresh dairy and meats, and artisanal goods like jams and honey. Open year round! 33 Bartlett Farm Road; bartlettsfarm.com; 508-228-9403; info@bartlettsfarm.com

Open daily; Market: Monday – Saturday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm, Sunday 10:00 am – 6:00pm; Garden Center: Wednesday –Sunday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

CISCO’S SECRET FARM offers a daily selection of farm-fresh produce and flowers. 5 Bartlett Farm Road; ciscossecretfarm.square.site; 508-325-5929; secretgardens@ciscobrewers.com Monday – Saturday 11:00 am – 7:00 pm; Sunday 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm

HARVEST GARDEN This biodynamic working garden sells specialty plants, cut flowers, and their famous lettuceherb mix. Check out their event calendar for workshops and tours.

165 Hummock Pond Road; harvestgardennantucket.com; hi@harvestgardennantucket.com

Monday – Saturday 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

MOORS END FARM This family-run farm grows and harvests more than 40 different fruits and vegetables as well as cut flowers and herbs, year-round.

40 Polpis Road; moorsendfarm.com; 508-228-2674; moorsendfarm@gmail.com

Open daily 8:00 am – 6:00 pm

MY GRANDFATHER’S FARM The Larrabees sell their vegetables and farm-fresh eggs from a truck on the farm Wednesday through Saturday, starting at 9:00 am until they sell out. Follow them on Instagram @mygrandfathersfarmack for the most up-to-date information.

103 Hummock Pond Road; 508-901-1443; mygrandfathersfarmack@gmail.com

PUMPKIN POND FARM In addition to their organic produce selection and plant nursery, Pumpkin Pond Farm also has a 10-week CSA program with a variety of share sizes available.

25 Millbrook Road; pumpkinpondfarms.com; 508-332-4750

Monday – Saturday 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

FARMSTAND FOR FOG TOWN FARM

Washashore Farm, Eat Fire Farm, and Peace + Bliss Farm

This farmstand is operated by the Sustainable Nantucket Mentor Farmer Program and has a rotating selection of seasonal vegetables, eggs, and honey.

168 Hummock Pond Road; 508-228-3399 Available 24/7, operated on the honor system.

FARMERS MARKET

SUSTAINABLE NANTUCKET FARMERS & ARTISANS MARKET

On Cambridge Street and North Union Street between Federal Street and South Water Street

The 2025 season will begin May 24th and end October 11th; Saturdays, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm, weather permitting.

BUY IT LOCAL

NANTUCKET LOOMS stocks a unique collection of handwoven textiles and textile pieces, all made on-island in Main Street studio, employing local year-round artists, using all-natural fibers.

51 Main Street; 508-228-1908; nantucketlooms.com

FOG AND FLAME CANDLE CO. is “Always handmade. Always Nantucket.” All candles handmade on Nantucket, and inspired by the Island. Shop online at fogandflamecandles. com. fogandflamecandles@gmail.com

FARAWAY FORGE is Keaton Goddard’s Nantucket-based blacksmithing and metal art company. Creative cutlery and blades made using repurposed materials to create one-of-akind pieces. Shop at farawayforge.com. contactus@farawayforge.com

AUNT LEAH’S FUDGE is the Island’s world-famous fudge shop. All goods made on Nantucket. Off-season, shop online at bit.ly/aunt-leahs-fudge. 16 Straight Wharf; 508-228-1017

SMALL TOWN GIRL sells toffee, jams, and other treats seasonally at the Farmer’s Market. Taylor Cullen runs her small business of handmade home crafts and goods based on Nantucket. Off season, buy at etsy.com/shop/stgnantucket. taylor@stgnantucket.com

GREY LADY APIARY is a local beekeeping family with over 30 hives spread across the Island, with a mission to keep Nantucket’s bees healthy and happy. Shop at the Farmer’s Market, or at greyladyapiary.com. greyladyapiary@gmail.com

FARAWAY CHOCOLATE sells handmade artisan chocolate, made on-island. Owner and chocolatier Andre Marrero sells in-person at 16 South Wharf or online at farawaychocolate.com.

508-827-1181; info@farawaychocolate.com

NANTUCKET FLOWER COLLECTIVE is a group of growers committed to making locally grown flowers more accessible, and offer Nantucket shoppers a good alternative to imported flowers. nantucketflowercollective.com

PURE BODY NANTUCKET is a local skin and body care made and sold on-island, made of organic and plantbased ingredients. Cruelty-free, no parabens, phthalates, synthetics, artificial fragrance, or colors. purebodynantucket.com

FLOCK NANTUCKET is the Island’s only knit shop. Locally owned, stocking hand-dyed artisan yarns, buttons, knitting tools, and other fibers.

79 Orange Street; 508-228-0038 Wednesday – Saturday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

SAM MOORE

Local jams made by Small Town Girl on Nantucket.

microgreens

Tiny in size, big in taste. And good for the planet, to boot.

Grow Them on Your Sunny Windowsill

There’s a lot to love about these fluffy little greens, including their small footprint, requiring fewer resources than traditionally farmed food — much less soil, 95% less water, and no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizer.

Microgreens sprout from regular vegetable seeds, but are clipped for consumption at only a few weeks old, generally seven to 14 days after planting. The dozens of varieties range from an attractive and diminutive purple-stem red cabbage

to dark green collards, and from mild-tasting broccoli microgreens to mustards that taste like wasabi. Here’s a Handy YouTubeVideo

“How to Grow Microgreens” (bit.ly/MGAskOldHouse) featuring Tim Smith of We Grow Microgreens in Boston.

Buy Seeds

• Johnny’s Seeds, employeeowned/organic, has one of the better selections of microgreens seeds. (bit.ly/MGJohnnys)

• High Mowing, also organic. (bit.ly/ MGHighMowing)

• True Leaf Market, non-GMO and heirlooms. (bluedotliving.com/ True-Leaf-Microgreens-Kitchen)

QUINOA WITH ARUGULA, MICROGREENS, STRAWBERRIES , AND FETA

Recipe by Catherine Walthers

Any of the milder microgreens, such as broccoli or kale, also work nicely in this salad. It makes a nice accompaniment with grilled fish, chicken, or steak. Serves 4–6

INGREDIENTS

The salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 2/3 cup water

2–3 cups strawberries, sliced 3–4 radishes, thinly sliced into half-moons

2 cups arugula microgreens, rinsed, spun dry Feta, to garnish (optional)

Sliced almonds, toasted (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

The dressing

Zest of 1 orange

Zest of 1 lime

4 Tbsps fresh orange juice

(about 1 orange)

2 Tbsps fresh lime juice (about 1 juicy lime)

3 Tbsps extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a medium saucepan, with a few pinches of salt. Once water boils, reduce to low, cover, and cook about 12 to 14 minutes until water is absorbed. Let sit covered until cooled.

2. Meanwhile, slice the strawberries and radishes. Mix the strawberries, radishes, quinoa, and microgreens in a bowl. (Save a few of the strawberries and radishes to put on top after dressing.)

3. Make the dressing by mixing together the zests and juices with the olive oil and salt. Dress the salad just before eating. Garnish with feta and/or toasted almonds, if using. For any leftovers, add a bit of orange or lime juice to brighten up.

PHOTOS BY RANDI BAIRD

FIELDNote

To: Bluedot Living

From: Mass Audubon

Subject: Bicknell’s Hawthorn — A Nantucket Homebody

THE RAREST OF THE RARE

Bicknell’s Hawthorn is a plant deeply rooted on the island. It is an endemic plant, a local in the truest sense of the word, so much so that it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Let that sink in: This species is known only on Nantucket. Bicknell’s Hawthorn cannot be found growing wild anywhere else on the planet.

Crataegus bicknellii, its scientific name, honors American botanist Eugene Pintard Bicknell, who himself had a Nantucket connection. Though he grew up and worked in New York, you could say that he wrote the book on this island’s plants. His tomes included multiple editions of The Ferns and Flowering Plants of Nantucket, which listed species, location, and leaf out and flowering dates of local plants. Interestingly, he didn’t find and record this Hawthorn, which was observed much later by another botanist who bestowed the honorific.

PROTECTING AND NURTURING ITS SURVIVAL

With fewer than 100 trees surviving on the planet, each and every one is vitally important and extremely vulnerable.

Rare Bicknell's Hawthorn on Mass Audubon property on Nantucket.

Though these plants have very large thorns as adults, smaller specimens are browsed by deer and can also be overcome by invasive species, including honeysuckle and other aggressors.

The largest population of Bicknell’s Hawthorn resides on Mass Audubon’s lands, and staff are prioritizing their protection. By identifying, tagging, monitoring, and fencing each tree, our team will protect small and large specimens and nurture them against all floral and faunal foes. As part of Nantucket’s Youth Environmental Steward Program (see story on page 56), which engages high school and collegeaged students for paid summer work experiences, young Nantucketers take part in these efforts.

FIGHTING FOR A FUTURE

We can’t do it alone; saving a species takes a village. In 2023, botanists and students from The Botanical Garden of Smith College came to Nantucket to collect seeds, study soils, and learn more about this rare plant, and create an ex-situ population of Bicknell’s Hawthorn on campus to secure its continued existence.

Though we may not be the Lorax, we will always speak for the trees and work for their protection.

Bicknell's Hawthorn Specimen Tag.

PHOTOS

Nantucket is one of countless coastal communities which must rethink its relationship with the sea and adapt to unavoidable climate change effects,

Resilience on Nantucket goes well beyond risk-reduction and security improvements to include numerous opportunities that embody our island’s unique history and characteristics, support healthy ecological resources and our local economy, and bolster our thriving communities. As a community, we can address the challenges ahead and foster a more resilient and sustainable future.

To learn more about Nantucket’s history of resilience, the ongoing challenges and best practices for living in a coastal environment and the opportunities we have to build back better as we prepare to reduce the risks of sea level rise and severe weather events, visit ACKlimate’s Coastal Resilience Walk website at www.coastalresiliencewalk.org

www.acklimate.org but Nantucket has the advantage of a rich history of navigating challenging coastal landscapes.

Experience more of what makes Nantucket special. Leave the car behind and explore the island with convenient transportation options that let you soak in every moment.

There’s a reason Nantucket boasts a high Walk Score® - the island is best explored on foot. Stroll through historic streets, immerse yourself in the Cultural District and uncover world-class shops and restaurants.

See Nantucket up close and at your own pace. You’ll discover more than 35 miles of dedicated bike paths, flat terrain perfect for riding and plenty of bike rental options -- including e-bikes for longer journeys.

Leave the driving to us and enjoy a relaxing ride. Hop on the free WAVE bus, with routes covering the island from end to end and departures at every half hour. Or, choose a courtesy shuttle or an educational tour.

Ready to explore Nantucket car-free? Visit MoreNantucket.com for free apps, helpful tips, and resources to make getting around easy and enjoyable.