Guarding the Flanks of Conservation

By IAN FEIN

From her hilltop home in Seven Gates Farm in West Tisbury, Elizabeth (Tess) Bramhall can tell the month of the year by where the sun sets on the horizon.

"In December it goes down just to the left of the Gay Head Lighthouse, and we lose it for two weeks in June when it goes all the way north," she said, looking out over a panoramic view of Vineyard Sound.