Nantucket Official Guide 2014-2015 | Page 42

©Wendy Mills

hidden forests, salt marshes, barrier beaches,
bogs, and pine barrens forming only a part
of the island’s unique terrain. From the
sweeping sandy arm of Great Point to the
aforementioned sandplain grasslands of the
south shore, Nantucket’s natural treasures are
both awe-inspiring and fragile.
Protecting our natural assets is a top
priority. In 1963, the Nantucket Conservation
Foundation was founded with the mission of
purchasing open space and wildlife habitat to
conserve. In 1974, the Nantucket Land Council
was founded to conduct the tedious and
sometimes controversial advocacy and legal
work required to research and clear titles, and
shield undeveloped land from dubious claims.
In 1983, Nantucketers took the initiative
to approve the Nantucket Islands Land Bank,
a concept that was the first of its kind in the
nation. This ground-breaking legislation
enabled the island to enter its own real estate
market by levying a two percent fee on most
real estate transactions, establishing a “bank”
of funds to purchase open space. The Land
Bank today oversees more than 2,900 acres
of open space, including the public, 18-hole
Miacomet Golf Course and 9-hole Old
‘Sconset Golf Course. Special emphasis is
devoted to preserving access to the island’s

40 • 2014 Official Guide to Nantucket

beaches. “Our focus is on key waterfront
parcels, to make certain the public will have
access to these areas,” Land Bank Executive
Director Eric Savetsky explains. Included in the
Land Bank’s holdings are “dozens of beaches,”
Savetsky notes, including the popular Cisco
Beach on the south shore.
Collectively, the island’s thousands of acres
of conservation land keep Nantucket looking
pristine and wild. “The island would have an
entirely different character if the combined
efforts of conservation groups hadn’t been
as successful as they have been,” Savetsky
continues. The broad stretches of open space,
he points out, would be replaced by something
more “fragmented” – pockets of land, and not
the wide, spectacular swaths that exist today.
He credits the early efforts of the Nantucket
Conservation Foundation and the Nantucket
Land Council for helping lead the way.
“The Nantucket Conservation Foundation,
having begun its work in the early 1960’s,
combined with the Nant ucket Land Council’s
legal work and public advocacy starting in the
early 1970’s, allowed vast tracts of land to
be preserved,” he notes. “Today, that would
be prohibitively expensive. These conservation
efforts helped shape the appearance of
Nantucket’s countryside.”
Today, the Nantucket Conservation
Foundation is the largest conservator of land
on the island, and holds over 29 percent of
the island’s total land area. But Foundation
Executive Director James Lentowski points out
that protecting Nantucket is truly a joint effort.
“The collaboration between public and private
agencies is something you don’t find in other
places,” he remarks.
The reason for this is that people continue
to realize how special Nantucket is. “Nantucket
has uncommon natural resources,” Lentowski
adds. “I don’t know if you’d find anywhere else
that looks like Nantucket.”
“And, perhaps most importantly,” he
continues, “Nantucketers appreciate what
they have. I think the ultimate testimony to the
character and natural beauty of Nantucket
shows up in every year-round Nantucketer
who, after being on the mainland for a time,
can’t wait to get home.”