Elizabeth Islands

The south coast is in a level one drought.

And there are normal conditions or no drought on Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands.

In other parts of the state, the task force did raise the drought level in the northeast region, so around the north shore from level one to a level two drought.

And the Connecticut River Valley was downgraded from level one drought back to normal conditions.

866-999-4626 is our number.

Our email address, thepointatcapeandislands.org. We have something described as coastal beach forests, and they can be seen on the Elizabeth Islands, which run southwest from Woods Hole and on Long Island, New York.

Jim, describe these coastal beach forests and why they're found particularly in these locations.

Yeah, so beech is what we call a climax species.

And I saw several stands of beach that were in really bad shape.

They were in such bad shape that my colleague and I just kind of stopped and And just kind of took it in because it was a lot to take in given the widespread decline that we saw in those spots.

Yeah, I would say our coastal beach forests here on the Cape and Islands are particularly vulnerable because that condition we talked about where essentially some of our stands are almost pure beach.

So you get every nematode that floats is hitting another susceptible species.

It's a really interesting island.

It's the end of an island string, the Elizabeth Islands, off of Falmouth on Cape Cod between Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay.

And Cuddyhunk has the lighthouse structure.

isn't there anymore, but it was a really fascinating history there.