Monitoring Plan for the DER Cranberry Bog Restoration Program

On September 8, 2022, Jess and Melissa from DER and I took the 9:30 ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket to visit Windswept Bogs, a DER priority project. The property is owned by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and Karen Beattie, the Foundation's Vice President of Science and Stewardship and Jenn Karberg, Director of Research and Partnerships. It was a perfect day, and we were able to visit most of the bog cells, pause for lunch at stump pond, and examine some plots that had been plowed and harrowed to explore possible surface treatments.

Our first stop was bog cell 9, a rather dry bog (although the whole property was dry this year) and the point that many people will get their first view of the restoration. Here Karen shared a newly made rendering with us. Later in the day, we visited Stump Pond and Eastern reservoir, two areas that the team wants to protect from hydrologic disruption.