Berman Named Chatham’s Natural Resources Director

CHATHAM – Greg Berman, a scientist with extensive experience studying the region’s coastline, has been hired as the town’s new director of natural resources.

He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Robert Duncanson earlier this year and will oversee the coastal resources, conservation, harbormaster, health, shellfish and water quality laboratory departments.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to work with the town,” Berman said on Monday, his first day on the job. “Everybody’s been wonderful and accepting.”

Town Manager Jill Goldsmith introduced Berman to the select board at its Tuesday meeting.

“We were very fortunate to receive high interest in the position and received candidacy submissions from a large number of highly qualified experts in the natural resources field,” Goldsmith said in an email.

“Greg, as a long standing collaborator and resource to our town and the Cape’s coastal community, impressed our interview panel with his academic and project management background, extensive experience in the areas of coastal resiliency, coastal processes and direct involvement in local shellfish, conservation and coastal resources initiatives locally, including partnering in endeavors with our staff in those divisions here in Chatham,” she wrote.

For the past 14 years, Berman has been a coastal processes specialist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Sea Grant program and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, most recently working on coastal resilience and climate change issues. At a recent climate change forum at the community center, he presented preliminary data in a climate adaptation study for the Pleasant Bay Alliance.

His skill set, including his recent work on erosion and climate change, dovetails well with the new position, Berman said.

“The town of Chatham is an absolutely beautiful town, and as a coastal geologist with my background, it speaks to my fascination with moving sand,” he said. “It’s beautiful but can cause a lot of challenges.”

Berman’s experience includes working for the US Geologic Survey and in federal jobs in Florida and Hawaii. He also managed waterfront environmental projects for a private Rhode Island firm.

In recent years he has provided technical assistance to communities across the Cape on issues such as coastal bank stabilization, erosion control, revetment construction and dune restoration, Goldsmith wrote in a memo to the select board. He’s made more than 200 presentations and published more than 30 papers, as well as collaborating with regional, state and federal agencies. In his role at the Sea Grant program, Berman was involved in financing, budgeting and procurement as well as strategic planning and grant applications, according to Goldsmith. Since 2021, he helped the Pleasant Bay Alliance secure three grants worth more than $500,000.

Berman said he was impressed that Chatham “really puts its money where its mouth is” in its sewer, climate adaptation and watershed management programs.

A Bourne resident, Berman said he will be looking into “what was on Bob’s plate” and work with others who had stepped in to work on issues while the position was vacant.

He said he anticipates remaining involved in some of the climate projects he’s worked on, especially the Pleasant Bay Alliance’s living shoreline pilot program centered on Jackknife Harbor.

“It’s certainly within my interest and probably still in my wheelhouse in this position,” he said.