Six university partners—including two from the University of Massachusetts system—have been selected for the third iteration of the Envision Resilience Challenge taking place in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts, this fall as students develop innovative solutions for coastal communities to adapt to sea level rise.

Anjelica S. Gallegos took part in ReMain Nantucket’s inaugural Envision Resilience Challenge and in 2022 we welcomed Anjelica back, this time as a juror. We got to learn more about Anjelica’s invaluable work in ensuring that Indigenous architectural knowledge gains recognition and gets upheld throughout the fields of architecture, planning and design and how those goals tied into her Envision Resilience project.

Envision advisor Dr. Sarah Treanor Bois explores the impact of our changing climate on Nantucket’s plant and animal life through a variety of projects in phenology, the study of nature’s cyclic and seasonal ongoings—particularly in relation to climate change.

Local Nantucketer Alfred Sanford spent 40 years working with the Old North Wharf in downtown Nantucket, as an owner and manager, proposing a restoration for it and helping in the rebuilding after the “No Name” storm in 1991. Publicity around the Wilkes Square project in the early 2000s showed the vulnerability of Nantucket Harbor and Town to contemporary ideas and styles, which inspired Alfred to envision a new harbor idea to demonstrate that we can hold on to what makes Nantucket special, while still adapting for the future.

While a majority of Nantucket gardens are based on homeowner’s aesthetic preferences and not always native, native plants are well adapted to local environmental conditions and they serve as a scaffolding from which entire ecosystems are built. And there are two female gardeners leading the movement. Leigh Marr, operator of Artemisia Gardening and Luci Imbach, Owner and operator of Island Harvest Vegetable Gardens spoke with Morgan about Nantucket landscape industry’s “ecological and edible renaissance.”