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Nantucket Civic League annual meeting
Burning bushes Giant columns of smoke rising from the outskirts of town on one of several sides in the coming weeks is not a sign that the island is about to be consumed in flames, but that the Nantucket Heathlands Partnership is back in action performing controlled burns at various conservation properties around the island. The Nantucket Conservation Foundation is taking the lead in this fall's burning season, which runs from Sept. 15 through Nov. 21. NCF and the Heathlands Partnership want to perform controlled burns in grassland and shrubland areas of the Head of the Plains in Madaket and out in Middle Moors at the eastern end of the island. The Nantucket Heathlands Partnership is the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the UMass Field Station, the Nantucket Islands Land Bank, the Nature Conservancy, the Maria Mitchell Association, the Nantucket Civic League, the Nantucket Land Council, the Nantucket Garden Club, the Nantucket Historical Association and the Partnership for Harrier Habitat Preservation. Together, they follow a land management practice of using prescribed burning, brush cutting and mowing to keep invasive species such as scrub oak, Japanese pitch pine and huckleberry at bay to allow endangered ones such as bushy rockrose, St. Andrew's cross, eastern silvery aster, New England blazing star, sandplain flax and broom crowberry to flourish. Winged menagerie If you don't know the birds you see around the island, but want to, late summer into the fall is the ideal time to start. Birds are done nesting and many, many species are gearing up for flights south for warmer climes in which to spend the winter. Since Nantucket is both the northern boundary of many southern species and southern limit of some northern species, the island is a veritable Pennsylvania Station of avian activity this time of year. Start with books like the "Sibley Guide to Birds" by David Allen Sibley" or "Field Guide to New England" by Peter Alden, both available at Nantucket Bookworks on Broad Street and Mitchell's Book Corner near the top of Main Street. Then, put your knowledge to work on the Maria Mitchell Association's Birding Nantucket jaunts that leave from 2 Vestal St. at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 8 a.m. on Saturdays. Check out www.mmo.org/category. php?cat_id=20 for details. Hazardous waste day is on Sept. 20 It's never too early in the month to start organizing your dangerous chemicals, used motor oils and buckets of spent batteries and all other toxic waste that some people believe belongs in the moors. The September hazardous waste collection day, hosted by the Department of Public Works at the landfill is coming up in 10 days. For a complete listing of what you can and can't unload, visit www.nantucketma. gov/departments/dpw.html. She wants to know How is Maria Mitchell treating you these days? Do you like her programs? Are you getting what you need from her staff? Do her facilities provide the type of access you require? What is missing from the Maria Mitchell Association as a whole? You can answer these questions in Maria Mitchell's online survey if you care about her association and want to see it grow and enhance its offerings. This survey asks for your favorite subject areas, what Maria Mitchell sites you've visited and why, and why you haven't visited the other sites. It takes about 10 to 12 minutes to fill out and enters you into a drawing for an Apple iPod Shuffle. Participate in the survey at www.surveymonkey. com/s.aspx?sm=UiDirYwNcHyNqa Zph0UR_2fw_3d_3d by Sept. 15 to be entered into the drawing, which happens on Sept. 17. To ensure that you can access this survey, take care that your cookies are enabled and that you're using the most recent version of your browser. Problems? Try downloading for free and using the Firefox browser. I |
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