 |
||||||||
| This week in conservation May 12-18, 2008 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Calendar | ||||||||
| Energy Efficiency Overlay | ||||||||
|
||||||||
| Marybeth Campbell will speak at the MVEEA meeting | ||||||||
| Tues, May 13, Marybeth Campbell will speak at the MVEEA meeting Marybeth Campbell, Public Education Manager for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Renewable Energy Trust, will speak from 3:30-5:00pm at Felix Neck Wildlife Center. Ms. Campbell oversees the K-12 and Public Awareness Initiatives, which fund education and community outreach to increase awareness about renewable energy. She is also currently researching biomass to identify opportunities for biomass in Massachusetts. All are welcome. | ||||||||
| Aquinnah Annual Town Meeting | ||||||||
| Tues, May 14, Aquinnah Annual Town Meeting Aquinnah Annual Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the town hall. | ||||||||
| Community-owned wind power facilities | ||||||||
 Wed, May 14th, Community meeting in Falmouth to investigate possibilies for developing community-owned wind power facilities. 7:00 pm, at the Unitarian Universalist church in East Falmouth located at 840 Sandwich Road in East Falmouth. The meeting is co-sponsored by Self-Reliance and the congregation. At 6:30 pm, Megan Amsler will provide a brief introduction to wind power issues. Free admission, call (508) 457-0449 with questions |
||||||||
| Bird-a-thon 2008 | ||||||||
 Fri, May 16, Sat, May 17, Bird-a-thon 2008 (25 Years and Counting) Bird-a-thon is an annual fundraiser. It's like a walk-a-thon, but sponsors pledge an amount of money per species of bird seen by a team. It's conducted over a 24 hour period and takes place all over the state. We need you! (You don't need to be an expert birder.) You can help by: Becoming a member of our Bird Team, Being a part of our fundraising efforts, Making a pledge per species or donation Go to:www.massaudubon.org/birdathon to sign up. |
||||||||
| Chappy Haz-Mat | ||||||||
| Sat, May 17, A Chappaquiddick Island Association sponsored Chappy Haz-Mat at the community center from 7 to 9 a.m.. Chappaquiddickers can bring used motor oil ($1 / gallon), stale gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, oil paint (not latex), herbicides, insecticides, etc. | ||||||||
| Household Hazardous Waste day | ||||||||
| Sat, May 17, Household Hazardous Waste day, Edgartown Transfer Station, 9:00 –12:00 | ||||||||
| Alpaca Farm Open House | ||||||||
 Sat, May 17 & Sun, May 18, Alpaca Farm Open House: 11 am-5 pm, Island Alpaca Company, 1 Head of the Pond Rd., Oak Bluffs. Visit and learn about alpaca. Refreshments; donations welcome. Also Sun. 508-693-5554. |
||||||||
| Slow Food Potluck | ||||||||
 Sat, May 17, Slow Food Potluck 6:30 pm, Call for location. With wild food expert Russ Cohen. Bring a dish with a wild or local ingredient. 508-645-3820. |
||||||||
| Garden Lecture | ||||||||
 Sat, May 17, Garden Lecture 11 am, Vineyard Gardens, West Tisbury. Herbs. Weekly themes through July 19. 508-693-8511. |
||||||||
| “In a Vineyard Stream” | ||||||||
 Sun, May 18, “In a Vineyard Stream” Greg Whitmore, Ecologist for The Trustees of Reservations, will discuss aquatic biomonitoring, and the stream insects of Martha’s Vineyard. 1PM – 3PM Mary P. Wakeman Center, Shirley Ave. (Off Lambert’s Cove Road) Vineyard Haven Free. Pre-register at 693-7662x11. |
||||||||
| Beginner Knitting | ||||||||
| Sun, May 18, Beginner Knitting. 11 am to 2 pm, Learn the basics of knit and purl, read a pattern, and more. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. $25. Continues monthly: July 20, Aug. 17. | ||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Save The Date | ||||||||
| Kick the Habit: Chemical Free Lawns | ||||||||
 On Saturday, May 31st The Polly Hill Arboretum and The Vineyard Conservation Society welcome Paul Tukey, founder of SafeLawns.org, an international coalition promoting environmentally friendly lawn care, for a lively discussion on organic lawns. Perfect lawns are often treated with an arsenal of chemicals, but at what expense? Yours, your children’s, our environment’s? Based on his best-selling book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, Paul will offer great information on how you can kick the chemical habit and turn your lawn into an ecosystem teeming with life. Paul Tukey is the publisher of People, Places, & Plants magazine and well known to millions of Americans through his popular gardening program of the same name on HGTV. Together we can make a difference. Please join us on May 31 from 10am – 11:30am at the Polly Hill Arboretum. Cost is $10 per person. For more information call 508-693-9426. |
||||||||
| FREE TREE DAY | ||||||||
 Sheriff's Meadow Foundation Saturday, May 31, 2008 (Rain or Shine) 9:30 AM - 12 Noon Nat's Farm Meadow, Located on Old County Road 1/4 miles north of Scotchman's Bridge Lane. To help keep the meadow clear of encroaching trees we invite you to dig up small cedar trees (8"-36") and replant them in your own yards. Bring a bucket for your tree and dig it yourself. For further information, please call 508-693-5207 |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Announcement | ||||||||
| Garden Volunteers Needed |
||||||||
 Mass Audubon’s Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary Edgartown, Mass. Butterfly Garden Cleanup Community Work Days at Felix Neck Fridays, All spring & summer 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 508-627-4850 Garden volunteers needed weekly to work in our Butterfly Garden. Butterfly gardens can attract some of the most amazing butterflies found on Martha’s Vineyard, such as monarchs, red admirals and tiger swallowtails. We need extra hands to spend time working in our garden. Bring your gloves, favorite garden tools, mulch, or simply your hands! All are welcome to participate on one week or every week. |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Energy Update | ||||||||
| Uranium claims spring up along Grand Canyon rim |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Lawmakers fail to override coal plant veto |
||||||||
| TOPEKA | Opponents of two power plants proposed for western Kansas won a stunning victory Thursday that they hope signals the end of a six-month war over coal. http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/601775.html |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Climate Change Update | ||||||||
| Oxygen-poor ocean zones are growing |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| A Plea for Your Leadership |
||||||||
| A Letter to Governor Jim Gibbons from Dr. James Hansen, NASA Goddard institute and Columbia University Earth Institute Dear Governor Gibbons, I hope that I may communicate with you as a fellow parent and grandparent about a matter that will have great effects upon the lives of our loved ones. I refer to climate change, specifically global warming in response to human-made carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants. This topic has long remained in the background, but it is now poised to become a dominant national and international issue in years ahead. http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/ mailings/20080414_GovernorGibbons.pdf |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Wildlife Update | ||||||||
| Survey shows US honey bee deaths increased over last year |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Wind Update | ||||||||
| Deal reported on offshore wind farms |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
 Email Subscription InformationThe Almanac is provided as a public service by the Vineyard Conservation Society with the intent of providing quick and easy access to the Island's government process and environmental community. You are recieving this free email service because you have subscribed to the Vineyard Conservation Almanac. More information about island conservation issues, meetings and events can be viewed at http://almanac.vcsmv.org. If you do not wish to continue receiving these emails please click here to unsubscribe. Thank you for subscribing to the Almanac! |
||||||||
Have ideas for content for the Almanac? Please send them along to: |
||||||||
The multibillion-dollar campaign to clean up the Cape's coastal waters has stagnated for nearly a year as the state Department of Environmental Protection and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth battle over intellectual property rights to the data linked to the project.
Some of the nation’s largest oil companies have agreed to pay about $423 million in cash to settle a lawsuit brought by more than a hundred public water providers, claiming water contamination from a popular gasoline additive.
Mon, May 12, Energy Efficiency Overlay, at 7:00 PM at the MVC, Kate Warner, Director of the Vineyard Energy Project and Stephen Kanipe, Aspen, Colorado’s Building Inspector will present Vineyard Built, a proposed energy efficiency overlay to the MA Residential Building Code that they drafted together, modeled on a similar Code in place in Aspen since 1999. (The presentation will be repeated May 13th at 4:30 at the Howes House for the Island’s Planning Boards and other interested parties.) Funding for the grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the Draft Code overlay, could be applicable for the entire State of Mass.
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, ARIZ. -- Thanks to renewed interest in nuclear power, the United States is on the verge of a uranium mining boom, and nowhere is the hurry to stake claims more pronounced than in the districts flanking the Grand Canyon's storied sandstone cliffs. 
Oxygen-starved waters are expanding in the Pacific and Atlantic as ocean temperatures increase with global warming, threatening fisheries and other marine life, a study published today concludes. 
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.
BOSTON — The state would open ocean sanctuaries to "appropriate scaled" renewable energy development under a Statehouse deal that could allow a controversial wind farm in Buzzards Bay.