From Cranberries to Coastal Connections

Click here to register for free; hosted on Zoom.

Join us for a fascinating ACONS (A Celebration of Nantucket Sound) webinar with guest speaker Karen C. Beattie, Vice President of Science and Stewardship at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, as she shares the remarkable transformation of the Windswept Bog on Nantucket. Once used for cranberry farming, this landscape is now being carefully restored into a thriving natural wetland—bringing back native plants, creating habitat for wildlife, and improving water quality. It’s a powerful example of how nature can rebound when given the chance.

Karen will take us behind the scenes of this large-scale restoration effort, from the science and planning to the exciting early results. We will learn how projects like this not only benefit local ecosystems, but also strengthen coastal resilience and help protect the waters connected to Nantucket Harbor and Nantucket Sound.

Whether you love nature, are curious about conservation, or just enjoy seeing positive environmental stories unfold, this is an inspiring look at how landscapes—and ecosystems—can be brought back to life.

A Q&A session will follow the presentation. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask Karen questions during the Q&A.

Karen C. Beattie is the Vice President of Science and Stewardship for the Nantucket Conservation Foundation (NCF), a private, non-profit land trust that owns, protects, and stewards over 9,014 acres of conservation land on Nantucket Island. She holds a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.S. degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Karen oversees the Restoration Ecology Program of NCF’s Department of Ecological Research, Stewardship and Restoration. NCF worked with the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration’s Cranberry Bog Program to implement a wetland restoration project at NCF’s Windswept Bog property, a formerly cultivated cranberry farm that was retired in 2017. Construction for this project wrapped up in late March of 2025 and post-restoration monitoring is ongoing.