Joining Together to Work Apart, to Protect our Island Environment
Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's "socially distant" Earth Day Clean-Up! Nature as Inspiration: An Environmental Film Festival
Winter Walks 2019-2020
Manuel Correllus State Forest
November 10
A "Walk & Create" Outing to Featherstone and Nearby Trails
December 8
Pilot Hill Farm, Lambert's Cove Road, Tisbury
January 12
Grey's Raid & Wakeman Area Trails
February 9
Misty Meadows Farm, West Tisbury
March 15
Ancient Ways & Grey's Raid
January's Winter Walk was a visit to the 180-acres of hills,
fields and beaches of Pilot Hill Farm in Tisbury.
Family History: Where Farm Meets Sea
Part of Tisbury’s north shore west of Lake Tashmoo, Chappaquonsett
likely gained its English name due to the area’s (relatively) high
elevation of 120 feet. Pilots of sailing ships would have found it to be
a useful reference point as they navigated the crowded and dangerous
Vineyard Sound, a bustling coastal shipping route in the days before the
creation of the Cape Cod Canal.
For one navigator, Pilot Hill was not just a reference point, but home.
The former owners of the farm, Columbus and Nora Iselin, operated a
working dairy farm from the 1930s until their deaths in 1971. During the
1940s, Columbus commuted daily from the Vineyard to his job as Director
of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. (For more on the Iselin
family and the history of Pilot Hill Farm, see this account by PHF historian Patricia Carlet.)
Conservation History: A Limited Development Plan
When the property changed hands in 1976, zoning would have allowed the
construction of at least 200 houses: more than 100 building sites were
available, each potentially with a main house and guest house.
Fortunately, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation
(VOLF) was able to come to the rescue with a “limited development”
plan. Sunday’s walk leader (and former VCS Board President) Rob Kendall,
along with former VCS Executive Director Tom Counter, led the planning
process for an innovative solution that would slash the development’s
density while ensuring benefits for conservation and housing.
VOLF’s final plan allowed for 22 market-rate residential sites, each
limited to one house within a designated building zone, and five
affordable sites reserved for Island residents. Today, 60 acres are in
active farm use, and permanent conservation restrictions cover more than
75 acres, including most of Smith Brook and 1,400 feet of beach.
Walk leader Rob Kendall with three former residents of Pilot Hill Farm
Winter Walks Return to State Forest
Storm-Damaged Trees Soon to Become Outdoor Classroom
The Friends are still seeking financial support for the pavilion project, as well as a planned Interpretive Center to follow. If you would like to contribute, please contact the Permanent Endowment at (508) 338-4665 or via their website.
Climate Bazaar & Author Talk
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim speak on Thomas Berry: A Biography
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim teach at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Divinity School, where they direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. They worked closely with Thomas Berry for over thirty years as his students, editors, and literary executors and are the managing trustees of the Thomas Berry Foundation.
Tucker and Grim’s presentation should provide fresh and powerful perspective to help each of us find our voices as we face some of the most pressing environmental issues in human history.
The event was co-sponsored by VCS and the West Tisbury Congregational Church and included an informative "climate bazaar" featuring Island conservation organizations.
Annual Meeting of the Board & Membership
Sailing Camp Park, Oak Bluffs
This year's Annual Meeting, held for the first time at Oak Bluff's Sailing Camp Park, featured a thought-provoking presentation by our special guest, Wesley Look:
Nature as Inspiration
The 5th Annual Environmental Film Festival
The Art of Conservation
Opening Show and Awards Presentation
The 27th Annual Earth Day Beach Clean-Up
Winter Walking Through History: Chickemoo/Chickamaug
A Revolutionary History: The 240th Anniversary of Grey’s Raid
The earliest known inhabitants of the area called this place Chickamaug or Chickemoo, an Algonquain reference to the weir fish trapping that once thrived at Onkokemmy Bay -- today known as Lambert's Cove.
However, later inhabitants -- European settlers and their descendants -- coined the name "Red Coat Hill Road" in response to an unwelcome visit from the Old World. In September of 1778, British General Sir Charles Grey anchored 47 warships containing 4,333 troops off Vineyard Haven harbor. After bringing the troops ashore, and marching his men along an old way running past the residence of local Selectman Shubael Weeks, General Grey seized this high ground west of Tashmoo. All told, 315 head of cattle and 10,574 sheep were expropriated from the island in what would be later known as Grey's Raid.
This year marks the 240th anniversary of Grey’s Raid.
Conservation Outlook 20/20: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Microplastics in the Ocean Environment
Annual Meeting of the Board & Membership
This year's festival featured another event in our ongoing plastics reduction campaign. "Breaking Up with Plastics," with guests Tyson Bottenus (editor, Ocean Watch Magazine) and Clint Richmond (Mass. Sierra Club), our own Samantha Look and Nina Carter Hitchen, and moderator Heather Goldstone of WCAI, discussed plastic pollution and what you can do to help.
Global Environmental Threats:
How Medical Models Can Help us Understand Them
Annual Meeting of the Board & Membership
The Annual Meeting of the VCS Board and Membership was held Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at the West Tisbury Library. This
year's meeting will feature a very special treat, a presentation
by Jesse Ausubel, Director of Rockefeller University’s Program for the
Human Environment (and long-time VCS science advisor), on the potential
for environmental DNA (aka eDNA, or "naked DNA") to radically transform
the way we understand the wildlife in our water.
Naked
DNA in My Sea Water
. . . including results from Tisbury Great Pond and Look Pond
by Jesse H. Ausubel
Environmental DNA (eDNA), also known as loose, extracellular, or naked DNA, results from the break-up of cells. It is continually cast off, yet doesn't persist long before breaking down, so the recent presence of many aquatic organisms can be reliably detected by looking for these DNA fragments. Monitoring eDNA could supplement -- or even someday supplant -- traditional sampling methods, many of which can be time-consuming, expensive, and destructive to the very wildlife we seek to better understand.
The 25th Anniversary Earth Day Beach Clean-Up
April 22, 2017
Read more about this community tradition at the Beach Clean-Up page!
This year's beaches:
Aquinnah: Lobsterville, Philbin, Tribal Beaches
Chilmark: Squibnocket, Menemsha, Lucy Vincent
Edgartown: Fuller Street, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach (Left &
Right Fork), State Beach (Bend in the Road)
Oak Bluffs: Eastville Point, State Beach (Little Bridge),
Town Beach (SSA to Inkwell)
Tisbury: Meet at Owen Park or the town landing on the Lagoon; volunteer leaders will then send people on to the nearby beaches, including Grove Ave Beach, Hines Point, the Lake Street landing,
Tashmoo opening, Owen Little Way, and the VH
harbor.
West Tisbury: Cedar Tree Neck, Lambert’s Cove
Special thanks to our sponsors:
M.V. Savings Bank | Harbor View Hotel
Josh and Angela Aronie | Cronig’s Market | Dippin' Donuts | Lucky Hank’s
Scottish Bakehouse | Sharky's | The Trustees | Tyson Foods | Vineyard Grocer
and our volunteer group leaders:
Update: following postponement due to weather, we are looking into rescheduling if possible. Stay tuned!Join VCS for a return to the ever-changingFrances Newhall Woods Preserve. Located across the towns of West Tisbury and Chilmark, the 512-acre property provides one of the largest intact ecosystems on our island, including at least eight distinct natural communities, ten different soil types, and more than 200 plant and animal species.
Tough footing: Walks at the Woods Preserve often traverse areas where shrubby vegetation, mowed or burned, stiffly pokes up from the ground. So wear strong-soled shoes or boots, and we suggest leaving dogs at home – in previous years, sore paws have led some to be carried out by their human companions!
VCS has offered guided walks on the Woods Preserve since its protection in 1991, when the owners, Edwin Newhall Woods and Jeanne Woods donated a permanent Conservation Restriction (CR) to the Nature Conservancy (TNC). Upon the Woods’ death, the land was bequeathed to TNC and the CR was conveyed to VCS.
The walk will last one to two hours, followed by cider and cookies. Please dress for the weather, and keep any dogs on leashes. Parking is off North Rd. about one mile from the West Tisbury end; look for VCS signs and flags on the south side of the road. For additional info, please contact our office.
Winter Walks Return with Trips to Flat Point Farm & Morning Glory Farm
Our first winter walk of the 2016-17 season was a visit to Flat Point Farm. This beautiful piece of farmland, located directly on the Tisbury Great Pond, was saved from residential development just a few years ago through the combined efforts of the landowner, neighbors, the Land Bank, and VCS. Today, the farm raises beef and lamb, egg-laying chickens, and dairy goats, who provide milk for making cheese and artisanal soaps. 
land on which the farm now sits, guaranteeing its farming future in perpetuity. Click here to read more about the conservation history of this iconic Island farm. October 1: Living Local Harvest Festival
As always, the festival brought together great local food, music, animals, games and activities for kids of all ages, and educational presentations and demos on a variety of sustainability issues, this year including local recycling and “The Life of Trash,” renewable energy, and a composting workshop roundtable. In addition Cape Light Compact offered an opportunity to turn in old dehumidifiers and room air conditioners.
The Living Local Harvest Festival, an annual celebration of Island community spirit that has now grown into a major event and community treasure, was originally founded by four Island non-profits, the MV Ag. Society, Vineyard Energy Project, Island Grown Initiative, and VCS, to promote sustainable living on our island by encouraging local food production and the local economy, renewable energy, and resource conservation.Conservator Appreciation Event
In 2016, our annual summer “Thank You” event for VCS Conservators was held at the Chilmark home of Dave and Karen Davis. The Davis home is a beautiful example of smart design that fits into the surrounding landscape rather than dominating it, and features modern technology to maximize energy efficiency. VCS Conservators are donors who give $1,000 or more per year, as well as those who have donated land and conservation restrictions.
VCS Annual Meeting
The business portion of the meeting was followed by a presentation of Island photography by Neal Rantoul. Recently retired (following 30 years as head of the Northeastern University Photo Program), Neal is a life-long Vineyard resident who now devotes his efforts full-time to making new work and bringing earlier work to a national and international audience.
Neal’s photography boldly illustrates how the Island is continually changing – due to both the unpredictable power of nature, as seen in our dynamic shoreline, and the rapid pace of development and other human impacts. In describing his work earlier this spring, Neal draws an analogy to photographer Eugene Atget’s work documenting the industrialization of Paris at the turn of the 20th century: “I felt in the late 80s and early 90s a sense of urgency about the Vineyard. Such rapid growth and building. I felt that areas unbuilt should be photographed so there would be a record.”
Nature as Inspiration
Winter Walks: Preserving Local Farming at the Allen Sheep Farm
The second walk of the season was a visit to the iconic Allen Farm on South Road in Chilmark. The view from the farm out over the south shore is one of the most spectacular on the Island.
Allen farm has seen animal grazing and human habitation for hundreds of years, all under Allen family stewardship; today, owners Clarissa Allen and Mitchell Posin carry on that tradition. Twenty-five years ago, 22.5 acres were preserved through an agreement among the owners, VCS, the Town of Chilmark, Mass DPW, and the Land Bank. Twenty years ago, VCS facilitated an additional gift of a Conservation Restriction (CR) on an abutting parcel of 5.3 acres. In recent years, the farm installed a wind turbine on the north side of the property under a state program where green energy projects are fast-tracked for farms and schools.
Read more about our other walks, or just check out the photos!
At this year’s Living Local Harvest Festival, VCS unveiled a bold plan to pursue the passage of a plastic bag ban in all six Island towns. Our goal is to put the new bylaw before voters at the 2016 Town Meetings. This would not mean an end to all plastic bags (the ban targets only those thin bags with integrated handles typically given out at the point-of-sale), but it is a meaningful step toward less land and marine pollution, and will help reduce the amount of plastic in our waste stream. Read more about what VCS is proposing and why.
Many thanks to all who attended our 50th Birthday Party and everyone who helped make it happen, including our wonderful auctioneers, musicians, volunteers, staff, and sponsors.
An extra special thank you goes out to our participating artists. They not only donated their art to support VCS, but many also invited the public to view them at work!
Artists Painting en Plein Air to Support VCS
Seven of our Fresh Paint artists – Valentine Estabrook, Kanta Lipsky, Marjorie
Mason, Tiffiney Shoquist, Jeanne Staples, Liz Taft, and Allen Whiting – invited the public to come watch them create
their newest work live, on location. Their technique, known in
the artistic community as painting en
plein air, can be used to capture the immediacy and power of the natural
world where things are constantly changing, or alternately, to communicate the
peace and serenity in a particular moment. To all of our wonderful artists,
Nature as Inspiration: The Films of Jacques Perrin
an environmental film
festival
The Nature as Inspiration festival is part of a broader initiative from VCS called “Connect, Reflect, Protect.” In our 50th anniversary year, VCS is seeking to spark environmental awareness and reflection on the importance of connecting our Island community to the natural world that supports us. With several sellouts and packed houses all weekend – many times packed largely with young folks – there is no doubt that we are one big step further along the path of the Connect – Reflect – Protect outreach initiative.
Thanks to the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, whose grant made this festival possible.
VCS in collaboration with the Center for Biological Diversity and the MV Film Society co-hosted a screening of the Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary film The Island President, the story of Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed’s efforts to raise awareness around climate change issues and protect his island nation from the rising seas. Frostpaw the polar bear, CBD’s climate change mascot, spoke with guests as a special treat!
The screening was part of CBD’s effort to draw President Obama’s attention toward climate change issues during his visit to the Island, and part of their broader campaign in opposition to Federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Conservator Appreciation Event
"In the Orchard"
The annual appreciation event for our most generous donors was held at the home of Jesse Ausubel, Director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University. (Jesse is also a VCS Board alum and currently our Science Advisor.)
For more information on becoming a Conservator, please contact Signe Benjamin at (508) 693-9588 or via email.The original high-res versions can be found at our climate change page. Depicting areas inundated at both 1 meter (yellow) and 2 meters (red) of sea level rise, the maps paint a stark picture of valuable land and critical infrastructure lost outright in the not-too-distant future. What the maps do not reveal is the much broader area subject to flooding due to storm surges and the ongoing effects of coastal erosion.
Special thanks to Chris Seidel at the MVC for creating the map projections, and to Dan Martino of MV Productions for producing both videos.
We were joined at the screening by Executive Producer Stephen Kellert, who is the co-originator (along with E.O. Wilson) and a primary developer of the Biophilia Hypothesis, a broader theory describing the interactions between humans and nature that draws on biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines. The concepts of biophilia form the underpinnings of Professor Kellert's study of architecture and design presented in the film.
In an effort to dig a little deeper into the world of biophilia, VCS staffer Jeremy Houser recently conducted an interview with Dr. Kellert. Check out the interview to learn more about biophilia in general, Dr. Kellert's efforts to develop a code of ethics drawing on biophilic theory, and even why we are (perhaps unreasonably) afraid of spiders.
Climate Change: Building and Island Understanding
For the last several years, VCS has made climate change awareness and education an organizational priority. This summer, we hosted renowned environmentalists William and Margot Moomaw for a very special presentation at the Grange Hall. The Moomaws shared their insight into both the global context of one of the most pressing issues of our time and the possibilities and benefits of taking action locally to live deliberately and live better.
Video of the presentation is available from Martha's Vineyard Productions.
William Moomaw is Professor of International Environmental Policy at Tufts University, and the founding Director of the Tufts Climate Initiative. He has authored work for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Margot Moomaw is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health and has worked in the healthcare field for more than twenty-five years. She is now a green design consultant, offering expertise on actions homeowners can take to live better, more sustainable lives.
Where possible, experts with inside knowledge of the film have been in attendance to lead informal discussion sessions after the showing, most notably Jesse Ausubel, who served as a science consultant on Switch, a film about the diverse methods of global energy production, and Stephen Kellert who presented his own film Biophilic Design. Other films, including Green Fire (the story of the great environmentalist Aldo Leopold), Dive (an exploration of food waste and “dumpster diving”), and Last Call at the Oasis (an expose of the global water crisis), featured discussions facilitated by VCS board and staff. Our screening of Chasing Ice, the story of a photographer’s effort to document the disappearance of the Earth’s glaciers, brought a third partner into the collaboration, the local chapter of the global climate advocacy organization 350.org.
Watch for announcements of new Green on Screen films at the VCS website, in our Conservation Almanac, and in the local papers' events calendars.