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Quote of the Week
"Everyone needs to play a part. You can make a difference today –
and every day – by doing simple things like carrying your own water
bottle, coffee cup and shopping bags, recycling the plastic you buy,
avoiding products that contain microplastics and volunteering for a
local clean-up."
— U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres
The Art of Conservation
Habitat
The boardwalk at Black Point was inspiration for this First Prize
winner by Olivia Schroeder (10th grade, MVRHS) in the 2018 Art of
Conservation contest. Other winners this year included Jonathan Chivers,
Owen Metell, Felix Colon, Simone Davis, Jeneleigh Griffin, Jenna
Joseph, Julianne Joseph, Hemilly Nascimento, Aidan Nunes, Davin
Tackabury, Frank Cray, and Josue Dos Santos.
See more of the work of our Island's talented young artists at the VCS website.
Conservation Calendar
Haute Trash Workshop
Thursday, June 14, 5:30 to 7:00 pm, Oak Bluffs.
A workshop at the O.B. Library building toward a Haute Trash Fashion
Show. Bring your list of recycled materials and design ideas to the
upstairs conference room for feedback and encouragement. For more info,
call (508) 693-9433.
Iconic Trees of Polly Hill Arboretum
Thursday, June 21, 5:30 — 6:30 pm, West Tisbury.
Join PHA staff for four special tours
throughout the season as they share the incredible stories behind some
of the most emblematic and special trees found at the arboretum, from
the ancient Dawn Redwood (pictured) to the remarkable Julian Hill
Magnolia. Tours are free with admission ($5, free for members), for more info see website.
Tracking Shorebirds
Saturday, June 23, 9:00 to 10:00 am, State Beach.
Walk the beach with a Felix Neck shorebird biologist to record field
data, search for birds and nests, and identify bird and mammal tracks in
the sand. Meet at the State Beach access trail on the Oak Bluffs side
of Big Bridge. All ages, free, for more info call (508) 627-4850.
The Farmer's Market
Saturdays, 9:00 am — noon, West Tisbury.
The Farmer's Market is back! 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
Annual Meeting of the Membership & Board of the Vineyard Conservation Society
Please
join us Tuesday, June 19 at the West Tisbury Library for the Annual
Meeting of the VCS Membership & Board of Directors. The meeting
starts at 5:00 pm with refreshments on the lawn to the right of the main
entrance, then we will move inside for the business portion at about
5:45.
Our special guest this year will be Sea Education Association
(SEA) research assistant Jessica Donahue. Drawing on SEA's 30 years of
data on marine plastic debris (the largest such dataset regarding the
North Atlantic in the world), Jessica will discuss the global problem of
plastic pollution in the marine environment, in particular the
microplastics floating on the surface. Topics covered will include where
microplastics accumulate, what the sources and inputs are, and how data
are collected. Her talk will focus on the unanswered questions, common
misconceptions, and possible solutions – including local initiatives to
reduce our plastic footprint.
Jessica
Donohue holds a B.S. in environmental geology from Binghamton
University, a M.S. from the University of Rhode Island in environmental
science/hydrogeology and has a background in science education outreach.
Her current research focuses on how various polymers behave and degrade
in the marine environment, and variability in the composition of
microplastics in time and by region.
Principal
Donna Lowell-Bettencourt and 7th-grader Mya O'Neill demonstrate the West
Tisbury School's new water bottle refill station, part of a VCS
initiative to reduce our local contribution to the global problem of
ocean pollution.
One Global Ocean, Many Local Issues
Hope springs eternal in Jakarta, Indonesia. Image from the "Week in Plastic", a grim parody by the Guardian of their own "Week in Wildlife" photo essays. Photo by Ed Wray.
All of the world’s marine waters are inter-connected, forming one global ocean
that provides the majority of the oxygen breathed by all animals living
on Earth – including us. Being surrounded by the ocean, the people of
Martha’s Vineyard already appreciate its importance, but there is always
more to learn about how it works.
Last Wednesday at Edgartown’s Harbor View Hotel, a broad collection of
scientists and state and local officials gathered with a very good
public turnout (at times standing room only) for the 3rd
Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Conference. Unsurprisingly, there was a heavy
emphasis on climate change, sea level rise, and coastal adaption
measures, but the presentations and discussions ran the full gamut of
local coastal issues and projects, including nitrogen pollution,
offshore wind energy, aquaculture, fisheries, and even a study of the
natural movement of unexploded ordinance. We expect to receive online
versions of many of the presentations to share with our readers in
coming weeks.
VCS was honored to be invited to join in the concluding panel
discussion, moderated by Oak Bluffs Conservation Agent Liz Durkee.
Drawing on a truly wide-reaching conference, some of the chief takeaway
messages were: 1) the impacts of climate change are already being felt
here, and will rapidly increase over the next few decades, 2) the
Vineyard’s identity as a coastal community featuring unspoiled,
naturally migrating beaches will face a massive challenge, as private
landowners seek to protect their own interests in the face of erosion,
and 3) the future may bring more powerful hurricanes, but they would
actually only need to be as strong as those that have occurred in the
past to cause catastrophic damage today. (In the modern era, only
Hurricane Bob rivals the storms of past centuries; in fact, the most
powerful storm since Western contact with New England occurred in 1635,
when a category 3 hurricane drove a 20 foot storm surge into Buzzards
Bay)
Returning now to the global perspective, this year’s World Oceans Day
featured a focus issue that would certainly be familiar to VCS
supporters: plastic pollution. Though much work remains to be done, on
our Island we have already begun taking real steps to reduce our
contribution to this ocean menace, including the plastic bag ban, the
installation of water bottle refill stations to reduce the use of
disposable plastic bottles, and student-led advocacy to stop the release
of balloons and discourage plastic drinking straws.
Unfortunately, the United States government cannot yet be said to be on
board with plastic waste reduction, as the USA just refused to join with
other advanced economies in endorsing the Ocean Plastics Charter
at the recent G7 meetings in Canada. Fortunately, though, we live in a
democracy with many levels of distributed power. Through individual
actions to reduce plastic waste, and by encouraging our local and state
governments to better manage it, we will continue to make a real
difference for our ocean’s future.
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