One of a number of such habitats in isolated locations from Maine to New Jersey, the reservation's landscape and geography were formed by ancient outwash deposits from glacial till.
The free-draining, acidic, dry, and sandy soil sustains coastal heathlands, oak and pitch pine woodlands, and sandplain grasslands.
[1][3] Wasque is home to such species as beach plum, bearberry, blackberry, black huckleberry, blue toadflax, bluets, chokeberry, dwarf cinquefoil, golden heather, late lowbush blueberry, Nantucket shadbush, rockrose, and yellow stargrass.
[7] These areas are "globally rare communities"[1] and only maintained through relatively intensive land management that includes domesticated animals grazing the grass, mechanical mowing and clearing of vegetation, and even controlled burning.
"Chappaquiddick-by-the-Sea," one failed concept for land development, would have included a grid of 750 quarter-acre parcels, broad avenues, public parks, and yacht facilities.
Martha's Vineyard is a short Steamship Authority ferry ride from mainland Cape Cod, out of Falmouth or Woods Hole.