Three 2-hour sessions of seed cleaning are scheduled to take place at the Hoft Farm Field Station located off of Lambert's Cove Rd. Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided. Seeds harvested throughout the season and stored in the Hoft Farm Field Station need the final step of cleaning by being taken out of their pods or scrapped off their stems in order to be ready for eventual propagation. This is a great opportunity for people to learn about native plants and help preserve the unique natural character of Martha’s Vineyard. Session times are: Thursday, Nov. 8 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13 from 9:00 to11:00 a.m., and Friday, Nov. 16 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Volunteers are also welcome by appointment during normal business hours. To sign up please contact Liz Loucks at the Conservancy’s Islands Office: eloucks@tnc.org or call 508-693-6287, ex. 15.

The proceedings from the Water Resources Forum are now available for review. Go to http://www.islandplan.org/doc.php/
Water_Forum_Proceedings_2007.pdf?id=1526
to read about the July 25th event.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise thanks to dirtier economies and a weakening in natural systems' ability to remove the greenhouse gas

The world may finally acknowledge that global warming is a major environmental hazard. But new research shows that reducing the main greenhouse gas behind it may be even more difficult than previously believed. The reason: the world's oceans and forests, which scientists were counting on to help hold off catastrophic rises in carbon dioxide, are already so full of CO2 that they are losing their ability to absorb this climate change culprit.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?
articleId=C92C3262-E7F2-99DF-30FA22A938862F9A&chanId=sa003

The most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, the lowly plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it.

Aug. 10, 2007 | OAKLAND, Calif. -- On a foggy Tuesday morning, kids out of school for summer break are learning to sail on the waters of Lake Merritt. A great egret hunts for fish, while dozens of cormorants perch, drying their wings. But we're not here to bird-watch or go boating. Twice a week volunteers with the Lake Merritt Institute gather on these shores of the nation's oldest national wildlife refuge to fish trash out of the water, and one of their prime targets is plastic bags. Armed with gloves and nets with long handles, like the kind you'd use to fish leaves out of a backyard swimming pool, we take to the shores to seek our watery prey.

http://www.salon.com/news/
feature/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment yesterday became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generating plant, saying that the greenhouse gas threatens public health and the environment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101802452.html

The federal government yesterday turned down a request by Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island to have the New England groundfish fishery declared a fisheries disaster. Groundfish includes species like cod, haddock and flounder that have been at the heart of New England fishing for nearly 400 years.

http://capecodonline.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071023/NEWS/710230310