Some Recent FOS Activity

Oak Bluffs and Edgartown residents, taxpayers and visitors alike should care about the soon to be released Massachusetts Estuary Report on Sengekontacket. That is the message Friends of Sengekontacket (FOS) hopes to bring home literally to several hundred residents of the Sengekontacket watershed. On Saturday July 10, 2010, FOS Board members and concerned neighbors went door to door with their new brochure Why Should I Care about MEP? [link FOS WHY SHOULD I CARE…] Board members and friends, including a team provided by Steve Ewing, successfully delivered hundreds of brochures in the Ocean Heights, Arbutus Park and Morgan Woods neighborhoods.

Wherever possible FOS board members are delivering the MEP message in person. In early summer Board member Kris Vrooman, brochure in hand, attended neighborhood association meetings in Sengekontacket and Hidden Cove and also delivered brochures for handout at the Majors Cove meeting. Ed O’Melia talked to his neighbors and handed out the brochure at the Waterview Farms neighborhood association meeting.

The emphasis for residents is on what each of us can do personally to reduce or eliminate nitrogen going into the pond. In addition we need to:

1. Support town zoning plans to adjust growth and development in the Sengekontacket watershed, and

2. Evaluate and vote for the best plan for wastewater proposed by our town – the plan with the most improvement potential and the best cost-effectiveness.

The MEP report will document the likely sources of nitrogen causing poor water quality in Sengekontacket as well as the goal level of nitrogen for a healthy pond. The FOS brochure identifies potential town bylaw, funding and taxing issues that will likely arise as a result of the need to remove excess nitrogen from Sengekontacket Pond. It also identifies the specific sources most likely responsible for the current level of excess nitrogen.

Adults are not the only ones who need to understand about nitrogen impacts on our pond. To that end FOS Board member Kate Hancock has developed a take-home piece for the schools that speaks directly to kids about why nitrogen is a problem and things even kids can do to significantly reduce the nitrogen load on Sengekontacket. [link NITROGEN2PDF]

So what can you do? Read the FOS brochures, then spread the word. Talk to your kids, neighbors and friends about how important personal involvement is in restoring Sengekontacket Pond to health – to fish, bird, boat, swim and view clear and clean water now and in the future. Attend selectmen’s, town and board meetings and be heard on how to Oak Bluffs and Edgartown can work together to restore and treasure our estuarine jewel, Sengekontacket Pond.

Friends of Sengekontacket Inc. (FOS) won 3 blue ribbons at the 2009 Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Livestock Show and Fair for its educational display about the problem with marine debris. Two are special awards, one from Tisbury Waterways in memory of their founder and one from Ginny Jones and family in memory of Michael Wild. The research for the display was done by Christina Miller with graphics by Dana Gaines.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines marine debris as any man-made object discarded, disposed of or abandoned that enters the coastal or marine environment. Marine debris drifts into the ocean primarily from the shore but also can come from boats. Debris that washes ashore is just a small fraction of what still remains at sea to injure wildlife and soil beaches.

Balloons can drift hundreds of miles from their point of origin. There is more than a 70% chance that balloons released into the air will burst and become marine debris causing harm to marine wildlife. Balloons are tied with string and colorful ribbons and inevitably fall back to earth as litter. When they land on the beach or in the ocean they can entangle or strangle seabirds, sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and seals.

A submerged plastic bag or balloon can be mistaken for a jellyfish or squid. When swallowed plastic bags, balloons and ribbons lodge in the animals’ intestines and they die of starvation. Remnants of Styrofoam cups, plates, food containers, and coolers break down into smaller pieces if discarded on the beach. When the foam pieces are tiny, they resemble fish eggs and are lethal when ingested by seabirds.

· Trash barrels attract stinging insects such as bees and wasps, to which some children and adults are allergic if stung.

· Trash barrels are expensive to maintain; tax money that can be put to better use.

· Food in trash barrels attracts rats, skunks, gulls, and raccoons, predators of shore birds, many of which on the Vineyard are rare species.

· Broken glass and other sharp items discarded around trash barrels can cut bare-footed beach goers.

Encourage businesses that distribute free balloons as a means of advertising or to draw attention to their location to discontinue this practice.

Keep balloons indoors at all times. Find other ways to commemorate and celebrate an event than the mass release of balloons into the air. No balloons should be released into the atmosphere at any time.

Educate smokers that the beach should not be used as an ashtray and that cigarette butts are a form of litter. Some communities now ban smoking on beaches.

Cigarette butts and filters contain hazardous chemicals that over time leach out and contaminate sand and water.

Bring a used bag to the beach to stow your trash in until you leave to prevent light items from becoming wind-blown litter.

Be aware that the beach not only provides recreation for people but also is important habitat for nesting shore birds.

Volunteer for the Vineyard Conservation Society sponsored annual All-Island Earth Day Beach Clean-Up.

Join students in the Edgartown and Oak Bluffs Schools to educate people about Carry In / Carry out.

The summary findings of results of summer 2008 bacteria tests (select this link to see full report) on Sengekontacket and Trapps ponds conducted by the University of New Hampshire Jackson Estuarine Laboratory are:

Friends of Sengekontacket Inc. (FOS) requested assistance from the Massachusetts Audubon Coastal Waterbird Program in assessing the presence of birds on Sengekontacket, specifically Sarson’s Island. Bird counts have been conducted in 2007, 2008, 2009. 2010 (link) and 2011(link) and The graphic below adds some historic data to the more recent counts. The program director provided additional summary explanation of the report in 2008 (link). A key point is that the year to year data are not directly comparable because the latest counts are adult plus juvenile counts while the earlier data count breeding pairs. It does appear that later in the season cormorant numbers increase; these are most likely non-breeders/post-breeding adults from elsewhere that are transient at this site. Cormorants are highly mobile making it difficult to decrease local populations, particularly non-breeding dispersing individuals.

Over a hundred volunteers planted thousands of culms of beach grass on Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Saturday March 14. Teams of two dug carefully spaced rows of holes with metal instruments known as dibbles, then filled those holes with one or two strands of grass, tamping the sand around them. By mid-afternoon row upon row of beach grass marched from the Little Bridge in Oak Bluffs to the fourth stone groin. The planting was sponsored jointly by Friends of Sengekontacket, Inc, and Dukes County, co-chairs of the Barrier Beach Task Force. Planting on the beach was permitted by the Oak Bluffs Conservation Commission.

Beach grass can withstand the beach’s temperature extremes and being battered by ocean storms. As it grows it sends our horizontal fibrous stems that trap grains of sand building dunes and protecting the road and inland. Nevertheless periodic replanting is essential.

The entire community helped to make this large planting a success: parents, children, seniors, local government officials, nonprofit organizations, landscapers, and local businesses. Eighth graders fulfilled their community service requirements as did members of the MVHRS student council leadership team. Volunteers worked side by side from: the Cape and Islands Senior Environmental Corps, Vineyard Conservation Society, Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, Martha’s Vineyard Surfcasters Association, Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank and Polly Hill Arboretum. The members of the Board of Friends of Sengekontacket were present in full force to provide direction and demonstrate by doing. The business community also played a role: many businesses displayed the Wanted posters and the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce distributed hundreds of flyers to its members to educate people that, in spite of surviving harsh weather, beach grass is vulnerable to human impact by being trampled. Stewardship is part of our beach experience: each of us must do our part to protect the beach grass.

As part of its ongoing management of the Joseph Sylvia State Beach, Dukes County contracted with the Woods Hole Group to develop the attached Beach Management Plan. The plan outlines ongoing activities necessary to maintain and sustain this significant barrier beach which protects Sengekontacket Pond. To see this report, follow this link.

To see a compilation of test results for fecal coliform (in graphic form) taken by the Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries at various locations around the pond since 1994 use this link.

Each year Friends of Sengekontacket Inc. provides financial support to the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Science Fair. FOS funds a special award for an outstanding water quality/conservation related project. In February 2008 at the 9th Annual Science Fair, the FOS award went to Sarah Johnson for her project entitled The Effect of Increased Oceanic Acidity on Snails’ Behavioral Responses to Crabs.

It is time for those of us who treasure Sengekontacket Pond as an emblem of our Island’s natural resources and our coastal landscape to take action. The Towns of Edgartown and Oak Bluffs have established a joint committee to address in a systemic way two critical challenges related to Sengekontacket Pond: the immediate bacterial contamination and closure to shell fishing and the more long term trend of degraded water quality. Friends of Sengekontacket Inc. believes that a pond management plan is essential to address these crises. But alone this is insufficient. A joint pond approach is needed to ensure cohesive and consistent implementation priorities as well as to ensure the long term sustainability of a health estuary – water, habitat and watershed.

The attached summary describes an initial understanding of the complex issues and key stakeholders and suggests an outline of possible short and long term next steps for Sengekontacket Pond.

In support of determining the causes of bacterial contamination of Sengekontacket Pond, FOS paid for special DNA testing of a limited number of samples from the pond, Eel Pond and Farm Pond. Funding for the first summer's testing (2007) was provided by the Town of Edgartown, a concerned Farm Pond resident and FOS. Funding for the Summer 2008 testing was paid for by the Town of Oak Bluffs and FOS. Testing for summer 2009 will be funded by an anonymous challenge grant and matching contributions from Waterview Farms residents. The Reports of the Laboratory Results can be viewed by selecting their respective links (2007 and 2008). FOS believes that any further testing should follow a more comprehensive protocol including additional sampling from various level of the water column and possibly from wrack and silt locations. Additionally more local samples are needed for comparison to eliminate incorrect identification of non-local species.

FOS has developed a list of Near Term Action Items to document possible sources of bacterial and other contamination on Sengekontacket Pond. It is hoped that the Joint Committee on Sengekontacket Pond will include these in the Committee’s immediate plans to address the contamination that is resulting in pond closures each summer.

For earlier reports on the health of Sengekontacket Pond see 1991 and 1995 studies by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution author Arthur Gaines. Select the links above to view the respective documents.

Please note that the "Report of the Laboratory Results", "Near Term Action Items" and the two WHOI reports above require Adobe Acrobat, a free program, to view. Click on the "Get Acrobat" button below to open the Adobe web site where the free viewer can be downloaded. The report can be printed or zoomed in on the screen for easier viewing.

2005-2006 Restoration of Eel Grass Meadows and Bay Scallop Habitat in Sengekontacket Pond

The Friends of Sengekontacket, Inc. (FOS) has been active in attempts to restore the bay scallop habitat in Sengekontacket Pond. Working with town officials and Bill Wilcox, Water Resource Planner Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), FOS has participated in a three part program of restoration, science and education. Eel grass, a species of sea grass, is both a keystone and an indicator species. Therefore, eel grass can be thought of as the “proverbial canary in the coal mine,” in that it is indicative of water quality. Eel grass is an essential element in the bay scallop habitat. And both scallops and eel grass have been disappearing from Sengekontacket and other estuaries on Cape Cod and the Islands. The last remaining eel grass meadow in Sengekontacket is a tiny patch at the end of Major’s Cove.

Restoration In 2004 and 2005 bags of seeds were suspended over sandy spots with a water depth of 1 to 2 meters. Our joint efforts to seed eel grass in the Pond in 2004 have not yet proven successful. We are now investigating new methods and improving the methodology and have applied for additional grants. In 2005, the Wilcox team made available a total of 80,000 eel grass seeds at 8 locations in the Pond. The 2005 seeds will not germinate until November 2005 to January 2006. Eel grass requires 20% ambient light for survival and prefers water one to two meters deep. A seeming contradiction is that clarity in Sengekontacket is good. The seeds all came from an eel grass meadow in Trapp’s Pond.

Science It is hoped that the acceptance of Sengekontacket in the Massachusetts Estuaries Program (MEP) will give us additional answers and direction. The MEP uses the nutrient values acceptable for continued growth of an eel grass meadow as a measure of estuary health.

Education To increase public awareness, and with funding from the Farm Neck Association and Vineyard Open Land Foundation, environmental educator and an FOS founder Christina Miller, designed a community outreach and education project. Throughout the summer, a large threefold exhibit about eel grass was displayed at the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown Libraries. On September 1, 2005, FOS sponsored a well attended public forum at Felix Neck on the restoration of eel grass meadows and the bay scallop habitat. Speakers included Phil Colarusso, Marine Biologist, US EPA, Charles Costello, Section Chief, MA DEP, Gus Ben David, Director of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, and William Wilcox, Water Resources Planner, MVC and moderator Christina Miller. Eel grass education will continue during the school year in the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown schools and MVRHS with FOS providing material for science teachers.

In the spring 2005 FOS will provide an after school program entitled Gently Down the Stream under YMCA's Creative Choices program. The focus of this class for elementary students is how land use affects our ponds and water. Through hands-on explanation children will explore the issues relevant to habitat protection and responsible land use. The final project is planting a native plant "rain garden" at the Oak Bluffs library.

Friends of Sengekontacket Inc. (FOS) in collaboration with the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club and supported by Going Native Nursery planted a children’s garden at the Oak Bluffs Library with plants that are native to the island. The public library is central to community life and a natural place to introduce children to concepts that they then share with adults in the family. This garden demonstrates how to landscape the "Vineyard" way. Part of a program to encourage the use of plants that do not require chemicals or excessive watering, the children’s garden is labeled to help children (and parents and any library visitor) to learn about one kind of land and water conservation practice. In July a children’s reading session at the Library with Kate Hancock, retired elementary school teacher, shared flower stories and colored native plant pictures, and included a tour of the garden.

The garden had the blessing of the town selectmen, the assistance of the Highway Department and was designed in conjunction with Mark Crossland, who has provided the gazebo and landscaping for the library. Garden Club members created the bed design and plant layout as well as the critical labor to dig and prepare the beds. Going Native Nursery recommended and provided the island native plant stock with details about habit and color. The project was funded by FOS with a generous grant from the Garden Club and contributions from the Nursery.

An assumption is that the gradual demise of our Pond is partially from development within the watershed. In 2004, FOS volunteers went door to door in the entire water shed and distributed a brochure on acceptable lawn practices and other runoff issues. This June we co-sponsored a seminar on “Planting with a Purpose” attended by over 60 people at the Oak Bluffs School. Speakers Matt Pelikan, writer, naturalist and Islands Program Manager for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Kris Henriksen, landscape designer and the manager, Native Plant Propagation Center, gave enthusiastic, practical and constructive advice on how plants and practices impact the quality of water and habitat for the whole Sengekontacket community. Matt Pelikan spoke about “The Land in the Landscape” to better understanding the island’s ecosystem – history of land formation, characteristics of the soil, and impacts on plant growth and pollination. In “Native Plants – in Wild Color” Kris depicted dozens of plant options native to the Vineyard, with the potential for ornamental use and which also grow readily under cultivation.

The Friends of Sengekontacket participated in the annual beach clean-up day on April 23 2005 by volunteering to pick-up trash on Joseph Silvia State Beach between the big and little bridges. FOS team leader Malcolm Reed said, “Our FOS sponsored team sent 25 bags of trash and other junk to the dump. It was a very successful day, and I want to say thank you to all the helpers.”

The Friends of Sengekontacket sponsors the annual student poster art contest to enlist the community’s awareness and help in maintaining the sensitive and otherwise pristine beach that borders our pond’s valued shellfish, bird and vegetation habitat.

Again this spring, the student’s poster art advocating “Carry In / Carry Out” of beach users' trash and treasures will show adults how to be environmentally conscious of the barrier beach that runs parallel to Sengekontacket Pond. David Faber and John Nelson, the science teachers at each school, integrate this project into environmental science units. Ray Ellis, famed Vineyard artist, and Paul Brissette, MVRHS Art Director, were again the contest judges to determine the top 40 posters which will mark the pedestrian pathways from the road to the State Beach.

The directors and advisors of FOS are active in the Island environmental community. As a group and as individuals, we contribute our support of environmental education and water quality projects, including the MV Water Alliance.

Cigarettes/cigarette filters	37,683
Food wrappers/containers	13,292
Caps and lids	11,194
Bags (plastic)	9,391
Beverage bottles (plastic)	5,588
Straws, stirrers	4,720
Cups, plates, forks, knives, spoons	4,594
Beverage cans	3,969
Beverage bottles (glass)	2,946
Balloons	1,990