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Quote of the Week
“Not only did we find the right kinds of fish, but we found them at the right time”
-- Mark Stoeckle, Rockefeller University Program for the Human Environment Senior Research Associate, describing to Smithsonian.com the potential of eDNA as a tool for wildlife monitoring. See story at right for more.
The Art of Conservation
VCS
members should recognize this winning photo from the 2017 edition of
the Art of Conservation contest: "The Deep End," by Ava Stearns, was
featured on the cover of the most recent issue of the VCS newsletter!
View the rest of the entries, then check out our Winners' Gallery, complete with written descriptions by the artists themselves!
Conservation Calendar
Screening and Director's Q&A:
One Big Home at the Tabernacle
Thursday, July 13, 8:00 to 10:00 pm, Oak Bluffs.
Director and producer Thomas Bena presents his film One Big Home,
an exploration of the effects of supersized homes on the people,
community, and environment of Martha's Vineyard, followed by Q&A. A
good-will-offering event at the Tabernacle. (Note: One Big Home will
also be showing at Edgartown Cinemas August 6th and 20th, and DVDs are
now for sale at Island retailers including Cronig's, Alley's, and Bunch
of Grapes.)
Saturdays at Sengie
Saturday, July 15 (and 22nd), 9:30 to 10:30 am, Oak Bluffs
A
Felix Neck program that explores a different aspect of Sengekontacket
Pond each week. From the birds above to the creatures below the water's
surface, this program includes hands-on activities for all ages. Free,
sponsored by Friends of Sengekontacket. Meet at the Little Bridge on
Beach Road, on the pond side. For more info, call (508) 627-4850 or see Felix Neck website.
Book Talk: David Foster,
A Meeting of Land and Sea
Wednesday, July 19, 5:00 to 6:00 pm, Chilmark.
Harvard Forest director David Foster leads a discussion of his new book, A Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha’s Vineyard. Free, at the Chilmark Library, for more info call (508) 645-3360.
Guided Walk: Cedar Tree Neck
Thursday, July 20, 9:00 to 11:00 am, West Tisbury.
Celebrate
the 50th anniversary of Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary with a guided walk of
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation’s largest property. Pre-registration
required, call (508) 693-5207 or email.
Presentation: Saving the Land that Sustains Us
Monday, July 24, 7:00 pm, West Tisbury.
Following
decades of decline, farming in the Northeast is now growing -- but the
news is not all good. John Piotti, president of the American Farmland
Trust, will give a talk on the current state of farmland preservation,
and the economic and demographic forces that threaten to undermine the
recent farming revival. At the Ag Hall in West Tisbury, free,
co-sponsored by VCS, the MV Agricultural Society, and others. For more
info, see press release.
The Farmer's Market
Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9:00 to noon, West Tisbury.
Fresh-picked produce from local farms,
flowers, delicious baked goods and prepared foods from Island kitchens
and more. Outside the Grange Hall, near Alley's. More info at website.
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Local News
What's Beneath the Surface?
DNA Tells the Story
Look's Pond in West Tisbury, one of two sites sampled for eDNA analysis
At
this year’s VCS Annual Meeting approximately 100 guests learned all
about an exciting new method for sampling aquatic and marine life – and
what that technique has to say about who’s living in two of our local
bodies of water. In his presentation on environmental DNA, Rockefeller
University Program for the Human Environment Director Jesse Ausubel
shared his results from water samples collected from Look’s Pond and the
Tisbury Great Pond by VCS staffer Samantha Look. (Click here for photos from the event)
Environmental DNA (eDNA), also known as extracellular, or naked DNA, is
continually cast off by aquatic organisms. But since these DNA fragments
don’t persist long before breaking down, finding evidence of a certain
species’ eDNA is a reliable indicator that the species was recently
nearby.
As presented by Jesse at the meeting, early returns from eDNA analysis
are highly encouraging. The results are generally consistent with those
obtained through traditional sampling methods, which are often damaging
to the species being studied (and others), as well as expensive and
time-consuming. (Compare, for example, a month’s long oceanic voyage on a
research vessel with simply sending out a drone to collect water
samples to bring back to the lab).
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the results from Tisbury Great Pond and Look’s Pond
(a small pond located up the Tiasquam River from TGP, across
State/South Road). We see completely different fish species (in blue),
which is unsurprising given the large difference in salinity. Also
interesting is that the only species the two waters had in common was homo sapiens – a find befitting our status as one of Earth’s most ubiquitous species.
Technical
note regarding the table: a DNA “read” is a distinct sequence of
nucleobases – the cytosine (C), guanine (G), adenine (A), and thymine
(T) molecules that encode information in DNA – that spans the sampling
frame of interest. The number of reads is understood to be an index of
the abundance of the species. However, one read does not equal one
animal – each animal sheds a lot of eDNA, and the amount could depend on
size, age, and recent feeding history, among other factors.
Other News
The Lighter Side of Oversized Houses
For those brave enough to peer inside the "vaguely evil" exterior and see the horrors beyond the veil, this link will take you there.
In late June, the brilliantly cruel, jovially mean-spirited blog
“McMansion Hell” finally began receiving the attention it deserves –
unfortunately, that attention was largely due to online real estate
giant Zillow suing the site’s creator Kate Wagner, along with the resulting public backlash directed at Zillow (a prime example of the “Streisand effect”).
Zillow’s suit has since been dropped after Wagner’s cause was joined by
the free speech advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, who
provided legal representation, and whose notoriety multiplied the PR
backlash.
The principal targets of mockery at McMansion Hell are various crimes
against architecture (a favorite is the BTU-gobbling, CO2-spewing “Pringles Can of Shame”
three-story entryway). So at its core, it’s fundamentally more about
aesthetics than any tangible harm associated with giant houses. However,
Wagner does address the more “objective” side of the issue, especially
in point #3 here, which is the matter of concern for VCS: McMansions are bad for the environment.
Local issues with “high-impact development”
Though the expression is commonly used (even in local newspapers), on our Island the most extravagant consumers of energy and natural resources are usually not McMansions. (As judged by the technical standards of McMansion Hell,
there’s nothing “Mc” about them – they may be ostentatious, but they’re
soundly constructed, using quality materials and careful design.)
VCS has a long history of speaking out on the subject,
though progress has been limited and hard-fought at every turn. To
date, only Aquinnah and Chilmark* limit home size; however, there are
some signs of progress. Chilmark’s big house bylaw that passed easily in
2013 was similar to one rejected by the town’s voters in 1991. Further,
as fears have increased that the Vineyard could turn into yet another
previously-unique tourist destination, the salience of the issue in the
public consciousness has grown. Much credit here is due to the work of
Chilmark’s Thomas Bena, whose documentary “One Big Home” has seen great
success on an international level, while furthering a difficult
conversation here at home (see left column for upcoming screenings of
the film).
* In Chilmark it really is only the ratio of house size to lot size
that is limited, though in practice it would take a very large lot to
allow the 10,000 sq. ft. homes that are cropping up regularly in
Edgartown. |
