Vineyard Conservation Almanac

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In This Issue:

Local News:
From field to fork

Feature:
Losing Patience

Calendar:
Polly Hill Arboretum offers guided tours;
Explore the Shore family nature program;
Alpaca Farm Days;
More...

MVTV:
Lessons Learned: In Adopting Local Onsite Wastewater Management Programs

Climate Change Update:
The new dirty energy

Nuclear Energy Update:
Warm water in river causing reactor woes;
Tenn. nuclear fuel problems kept secret

Nature Update:
Size Matters: The Hidden Mathematics of Life

Water Update:
Shellfishermen Advocate Elimination of Pest Birds

LOCAL NEWS

From field to fork
By Necess Regis, Globe Correspondent
August 19, 2007
Boston Globe

Starring at many a dinner party: Home-grown Bok Choy, Mizuna greens, lamb, eggs poulty...

Hot summer day. Cloudless sapphire sky. Bumping down a sandy road in an open Jeep, sun beating down, dust rising in our wake, fields of green crops stretching to the horizon. The only sense I had of being on Martha's Vineyard was a salty edge to the breeze and the knowledge I had stepped off the ferry that morning. Otherwise, I found myself in the heart of a working farm, in another realm entirely from the celebrated beaches, shops, and restaurants on this island seven miles off the mainland.

http://www.boston.com/travel/
articles/2007/08/19/from_field_to_fork/

Feature

Losing Patience
August 21, 2007
Editorial

Dirk Kempthorne’s arrival in Washington as secretary of the interior raised hope among conservationists that he would moderate the Bush administration’s aggressive search for oil and gas in some of the country’s most environmentally sensitive lands. This has not happened. The Bureau of Land Management, which issues drilling leases and permits, seems to moving as recklessly as it did under Mr. Kempthorne’s predecessor, Gale Norton, and even the administration’s natural allies have finally had enough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/
opinion/21tue3.html?ex=1345348800&en=a964deec0505f551
&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Energy Tip
Is your kid getting fresh in the lunch line? We hope so - foodwise, anyway. Farm-to-school lunch programs deliver nutritious, locally grown food, and they're popping up everywhere, so help get your kid's chuckwagon on the farm-fresh bandwagon.

Eco-friendliness. A conventional carrot travels 1,838 miles from farm to cafeteria. Farm-to-school meat, dairy, and produce are often sourced from fewer than 100 miles away.
Healthier kids. Farm-to-school programs increase kids' fruit-'n'-veggie intake by 25%.
Helping local farmers. Farm-to-school programs provide a reliable source of income to local farms in need.
Making good dollars and sense. The USDA says healthier diets could prevent $71 billion in medical costs every year.

Calendar

Polly Hill Arboretum

Mon, Aug 27, 2007
Offers guided tours daily at 2 p.m. Suggested donation of $5 at 809 State Road in West Tisbury.

Explore the Shore family nature program

Wed, Aug 29, 2007
2 p.m. is free with admission to Long Point Wildlife Refuge. For details, call 508-693-7662.

Alpaca Farm Days

Fri, Aug 31, 2007
11 am-5 pm, Island Alpaca Company, 1 Head of the Pond Rd., Oak Bluffs. Visit and learn about alpaca. Also Sat.-Sun. 508-693-5554.

Marine Discovery Snorkel is for kids

Fri, Aug 31, 2007
For kids aged four to eight with a guardian to explore Cape Pogue Wildlife Refuge on Chappaquiddick with nets, masks and snorkels, on a first-come, first served basis between 2 and 3:30 p.m. Cost is $7 or $5 for Trustees members. For details, call 508-693-7662.

Gardening Class

Sun, Sept 2, 2007
1-3 pm, Native Earth Teaching Farm, 94 North Rd., Chilmark. Rebecca Gilbert, seed saving, preparing for next season. $15 per class. 508-645-3304.

Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary events for the week

Mon Aug 27, Guided Kayak Tour, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Join a naturalist on an exciting kayak adventure. Pre-registration required, please call (508) 627-4850.

Mon Aug 27, Down by the Shore, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Meet amazing creatures of the sea including crabs, whelks, and scallops!

Tues Aug 28, Creature Feature: Starfish, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
This program offers young naturalists a close-up look at native animals of Martha’s Vineyard.

Tues Aug 28, Kayak Quest, Between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm schedule your 2.5 hr Kayak Quest Enjoy Sengekontacket at your own pace on this self-guided tour.

Tues Aug 28, Paddle by Moonlight – Dog Days Moon, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
See Senekontacket pond in a new light, moon light, as we celebrate the different full moons of summer.

Wed Aug 29, Wild Wednesday, 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Come and meet the natives! Martha’s Vineyard has an exciting array of native wildlife; join us each week as we highlight a different island species.

Wed Aug 29, Guided Kayak Tour, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Join a naturalist on an exciting kayak adventure. Pre-registration required, please call (508) 627-4850.

Thurs Aug 30, Down by the Shore, 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Meet amazing creatures of the sea including crabs, whelks, and scallops!

Thurs Aug 30, Kayak Quest, Between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm schedule your 2.5 hr Kayak Quest Enjoy Sengekontacket at your own pace on this self-guided tour.

Fri Aug 31, Kayak Quest, Between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm schedule your 2.5 hr Kayak Quest
Enjoy Sengekontacket at your own pace on this self-guided tour.

Fri Aug 31, Family Canoe Trip, 9:00 am – 11:00 amTake a leisurely paddle through the coves and creeks of Sengekontacket Pond while searching for birds, fish, crabs and shells in Sengekontacket.

Sat Sept 1, Felix Neck Trek with Suzan Bellincampi, Sanctuary Director, 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Join us as we explore the forest, pond, field, marsh, and seashore habitats of Felix Neck.

MVTV

Tues, Aug 28 and Wed, Aug 29 at 6:30 PM on Channel 13

Lessons Learned:
In Adopting Local Onsite Wastewater Management Programs
The MV Water Alliance hosted Lorraine Joubert, Director of the University of Rhode Island Nonpoint Education of Municipal Offices, George Loomis, Director of the Onsite Training Center at URI and Bill Healey, Chairman of Block Island EPA Demonstration Grant Steering Committee, for an afternoon of insightful lessons they all learned while putting together various wastewater management plans in Rhode Island.

Climate Change Update

The new dirty energy
Boston Globe
August 19, 2007
Byline: Drake Bennettr

It's big, it's growing -- and it's bad for the environment. Inside the other alternative-energy movement.

FOR THOSE WHO dream that high oil prices will help drive America toward a brave new world of clean energy, the MacKay River project in Alberta, Canada, offers a glimpse of the future.

The complex is a showpiece of cutting-edge engineering, wresting energy from beneath a swath of boreal forest. Under an unobtrusive spread of buildings, holes drilled at oblique angles free unprocessed fuel from the earth with jets of steam.

http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/
reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=82283

Nuclear Energy Update

Warm water in river causing reactor woes
Saturday, August 18, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

One reactor at a north Alabama nuclear plant was idle yesterday and two others operated at reduced power because of the record-breaking heat wave, an outage that an industry watchdog said could be a sign of trouble for nuclear energy in a warming climate.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?
pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle
&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352417137

Tenn. nuclear fuel problems kept secret
Aug. 20, 2007
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD, Associated Press Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A three-year veil of secrecy in the name of national security was used to keep the public in the dark about the handling of highly enriched uranium at a nuclear fuel processing plant — including a leak that could have caused a deadly, uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

http://www.chron.com/disp/
story.mpl/ap/nation/5069029.html

Nature Update

Size Matters: The Hidden Mathematics of Life
Saturday, August 18, 2007
By Geoffrey West
Weekend Edition

Giant turtles, elephants and blue whales move through their lives with a slow grandeur that seems very different from littler creatures. Watch a hummingbird dart through a garden, or hold the smallest mammal, a little mouse-like shrew in your hand and you can feel it trembling with a feverish energy.

Compare an Elephant to a Teeny Shrew
Though big and little creatures look very different, below the surface there is a surprising unity. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=12877984

Water Update

Shellfishermen Advocate Elimination of Pest Birds
By JIM HICKEY
Vineyard Gazette

It is a familiar site in the Vineyard in the summer going back hundreds of years: shellfishermen at low tide in the mornings raking the sandy bottom of Sengekontacket Pond and filling wire bushel baskets with quahaugs.

But with the recent decision by the state Division of Marine Fisheries to close the pond to shellfishing for four months in the peak summer season because of high levels of dangerous bacteria, many say the Island has both lost a source of income and recreation, as well as a link to its past and seagoing heritage.

http://www.mvgazette.com/news/
2007/08/24/senge_shorefishermen.php

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