Planning Grant for Program and Facility Enhancement for the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station

University Of Massachusetts Boston, Dorchester MA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Massachusetts Boston Nantucket Field Station has been awarded a planning grant to create a strategic plan to guide the field station for the next 5-10 years and expand the facility to better meet the burgeoning needs of current and anticipated field station users. The UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station (UMB-NFS) has been in existence for over 40 years and occupies a unique position for evaluating scientific questions ranging from the effect of climate change on coastal habitats to investigating genetic variability and evolutionary trends in invasive plant species. There is substantial demand for an enhanced field station at the UMB-NFS. Although a significant number of faculty from the UMass system and elsewhere have active research, education, and outreach programs at the UMB-NFS, the work is limited by the lack of sufficient living and laboratory space. Daily travel to and from UMB-NFS and other institutions is virtually impossible due to its location on Nantucket Island, 26 miles from the mainland. This limits the nature and quality of the research and education that can be accomplished and increases costs for all users. This funding by FSML will allow the NFS to develop architectural plans and comprehensive strategic planning for sustainable expansion while involving the science, education, and FSML community, as well as the long term users of the field station, in the planning effort through the use of surveys, site visits, and stakeholder workshops. The UMB-NFS is open to the public year round, with upwards of 100 visitors per day in the summer, and as a result there are many opportunities for outreach to the general public. Hosting public and private school groups, senior citizen trips, environmental policy forums, inner city science week retreats, and Native American Heritage programs are among many contributions made to the community by the NFS. The multidisciplinary nature of the programs supported by the UMB-NFS is reflected in the topics of courses taught on site, which run the gamut from coastal ecology to instructional design, hydrology, and archeology. The UMB-NFS is a home base for a wide range of research done by traditional and nontraditional students and by scientists. That research is transmitted to the public in a variety of ways. Land management research, environmental policy, and biology are cornerstones of this research, but for every two or three students, interns, or scientists accommodated, one is left out in the cold. Funding of this planning grant will ensure that the role of the NFS is supported and that the Station is allowed to grow in a sustainable and meaningful way.