The Control Point at Coskata: Barrier Beaches and Disturbance Conservation

Abstract

Nantucket’s barrier beaches are a culturally and ecologically significant landscape, threatened to disappear in the face of rising sea levels. Acknowledging how current conservation practices are not protecting from this threat, this thesis is an exploration of an alternative practice, discovered through local knowledge, that perpetuates the cultural activities and sacred ecology that supports them. This system of barrier beaches is supported by a disturbance regime, dependent on erosion and sediment deposition. This regime can be harnessed through the community’s cultural connection and land stewardship practices, proposing an opportunity for disturbance conservation. A new practice designed around the geomorphologic movements that support dune and ecosystem development at a rate which matches present rising sea levels. The three actions of Breach, Drop, and Plant, informed by their context and applied to a future regime, together design a new landform for the barrier beaches of Nantucket, while celebrating its historical use.