Field Notes
by Peter B Brace
BEACH GARDENING

Believe it or not, there are nearly 50 species of edible wild plants growing out on the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge owned by the Trustees of Reservations.

These plants include Sweet Goldenrod, Glasswort, Beach plums and Beach peas. For your gastronomical enlightenment and safety, the Trustees wants you to know which plants are edible and which aren’t.

To do this, Russ Cohen, author of “Wild Plants I have Known…and Eaten” is leading a three-hour hike through dunes, over beaches and into forests and the thickets of Coatue to teach plant lovers and cooks alike about the edible plants growing on this barrier beach system.

Several seats are available in the Trustees tour truck and you can also drive your own four-wheel drive vehicle. The trip includes walking and driving, but be prepared for hot, sandy, buggy and or wet conditions. Call 228-6799 for details and reservations.

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE, THERE’S STORMWATER

After upgrading and revamping the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Plant, the next highest priority for the town is repairing cracked pipes in its collection system through which groundwater enters and is closing off all stormwater entrances into the system.

To detect the incursions by the latter, beginning Sept. 12, the town is engaging in smoke testing of its collection system for about two months.

A nontoxic smoke will be blown into the system to detect where stormwater is getting in. Residents do not need to be home during the testing, which the contractor, FlowAssessment, will announce within 72 hours of its starting date. Buildings suspected of having roof drains tied into the sewer system might have to submit to dye testing to confirm connections.

COUNTING CROWS

Cataloging of all Nantucket species began in June of 2004 with Nantucket Biodiversity Week, which encouraged scientists and biologists to come out to the island to count and log the different species of life on Nantucket.

It also spawned research projects on certain species around the island.

The biologists and many volunteers began conducting their research within 25, 25-acre “biodiversity plots” located within all of Nantucket’s ecosystems.

Nantucket, Tuckernuck and Muskeget formed roughly about 21,000 years ago near the end of the Pleistocene Epoch as massive sheets of glacial ice pushed to their southern limit on Nantucket. The advancing ice pushed northern species south so that they overlapped with the northern range of southern species. This mixing of species from two hemispheres along with specialized habitats and species that evolved as a result of the challenges present in an island marine environment produced a unique grouping of organisms on Nantucket that still exists today. The biodiversity initiative got going because every living thing is not identified on Nantucket yet.

The First Annual Biodiversity Initiative Conference is the researchers’ first chance to share their findings with the environmental community on Nantucket.

The conference is at the Egan Institute for Maritime Studies at 4 Winter St. and features 18 oral presentations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 24. It is free to all, but conference organizer Bob Kennedy stressed that space is limited and as such, reservations are required. Call Kennedy at 2281782 to sign up.

DOGS CAN RETURN TO GREAT POINT SEPT. 15

In two weeks, dog owners shut out of Great Point because of the Trustees of the Reservations’ new policy prohibiting dogs on its beach, can once again bring their leashed, four-legged friends with them out to the island’s northeastern most point.

The Trustees instituted its ban, which run from April 15 through Sept. 15, to comply with a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that owns a 20-acre swath of Great Point from the west beach to the east beach.

The canine exclusion had always existed as part of an older memorandum between the two entities to protect nesting shorebirds, but it was never enforced.

JUGGLING MEETINGS

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Planning Board falls on Labor Day, Sept. 5. The meeting has, therefore, been rescheduled to Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria at Nantucket High School.

The end-of-the-summer holiday weekend also forced the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission to move its monthly meeting to Sept. 8.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at Nantucket High School.

The Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board (SHAB) resumes its regular meeting schedule of the first and third Tuesdays of every month beginning on Sept. 6 followed by Sept. 20. SHAB meets at 4:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Town Annex Building at 37 Washington St.

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