Sat, June 16, 2007, 2007, 7 am - 5 pm
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation at Cedar Tree Neck Wildlife Sanctuary
The islands first ever “bioblitz”. Have you ever seen a starflower or a wild geranium? Heard the flutelike song of a wood thrush or seen a brilliant red scarlet tanager? Join Sheriff's Meadow staff and Island naturalists as we search for these and 150 other species. The event is free and open to the public. No specialized knowledge is required to participate and children and adults are invited to join us for an hour or the whole day, depending on interest and stamina. We will begin with live trapping of moths and other rarely seen nocturnal insects at 7 am, look and listen for birds from 8 to 9:30 am and spend the remainder of the day identifying plants, reptiles and amphibians.

Directions for Cedar Tree Neck: Follow Indian Hill Road from State Road 1.3 miles. Turn right at Obed Daggett Road (top of hill). Follow sanctuary signs 1 mile down the dirt road to the end.

For additional information, call the Sheriff's Meadow Foundation office at 508-693-5207

Every Vineyarder is invited to fill out a survey about his or her neighborhood. The Island Plan Steering Committee launched the Neighborhood Survey in order to identify the Island's neighborhoods, their characteristics, and the challenges they face.

People can fill out the survey on-line by going to the Island Plan website - www.islandplan.org - and following the links, or by getting a paper copy of the survey at their local library or from the MVC (508-693-3453).

With the help of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and our Department of Public Works, the Town of Tisbury is installing a Meteorological Data Tower (Met Tower) at the town’s former septage lagoons not far from the town landfill.

Work is expected to start on Monday, June 11 and by Wednesday it should be up and running. Go to the Wind section for the rest of the article

WESTPORT -- On Sunday , Andrew Orr will graduate from Westport High School. But he isn't thinking of exams, parties, or college.

This is how Orr, Westport's youngest farmer, spent his last weekend of high school: planting corn and worrying about his strawberry crop. While his classmates apply for college loans, Orr just financed his first tractor for $20,000.

The 13-acre field where the lanky 18-year-old is planting is treasured by the town as part of its rural landscape. When the farmland was put up for sale last year and developers began circling, Westport residents helped raise $1 million so a land trust could buy it.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/
articles/2007/06/07/teen_grasps_an_old_farms_future/

For Rachel Carson admirers, it has not been a silent spring. They’ve been celebrating the centennial of her birthday with paeans to her saintliness. A new generation is reading her book in school — and mostly learning the wrong lesson from it.

If students are going to read “Silent Spring” in science classes, I wish it were paired with another work from that same year, 1962, titled “Chemicals and Pests.” It was a review of “Silent Spring” in the journal Science written by I. L. Baldwin, a professor of agricultural bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/
science/earth/05tier.html?th&emc=th