Windswept Bog, Nantucket Island MA: Watershed-scale Wetland Restoration and Research

The Nantucket Conservation Foundation is excited to announce that we have broken ground on a multiyear, watershed-level restoration of our Windswept Bog property this was retired from active cranberry farming in 2017. Initial work on the site started just last week an dis progressing quickly! This significant milestone is the culmination of over four years of research, monitoring, engineering plan development, permitting, and grant writing undertaken by NCF, the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Program (DER) and Fuss & O’Neill, Inc. engineers.

NCF has contracted with SumCo Eco-Contracting, a firm that specializes in ecological and environmental improvement projects and has considerable experience restoring wetlands at other retired cranberry bogs elsewhere in Massachusetts. The restoration work at Windswept will take place over 2-3 years, with construction activities happening only during the winter dormant season (from November to mid-March) to avoid negative impacts to rare plants, nesting birds and breeding wildlife on the property.

For 2024, we are in Phase 1 of restoration and hope to complete restoration actions within 6 bog cells on the southwestern and northeastern portions of Windswept. Because the restoration is Phased over at least 2 years, we are excited to track how the restoration areas recover and be able to adapt restoration efforts if needed.

“We are so excited to break ground on this critically important restoration project” states Karen Beattie, Vice President of Science and Stewardship at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. “This is a keystone project for the Foundation that not only stands as a testament to NCF’s environmental stewardship and habitat restoration goals but also serves as a model for similar projects across southeastern New England.”