Nantucket natural resources director outlines department priorities and new sustainability initiative

Jeff Carlson, director of the Town of Nantucket Natural Resources Department, gave a brief overview of the office’s location, staff and core work, and said the department will develop a town sustainability program.

Carlson said the department’s offices are at 131 Pleasant Street, "which is also known as the old fire department," and that the department also operates at Brandt Point at the Brandt Point Shellfish Hatchery. "Natural resources are at the core of what defines Nantucket Island," he said, singling out healthy waters, conserved land, protected resources and Nantucket's fisheries as key to the island’s quality of life.

The department is organized into three divisions — climate and resiliency; shellfish and aquatic resources; and a regulatory division — and "10 full time staff oversee the work of the divisions, supplemented by seasonal interns and deputy regulatory officers," Carlson said. He listed the department’s principal activities as implementing water quality and coastal resiliency plans; monitoring shellfish populations and habitats in Nantucket and Madcap Harbor; monitoring and enhancing eelgrass; conducting shellfish propagation and operating a shell recycling program; and managing and monitoring federally and state protected beach‑nesting species and evaluating beach habitats.

Carlson also said staff monitor erosion across Nantucket Island and for harmful algal blooms, and that the Natural Resources Department provides administrative support to the Conservation Commission. He described an internal staffing practice of cross‑training employees "to cover one another for hatchery work, sampling, and other field work so that the dynamic nature of our work with living plants and animals can take place when it needs to occur."

On future work, Carlson announced "one of our new initiatives is also developing the town sustainability program," without giving a timetable or funding details in this briefing.

He closed by outlining the department’s guiding vision: "to preserve, protect, or restore Nantucket's natural resources in a sustainable and resilient manner through responsible active management, research, regulation enforcement, collaboration, education, and outreach."