Insights
Sustained support is needed to carry relationship based engagement forward
Across discussions about outreach, coordination, and a proposed shepard role, we recognized that current efforts are testing approaches and building...
September 25, 2026
Landowners would benefit from a shepherd (coordinator) to guide them through a complex organizational landscape
Observation: As interest develops, landowners lack clear guidance about where to go next to advance their project (lots of potential options and...
September 25, 2026
An Operations and Management (O&M) plan for each site should be developed during the planning and design phase. Approval to implement an O&M Plan in perpetuity should be requested as part of the ConCom submission.
invasive_plant_species
operations and management plan
concom
LO Summit 2026
improve outcomes
DER Monitoring Team
LO
Making Space
Summit 2026
Public
Invasive species and occasionally water control elements need to be managed in perpetuity.
A long term management and operations (M&O) should be...
September 25, 2026
e-bird can be an important source of information regarding bio-diversity before and after restoration.
Project managers should check whether the site is an e-bird hotspot and if not find some volunteer who wants to own this activity....
September 25, 2026
The strength of weak ties... survival of the friendliest!
Going looking to simply connect. Not being transactional. The strength weak ties. Survival of the friendliest. Once you understand somebody you can...
September 25, 2026
1 comment
Meeting transcripts are learning gold (make time to mine them).
It goes without saying that zoom has changed our lives. The virtual meeting to some a blessing to others a curse. But for learning initiatives having...
July 29, 2026
How is photo monitoring being used by our community and our partners?
photos
photo monitoring
monitoring
question
DER Monitoring Team
Making Space
Summit 2026
Mark's Cove
Windswept
Public
At Living Observatory we recognize the value of photographs for tracking change at restoration sites and communicating outcomes of projects. We want...
April 28, 2026
Posting an insight as a question can spark dialog
An insight, does not always need to framed as a statement. Posting an insight in the form of a question may spark a dialogue that leads to greater...
April 22, 2026
2 comments
Camera placements that are far from trails and provide closeups of animals have yielded the most interesting footage
Our initial camera placements at Tidmarsh were framed as wide shots from high vantage points, capturing an overarching view of the site. While over...
February 11, 2026
Slow down, reflect, and adapt during construction
Alex records wisdom from Karen Beattie at NCF, who shared how the Windswept project broke construction into multiple phases over several years....
February 6, 2026
1 comment
When evaluating former cranberry farms that have potential for restoration and inland marsh migration, modern GIS tools can add a significant number of properties to those identified using historic topographic maps.
historic topographic maps can show cranberry farms that have been retired, grown over, or otherwise not visible. By pairing these maps with modern...
February 4, 2026
2 comments
Effective land management depends on understanding capacities, building trust, and aligning diverse resources toward shared goals
community
volunteering
municipalities
management
coordination
project management
DER Monitoring Team
Making Space
Upper Coonamessett
Public
Insights from a conversation with Mark Kasprzyk.
Effective land management often depends less on building networks and more on leveraging existing...
January 28, 2026
Save some ditches with native plants
The Nantucket Conservation Foundation observed during a June 2025 site visit of the completed restoration site: Consider saving some ditches that...
November 24, 2025
1 comment
From "project" to "process" of restoration
Numerous cranberry bog projects have been successfully implemented over the past 15 years in Massachusetts, with many more on the way. These...
June 25, 2025
Let Nature do the work (to form channels)
Alex observed at Windswept Bogs in June 2025, and loves insights from NCF, Fuss & O'Neill (designers), and Sumco (Travis) about letting water find...
June 25, 2025
If It’s New to You, It’s Worth Sharing
An insight doesn’t have to be groundbreaking to be valuable—it just has to be new to you. If you’ve learned something, chances are someone else in...
June 17, 2025
Insights are most valuable to the team if they have persistence, can be recalled, reviewed, and applied to a similar next situation
Alex Hackman observes:
[We] need a tool/place to record insights that can be reviewed by different folks into the future
In the latest update to...
May 20, 2025
Being able to connect with a site by listening/watching remotely is powerful
Mark's Cove is in a densely populated area. There will be a lot of interest in the restoration. Streaming would be a fun way to build community...