 |
||||||||
| This week in conservation June 9-15, 2008 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Calendar | ||||||||
| DAILY NATURAL HISTORY TOURS | ||||||||
|
||||||||
| Kayak Quest of Sengekontacket | ||||||||
 Mon, June 9, Kayak Quest of Sengekontacket, a self-guided tour with kayaks, paddles, lifejackets and Quest materials included. Reserve a time with Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown at 508-627-4850. |
||||||||
| Great Goldfish Release | ||||||||
 Tues, July 10 Great Goldfish Release, Mytol, Chappaquiddick, 3:30 – 4:30PM Bring the family for goldfish games, goldfish puzzles, and, of course, the great goldfish release! FREE. 508.627.3599 |
||||||||
| Observing and Drawing the Landscape | ||||||||
 Wed, June 11, Observing and Drawing the Landscape, The Polly Hill Arboretum 1-4pm Diane Nicholls, painter, illustrator, and landscape historian, returns to PHA with her popular workshop series. Participants will learn art techniques to record observations of the natural landscape. Drawing lessons will include perspective, sketching, and developing a “personal shorthand.” Diane will also present methods for keeping a daily sketchbook. Each class can stand on its own, or, taken as a series, the sessions augment each other. Please bring the following: 11”x 17” newsprint pad, a small (6”x 8”) sketch book, pens and drawing pencils. $36/$30 for PHA members per class. $130/$108 for the entire series. Please register in advance. 508-693-9426. |
||||||||
| Falmouth Academy Community Series Presents | ||||||||
| Wed, June 11, Falmouth Academy Community Series Presents, Living Spaces, A Sustainable Approach to Architecture, 7 p.m. A lecture by Stefan Behnisch who has been an advocate of sustainable design for decades. His firm, Behnisch Architekten (of Stuttgart, Boston and Los Angeles) is renowned for innovative sustainable buildings, such as the Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Mass., and Harvard’s new Allston Science Complex. Falmouth Academy, 7, Highfield Drive, Falmouth 508-457-9696, The Falmouth Academy Community. Series is sponsored in part by the Falmouth Cultural Council, The Woods Hole Foundation. Admission is free. The public is welcome. | ||||||||
| A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard | ||||||||
| Thurs, June 12, A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard, The Polly Hill Arboretum 5 – 7pm A book launching party! Join gardening expert and author C.L. Fornari for the debut of her new book, A Garden Lover’s Martha’s Vineyard. Fornari’s full-color book features tours of Island gardens—large and small and in-between—from formal layouts in Edgartown to Victorian–inspired gardens in Oak Bluffs to casual up-Island gardens. Of course the Polly Hill Arboretum is a featured stop! Fornari’s book also contains, gardening solutions and resources, instructive sidebars, and wonderful photographs. Enjoy wine and cheese at this book-signing reception. No Fee. |
||||||||
| Birds of Martha's Vineyard (West Tisbury) | ||||||||
 Fri, June 13, Birds of Martha's Vineyard (West Tisbury), The Nature Conservancy, 8:00-10:30am Discover the magnificent birds that stop at Martha's Vineyard each spring on an early morning walk with islands Program Director Matt Pelikan. We will enjoy a light breakfast of coffee and scones after the walk. Please bring a hat, sunscreen, water and binoculars and wear comfortable shoes. Call 508-693-6287 for location. |
||||||||
| Gardener's Swap | ||||||||
 Fri, June 13, Gardener's Swap begins at 1:30 p.m. at Edgartown Council on Aging at 10 Daggett street in Edgartown. Split or repot your houseplants and clippings; save seeds, seedlings; gather extra gardening gloves, watering cans or tools to exchange with others. Please call to register and indicate what you are bringing: 508-627-4368. |
||||||||
| New England Stone Walls | ||||||||
 Sat, June 14, New England Stone Walls, The Polly Hill Arboretum 10am – noon From rugged coastline, granite ledges, and lichen-covered glacial boulders to the signature stone walls that ribbon our forests and fields, the New England landscape is defined by stone. Join Robert Thorson, professor of geology at the University of Connecticut, for a closer look at the cultural and environmental history of stone walls. After an illustrated talk he will lead the group on a tour to explore the stone walls on Arboretum grounds and the adjoining property of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum (MVM). Thorson’s book, Stone by Stone: the Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls, will be available.$24/$20 for PHA and MVM members. Co-sponsored by the MVM. |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| MVTV | ||||||||
| Drip Dispersal System | ||||||||
 Drip Dispersal System, an innovative wastewater product, presented by Dan Ottenheimer, President of Oakson, Inc., to the Martha’s Vineyard Water Alliance. Channel 13 on Tues, June 10 at 7:30 PM and Wed. June 11, at 9:00 PM |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Announcement | ||||||||
| Call for Volunteers | ||||||||
 June is upon us, and Whippoorwill Farm is preparing for its first harvest! Please help the CSA spruce up the farm stand for our opening in mid-June.Two Volunteer Days at Whippoorwill Farm Saturday, June 7th and Saturday, June 14th 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Contact: Joy Ganapol, jganapol@comcast.net Projects will include general clean-up, planting flowers in the front bed (next to the parking lot), building benches, repairing fences, preparing one walk-in cooler for relocation and moving it, and planting seedlings into the fields. Please bring tools needed for your anticipated project: carpentry tools (hammers, skill saw), gloves, rakes, hand trowels. We have shovels. Wear hats and sunscreen (and hope for sun). Kids are welcome. Thank you for helping us make our CSA, your CSA. We look forward to seeing you at the farm! Andrew Woodruff Whippoorwill Farm CSA |
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Climate Change Update | ||||||||
| Industries Allied to Cap Carbon Differ on the Details |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Health Update | ||||||||
| Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| back to top | ||||||||
| Sustainable Update | ||||||||
| Vineyard Conservation Society and Polly Hill -Organic Lawns Program a success! |
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Beware the Phrase ‘Organic-Based’ |
||||||||
| As I’ve traveled around the nation to talk about our new nonprofit organization, SafeLawns.org, I’ve sensed a tremendous amount of confusion about organic products. “What’s really organic, and what isn’t?” people ask. A press release on April 6 from the Organic Trade Association confirmed the uncertainty. http://safelawns.org/articles/ Beware-the-phrase-ORGANIC-BASED.cfm |
||||||||
| Green cleaner cuts grease, and costs |
||||||||
| Woburn company's nontoxic solution is popular with hotels Electrolyzer Corp. practices a modern version of alchemy. But instead of changing lead into gold, the Woburn company turns a mixture of salt and tap water into cleaning solutions tough enough to cut restaurant grease and leave hotel bathrooms sparkling. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/ 2008/06/03/green_cleaner_cuts_grease_and_costs/ |
||||||||
| 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: |
||||||||
Locally raised shellfish could join the famously abundant array of seafood products available at Martha's Vineyard, if an innovative aquaculture venture is successful. 
Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs. The drilling of millions of irrigation wells has pushed water withdrawals beyond recharge rates, in effect leading to groundwater mining. The failure of governments to limit pumping to the sustainable yield of aquifers means that water tables are now falling in countries that contain more than half the world’s people, including the big three grain producers—China, India, and the United States. 
Some of the most powerful corporate leaders in America have been meeting regularly with leading environmental groups in a conference room in downtown Washington for over two years to work on proposals for a national policy to limit carbon emissions.
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t? Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.” 
On Friday May 30th and Saturday May 31st Vineyarders came out to hear Paul Tukey, founder of SafeLawns.org, talk about organic lawn care in the Far Barn at Polly Hill. The goal of this talk was to educate and encourage landscapers and the general public to replace toxic lawn fertilizers and weed killers with nutrient-rich organics and compost.