Nantucket Walkabout – Smooth Hummocks

Graded relatively flat by glacial meltwater running out over the coastal plain to the ocean 75 miles away when the landmass that would become Nantucket was nothing more than a wide, low ridge of sand, gravel and glacial erratics (boulders), Smooth Hummocks is Nantucket’s version of the Midwest’s prairies complete with rare wildflowers and grasses that thrive in sandy, nutrient-poor soil.

These so-called sandplain grasslands number less than 2,000 acres on the planet today and are protected as nesting habitat for Northern harriers, the short-eared owl, studied by botanists, entomologists, used by island students for their ecology coursework and managed with prescribed fire and brush-cutting by the Nantucket Islands Land Bank and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation for plant research and invasive species control. Smooth Hummocks is a fascinating island ecosystem with many things to teach us.