All in One Great Family-Friendly Event
The Art of Conservation: Calling all Island High School Students!
The Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS) is celebrating its 50th year of working to conserve features of Martha's Vineyard that make our island's environment unique and precious. This spring, we are asking high school students to share their own artistic expressions of what makes this place special.
First prize for the winner in each category -- Drawing, Painting, Photography, and Sculpture -- is a $100 gift certificate to an Island art supply store!
Fertilizer Restrictions on the Warrant
In an effort to reduce nutrient pollution in our waterways, a new state law will enact restrictions on the sale and use of fertilizers. Due to our unique coastal ecology, though, Martha's Vineyard has been given an opportunity to create our own rules, locally tailored to more closely match our environmental concerns. But this window is closing fast. To avoid defaulting to the upcoming state law, local regulations must be approved at this year’s town meetings:
Tuesday, April 8: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, West TisburyMonday, April 28: Chilmark
Tuesday, April 29: Tisbury
Tuesday, May 13: Aquinnah
Though each town must individually approve a fertilizer bylaw, it is most sensible to have one set of rules for the whole Island. The MV Commission contributed their planning expertise to help the towns’ Boards of Health create a draft set of regulations, using input from elected officials, local landscapers, golf course managers, UMass Extension scientists, and many members of the community, including VCS. The process has been well thought out and is worthy of endorsement. We urge everyone who cares about local water quality, and all Islanders who would rather see locally-drafted laws than state-imposed regulation to attend your town meeting and support the new fertilizer bylaw (view it here, page 9, Article 48).
With so many threats to our coastal waters, why bother with lawn fertilizer? Five to fifteen percent of the nitrogen that is impairing our ponds comes from lawns, so regulating fertilizer is an inexpensive way to address one piece of the challenge. It will also raise public awareness, informing homeowners about best practices for managing their own lawns, and build momentum for tackling the bigger challenge of dealing with nitrogen from conventional septic systems.
The takeaway: Regulation is coming to the Vineyard one way or another (the state law has already passed), but this is an important opportunity to make the new rules as smart and effective as possible by tailoring them to our local environmental concerns. For example, the emphasis of the state law is on controlling phosphorus (the critical pollutant of freshwater ponds and streams), but the primary problem in our waters is nitrogen.
Nitrogen: How to Live with it, Since We Can’t Live Without it
Through our Vineyard Lawns program and general advocacy, VCS has long been working to spread the word about nitrogen pollution in our ponds. Nitrogen is a perfectly natural, essential element of life (it is 75% of the mass of the atmosphere, after all) that can nevertheless be quite harmful in excess. It is typically the limiting nutrient for algal growth in coastal marine ecosystems, meaning that pond algae generally have more than enough of the other resources they need to thrive (sunlight and other nutrients such as phosphorus), but are held in check by a relative lack of nitrogen. But in recent years, runoff from lawn fertilizers and groundwater flows from septic systems have fixed this “problem,” allowing algal growth to explode, degrading water quality for everything else in the estuaries.
While we will continue to focus on education and advocacy regarding water quality, VCS believes the time has come to embrace active regulation of fertilizer use.
Decomposing algae following a bloom in Lagoon Pond. (Photo by Vasha Brunelle)
Thanks to the VCS members, board, and staff, our partner organizations and volunteers, and the scores of attendees who have helped make this year’s Living at Sea Level series of walks a success. Finally, after a winter of walking at sea level, why not take a short rest before the Earth Day Beach Clean-Up on April 19 – and in the meantime, Join VCS! Member support makes all of these events possible.
On Feb. 9, 2014 an intrepid group of more than 40 walkers participated in the VCS "Lost Bass Creek" Winter Walk, setting out from the post office parking lot near Five Corners for an exploration of the filled tidal lands of Vineyard Haven. Read the full story here.
A common trait of Living at Sea Level is for humans to find creative ways to expand our available habitat. One reality of living in a time of rising seas, however, is that these engineered human habitats may be some of the first to be given back to the sea.
In support of their ongoing coverage of coastal erosion
and shoreline change on the Vineyard, the VIneyard Gazette recently ran a story focusing specifically on the impacts of sea level rise due to climate
change. Borrowing extensively from the sea level rise portion of our new report
on climate change impacts on our island, as well as quotes from author and VCS
staffer Jeremy Houser, the story is a nice introduction to the science behind
sea level rise and what more we can expect in coming decades. See our climate change page for more on the
report, or view the sea level rise section here.
Note: if printing, be sure to download the .pdf files from our Climate Change page. Print quality from the online viewer can be very poor.
Conservation and Restoration
This year's annual thank-you event for our Conservators was graciously hosted by Jeff Scheuer and Heidi Rotterdam at their home on Tisbury Great Pond. A writer by trade, Jeff contributed the following piece describing the methods and motivations of their home's recent renovation for a past issue of our print newsletter, Vineyard Conservation. All VCS members receive the newsletter (past issues can be read here) twice yearly. For information on becoming a Conservator, please contact our office at (508) 693 9588.
A friend of mine who was passionate about preserving the Vineyard used to say that an environmentalist was “someone who built a house last year.” It’s a weak definition, though; one that speaks only to interests, not to larger arguments or values. Surely it can’t mean we all have a right to do and to build as we please, or that law is the only guide. We’re still responsible for our footprints.
Environmentalism is a prism of many facets, however. It’s partly about conserving what is ancient and good – old things, old ways, nature itself – an idea that isn’t new or unique to this island. But change isn’t always bad, and sometimes it’s necessary. The problem is heedless, tasteless, selfish, and disrespectful change. We’ve all seen it.
We conserve in order to retain our civility in the broadest sense: our connections to the past and the future. Environmentalism is about connections and relationships, not absolutes. And since land and old houses, especially on islands, are inherently limited quantities, and getting more limited all the time, we must balance the imperatives of land, history, community needs, and sustainability.
At least, that sounds reasonable. And I’m generally in favor of balances – which doesn’t mean granting equal weight to all claims. But I’m also an environmental radical, with a lifelong penchant for older and quieter things and places. I just prefer them – period. But I’m also radical in the belief that, whatever balances must be struck, certain things are constant: Nature doesn’t return where it isn’t wanted. Old houses aren’t built anymore, and new ones are often unsightly. Everyone needs both dignified shelter and open space. Continued here, second column21st Annual Earth Day Beach Clean-Up
Now back in stock!
Back in stock after a year's absence, new VCS members can choose to receive a free copy of Edible Wild Plants of Martha's Vineyard by Linsey Lee when they join. This beautifully illustrated guide to our wild bounty of edible plants includes descriptions of plants and their habitats, with fascinating information about traditional medicinal and folklore uses.
There's never been a better time to join than today!
Edible Wild Plants is also available for purchase at Alley's General Store, Bunch of Grapes, Felix Neck, Morning Glory Farm, the M.V. Museum, and the VCS office.
Walking Martha's Vineyard
Available for $15 at many Island locations, including The Bunch of Grapes Book Store, Edgartown Books, Alley's General Store, Cronig's, Brahmhall and Dunn, The Secret Garden, Felix Neck, Allen Farm, and the Vineyard Conservation Society office. Or, order through our donation page (by choosing the $20 option) and have it shipped to your door.
You can find the book at many Island stores and farms, including Bunch of Grapes, Cronig's, Larsen's Fish Market (Menemsha), Allen Farm, Morning Glory Farm, Mermaid Farm, Nip N' Tuck Farm, and Fiddlehead Farm Stand
Two locally produced videos help make sense of this complex issue ---
Climate Change:
Building and Island Understanding
Video of the entire presentation was recorded and professionally produced by Martha's Vineyard Productions for VCS and MVTV. Click the link below to watch!
An Island in Conflict:
What to do about Climate Change
Longtime VCS friend Marnie Stanton has produced a new video, funded by
the Edey Foundation, that looks at some of the most important local climate change issues. Marnie's 15-minute video features an extensive interview
with Islanders Chris Murphy and Liz Durkee, along with shorter excerpts
from other local opinion leaders. She touches on a variety of issues,
but really focuses on the difficult decisions the Island faces as sea
level rise and increased erosion complicate the business of coastal
planning and managing development. Where should hard armoring of the
coast be allowed, and where should we allow beaches to grow and recede
naturally? How do we manage the competing interests of private business
and property with the public good?
The most important, longest running, and most costly campaign in the Vineyard Conservation Society’s 45-year history involves environmental legal defense at Moshup Trail. The lawsuit isn’t over, but we have registered a significant win.
On August 12, 2010, Judge Charles Trombley, Jr. of the Land Court Department of the Trial Court ruled in favor of VCS and co-defendants in a long-running case involving developers’ efforts to force access through conservation holdings at Moshup Trail, Aquinnah.
VCS has always taken the long view of land protection in this area.
For more, click HERE