Nantucket Land Council 2020 Water News

NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL

2020

WATER NEWS PLANNING | PROTECTING | PRESERVING

INSIDE THIS ISSUE | HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS IN OUR PONDS—PG. 3 IMPACTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF A CHANGING CLIMATE, FEATURING ELIZABETH RUSH—PG. 4

CLEAN WATER SERIES: TOPICS ON TAP—PG. 6

SUPPORT THE NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL WATER FUND—PG. 8

NLC Joins Waterkeeper Alliance!

RESEARCH NEWS Nantucket Land Council 508.228.2818 www.nantucketlandcouncil.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lucy S. Dillon, President Paul A. Bennett, Vice President William Willet, Vice President Neil Marttila, Treasurer Susan E. Robinson, Clerk Matt Anderson Susan Baer Mary Randolph Ballinger Larry Breakiron William S. Brenizer Chris Donelan Joshua Eldridge Paddy Farrell Robert Friedman Nancy Gillespie Nathanael Green Charles A. Kilvert III Laurel Ried Langworthy Lucy Leske Peter McCausland Keltie Donelan McDonald Carl H. Sjolund H. Brooks Smith Lars Soderberg David Troast Peter Watrous HONORARY DIRECTORS Howard N. Blitman William Crozier Eileen P. McGrath SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR James W. Sutherland, Ph.D. STAFF Emily Molden, Executive Director emily@nantucketlandcouncil.org RJ Turcotte, Nantucket WaterKeeper rj@nantucketlandcouncil.org Meg Browers Development Director meg@nantucketlandcouncil.org Shari Santos, Bookkeeper Design by: Gioiosa Design Harvard, MA www.gioiosadesign.com Printed On Recycled Paper

Nantucket Land Council joins The Waterkeeper Alliance The Nantucket Land Council is proud to join the Waterkeeper Alliance in fall 2020.

The Waterkeeper Alliance is a nonprofit comprised of over 300 environmental groups around the world, all with the same goal; fishable, swimmable, and drinkable water for every community. NLC will administer the island’s very first Waterkeeper program, and take the lead among island nonprofits in protecting Nantucket’s aquatic resources. As the “eyes and ears” of all water resources ranging from Nantucket’s sole source aquifer to the sweeping expanses of Nantucket Sound, the Nantucket Waterkeeper will conduct critical research, be the primary community contact for environmental issues, and hold accountable those who harm Nantucket’s beautiful waters. The Waterkeeper will work with local, state, and federal government regulators to enforce existing environmental regulations, and draft new ones.

This program requires a full-time, non-government employee to serve as the Waterkeeper and actively patrol Nantucket’s waterways, attend public meetings and conduct research.

To that end, NLC Resource Ecologist RJ Turcotte will serve as the Nantucket Waterkeeper and seamlessly incorporate the Land Council’s newly licensed program into our existing work and mission.

As a member of the Alliance, NLC is connected to a global network of clean water warriors and expertise. The Alliance works to link these groups and resources together, creating a unified global clean water movement. We’re thrilled to announce the Nantucket Land Council’s official entrance to this movement.

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RESEARCH NEWS Harmful Algal Blooms in our Ponds

This year NLC continued its critical research on our freshwater ponds. The pond water quality monitoring program saw continued bi-weekly research on Capaum and Gibbs ponds, as well as water quality investigations into other understudied water bodies. Particular attention and effort has gone into Capaum pond, where Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) persist throughout the summer months. NLC staff teamed up with off-island scientists to conduct groundbreaking research on Capaum’s HABs. This summer, designs for samplers that capture aerosolized toxins were improved and a $35,000 state-of-the-art sampling buoy was placed in the center of the pond to continuously monitor water quality in real time.

NLC is using this data to assist the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the owners of Capaum and its shores, as it seeks to manage the pond and prevent future HABs.

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COMMUNITY NEWS Impacts and Implications of a Changing Climate, featuring Elizabeth Rush The Nantucket Land Council proudly held the 4th Annual State of the Harbor Forum virtually this year. For this special edition of the forum, we hosted a feature presentation by Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Rush, author of Rising, Dispatches from the New American Shore. Additional presenters included Emily Molden—Nantucket Land Council Executive Director, Jeff Carlson—Town of Nantucket Natural Resources Director, RJ Turcotte—Nantucket Land Council Resource Ecologist, Dr. Jennifer Karberg— Nantucket Conservation Foundation Research Program Supervisor and Vince Murphy— Town of Nantucket Coastal Resilience Coordinator.

Coastal communities across the country and the world have been focusing more and more resources on many aspects of our changing climate including sea level rise.

Nantucket has been following suit with local research and monitoring and with the Town’s formal coastal resilience planning efforts. As Nantucket moves forward to address the impending implications of climate change and sea level rise it is important to foster greater awareness and conversation around the interconnectedness of our built environment and the sea. This interface where these two zones meet will become increasingly relevant and increasingly gray. While many other communities have already faced difficult decisions and demonstrated both proactive and reactive responses, Nantucket is poised to learn and to lead, from others’ experience and through new perspectives. Visit nantucketlandcouncil.org to watch the full video of this year’s Forum.

The NLC is proud to present this yearly educational event free for the community as an opportunity to hear about on-going research as well as preservation and protection efforts in Nantucket Harbor.

Thanks to our State of the Harbor Forum sponsors:

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SCIENCE NEWS Green Crabs Green Crab Week, where Maria Mitchell Association and Land Council staff produced virtual lessons and how-to’s on everything European green crab. We hope to see you at the second annual green crab week next August—in person!

NLC has taken another step towards managing Nantucket’s invasive green crabs by piloting a crab molting study. Green crabs are considered a delicacy in their native waters around Europe, and an entire industry exists capturing and molting green crabs for the soft-shell crab industry.

The Land Council has built and deployed a “crab condo” to learn the molting habits of these destructive creatures in the hopes of bringing soft-shelled green crabs to a restaurant menu near you! The crabs are also being used to make potent, environmentally friendly fertilizer. NLC is proud to have co-hosted Nantucket’s first annual

Friends of the Land Council Diane Lilly and Helen and Christian Miles along with NLC Board Members Nancy Gillespie and Susan Baer get a hands-on demonstration of NLC’s green crab molting condos.

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In 2020 the NLC began its eelgrass health assessment work in Madaket Harbor thanks to a GHYC/NLC Marine Grant, and support from the Nantucket Shellfish Association and NLC’s Water Fund. The eelgrass restoration site in Monomoy also continues to successfully expand and we will be continuing to transplant shoots and monitor this meadow.

SCIENCE NEWS Clean Water The Nantucket Land Council proudly hosted a summer educational webinar series titled Clean Water: Topics on Tap presented by Donelan Family Wines. The series provided an opportunity for community members to learn about different water quality issues and how they can help to protect and preserve our environment. In June, the NLC hosted Dr. Jack Ahern for a presentation about Native Planting and Ecological Landscaping.

Dr. Ken Wagner joined in July to discuss the Harmful Algal Blooms in our island ponds.

Mary Parks, founder of GreenCrab.org and co-author of The Green Crab Cookbook presented a live cooking demonstration in August to coordinate with Nantucket Green Crab Awareness week. September’s topic, “Coastal Plastics—Nearshore Problems, Island Solutions”, included a presentation by Graeme Durovich—Recycling and Solid Waste Coordinator for the Town of Nantucket. Graeme discussed the research that the Town of Nantucket DPW and UMass Boston began in 2019 to investigate the presence of coastal plastics on our beaches and nearshore environment. The NLC is proud to begin supporting this research through its second year thanks to the NLC Water Fund.

Graeme also updated attendees about the 2020 Nantucket Plastics Ban and how we can all get involved in protecting our oceans. For full videos of each of the 4 presentations in our Clean Water series, please visit nantucketlandcouncil.org!

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COMMUNITY NEWS #NantucketTrashTag

The Nantucket Land Council along with Nantucket DPW and Nantucket Clean Team joined forces this August to clean up our island beaches (and trails) during Nantucket TrashTag Week.

Thanks to our over 100 volunteers and participants, we were able to clean dozens of bags of litter, plastic, huge fishing nets, and much more, to help keep our island clean and beautiful. Join the NLC Associates for next summer’s Nantucket TrashTag during the month of August 2021.

Download the free CleanSwell app to participate and follow @nantucketlandcouncil on Instagram and Facebook for updates!

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1058 Pieces of Litter 63 lbs of Trash 50 Volunteers 104 Food Wrappers 45 Take Out Containers 17 Straws 379 Pieces of Plastic 163 Cigarette Butts 42 Grocery Bags

SAVE THE DATE for the 2021 #NantucketTrashTag event – Starting August 3!

2020

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WATER NEWS

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Water Fund

Over the past decade, the Nantucket Land Council has steadily transitioned into being the leading voice for the protection, investigation, and education of our water resources. In response, the NLC Board of Directors created “The Water Fund”, a donor-restricted fund to help support marine and freshwater projects on Nantucket.

Throughout 2020, we continue our water projects including expanding our eelgrass health research into Madaket harbor, supplementing the Town of Nantucket’s water quality sampling with our small pond water quality research and investigating coastal plastics on our beaches and ocean waters. We also continue investigating the green crab population, how it relates to the health and vitality of Nantucket Harbor and the viability of a green crab fishery to help reduce these habitat-destroying creatures.

We can’t do this critical water work without your help—donate to The Water Fund today!

Water Fund

FOUNDERS Circle

THANK YOU TO OUR WATER FUND FOUNDERS CIRCLE WHO MADE DONATIONS OF $5000 OR MORE

Susan and Michael Baer William and Margaret Brenizer The Condie Family Foundation Robert and Barbara Friedman The Heinz Family Foundation Evan and Cindy Jones The McCausland Foundation Alan and Virginia Nathan The Overbrook Foundation Lars and Jane Soderberg The Slayton Family Foundation Meredyth and Brooks Smith Merrielou and Ned Symes Visco Pumping, Inc Anonymous Anonymous (2)