Winter programs will begin immediately after New Year’s. Farmers-in-Training (F.I.T.) will begin on Friday, January 4th & the Saturday program will begin on January 5th! To keep us in the sunlight, TFI will offer two sessions on Saturdays in lieu of another after school program. There is so much to do inside & out – keeping your children active and engaged throughout the winter…Please note that it is extremely important for you to register your child BEFORE the holiday school break in order for us to prepare appropriately. You will find details below and can download a registration form. As always please feel free to contact our Enrichment Director Melinda Rabbitt DeFeo to register or if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Your feedback is vital to the growth of programs on The FARM!

http://www.farminstitute.org/newsletter/
enews/200712articles/200712winter.html

Melinda Rabbitt DeFeo
508.627.7007 x106
Office

Birding experts Susan B. “Soo” Whiting and Barbara Pesch have been looking at Vineyard birds together for more than 40 years. This month, they have authored an update of their classic Vineyard Birds, published 25 years ago and long out of print, with the publication of Vineyard Birds II: Where and What to See on Martha’s Vineyard.

The book, published by Vineyard Stories, has the most complete and up-to-date information on bird sightings on the Island, as compiled by the thousands of avid birders who share their sightings weekly. The book includes a foreword by Matt Pelikan, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Massachusetts Islands program and a dedicated birder. It is illustrated with drawings and photos by two other Island birders, Lanny McDowell and Karen Ogden.

The book is a guide to birds and their habitats on the Vineyard, a crucial area of knowledge for birders who know the Island as a wonderland for bird watching. Where and What to See on Martha’s Vineyard can be purchased in all Island bookstores. There will be an author signing at the Bunch of Grapes on Saturday, Dec. 22, 3-5 p.m. Contact Vineyard Stories at jwalter3337@yahoo.com, or 508-627-6598 for more information.

DISCUSSION PAPERS: A series of seven discussion papers has been released, summarizing the work to date and asking for feedback. To download them, please click on the titles in the column to the left.

http://www.islandplan.org/

The Gazette reported on Friday that two local fishing organizations, the MV Surfcasters and the MV Striped bass and Bluefish Derby committee have taken a position against the controversial, primarily commercial, fishing technique known as "yo-yoing". In letters to the State Department of Marine Fisheries, both organizations asked the state regulatory authorities to consider banning the practice, which involves jigging a baitfish, which has been rigged with metal rods and weights off the bottom. Although effective at catching fish, it often results in the entire bait assembly being broken off and ingested by striped bass. The result can be death of the fish due to the metal parts traveling through the fish's digestive system or potentially increased levels of lead in the tissues of the fish which then finds its' way to commercial markets.

See article in Gazette:
http://www.mvgazette.com/article.php?14648

Back-to-the-Tap Movement Gains Momentum

From San Francisco to New York to Paris, city governments, high-class restaurants, schools, and religious groups are ditching bottled water in favor of what comes out of the faucet. With people no longer content to pay 1,000 times as much for bottled water, a product no better than water from the tap, a backlash against bottled water is growing.

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/
2007/Update68.htm

YARMOUTH — As a coastal specialist for the county cooperative extension service and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jim O'Connell works with Cape municipalities on their erosion problems.

But, in the face of a persistent global warming trend with implications that rising sea levels and storm activity could wreak havoc on the Cape and Islands, O'Connell sees little municipal planning addressing the unsettling future.

http://capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20071205/NEWS/712050321

Block Island finds itself at the center of initiatives in both wave and wind energy that are meeting with mixed reactions from the state.

Governor Donald Carcieri is to announce the signing of an agreement between the state Office of Energy Resources, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and wave energy company Oceanlinx Limited to create two wave energy plants in Rhode Island coastal waters, including a pilot plant off Block Island that could reduce island electric rates.

http://www.blockislandtimes.com/articles/
2007/12/03/news/news3.txt