Born of Sand and Storm

There are so many amazing facets to living on an island and preserving its ecology and biodiversity. One of my favorites (I have too many favorites!) is the preservation of the globally rare sandplain grassland and shrublands. The Trustees of Reservations holds one of the largest managed sandplain ecosystems on the Island and actively maintains these critically endangered systems through mowing and prescribed burn. 

Sandplains are coastal ecosystems whose infrastructure is dominated or limited by salt spray, intense coastal winds, and storms. They are part of a pitch pine-scrub oak coastal forest ecosystem continuum arising from highly permeable, low nutrient sandy soils. These intense atmospheric and geomorphologic conditions create a wondrous bounty of resilient flora such as Little Bluestem, Pennsylvania Sedge, and Poverty grass and low shrubs like Northern Bayberry, Bearberry, Low Bush Blueberry, Black Huckleberry and scrub oak. In between we find the sculptured Eastern Red Cedar surging through the impossible elements, an element of landscape art. I am routinely amazed how these communities flourish in the face of so many harsh and limiting conditions. Much like the Island community. 

This week, I have been working with my colleagues to advance conservation of a 11-acre parcel that would connect to The Trustees and The Nature Conservancy’s sand plain ecosystem. Land conservation on Martha’s Vineyard is expensive and sometimes divisive. Yet to preserve even a small amount, create additional pieces to the conservation matrix is so compelling to me, for the long-term preservation of these critically endangered, globally rare ecosystems. And as we think 50 to 100 years from now, the impacts of rising sea levels and more frequent and intense storms, the future of these coastal ecosystems is also at risk as the sea progressively erodes them away. Through partnerships, we are planning for the migration of these ecosystems inland and this 11-acre parcel is a key component of the sandplains future. This is how we protect nature and biodiversity, one small parcel at a time.