The Vermont Public Service Board will be holding a public hearing on the proposed expansion of Vermont Gas facilities. Vermont Gas Systems Expansion Thursday evening, March 21, 2013 7:00 p.m  Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vermont At a time when climate change is upon us we must think carefully about putting in place new fossil fuel systems that will be around for a very long time. Keeping us hooked on fossil fuels for many years is a bad idea. The Board will be considering the proposed route, which runs through valuable wetlands and farmland. This is the beginning of a bigger project to supply gas across Lake Champlain to New York. It also moves Vermont closer to being able to access gas supplies from fracking, which is ongoing in New read more…

In the late 1980’s, more than 2.6 million alewives were counted at the head of tide on the St. Croix River.  That was, and remains, the largest run of this critical species in Maine and New England.  But politics and willful ignorance of the facts led to enactment of a law that closed off access to the upper St. Croix and reduced the numbers of alewives from 2.6 million to 900 by 2002.  It’s well past time to right this wrong, repeal the shortsighted and politically expedient law and restore alewives to the St. Croix. The law at issue requires the owner of the Grand Falls Dam to keep the fishway at the structure – which works perfectly well – closed during the Spring return of alewives to their native read more…

The rainbow smelt is a small anadromous (migrating from salt water to fresh water to spawn) fish that spends its winter in estuaries like Great Bay. Each spring, smelt head upstream to spawn and were once so plentiful that farmers caught them by the barrelful. They had enough to eat, use as bait and spread on their fields as fertilizer.  Starting in the 1800s, smelt supported thriving commercial and recreational fisheries throughout New England. Today, it would be difficult to fish for smelt and fill a single barrel. Catches have continued to drop off in New England since the 1980s even though commercial fishing no longer occurs.  And their range is shrinking. Smelt have disappeared from the southern end of their geographic range, which once extended to the Chesapeake Bay, read more…

Vermont has a key role to play in keeping tar sands oil where it belongs — in the ground. The increasingly imminent proposal to move tar sands oil from Canada through an existing pipeline in the Northeast Kingdom brings this issue very close to home. At town meetings across the state earlier this month, 29 Vermont communities passed resolutions opposing the transportation and use of tar sands oil. This was a clear message that Vermonters don’t want to be complicit in the next chapter on climate destruction. As with the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama can nix any proposal to bring tar sands through Vermont. Congressional members, including Vermont’s delegation, have called on the president to give any plan to bring tar sands through New England a searching environmental read more…

This week on Talking Fish, Sean Cosgrove responds to Saving Seafood's argument that trawling benefits ocean ecosystems; Fish Talk in the News checks in on the Maine shrimp fishery, Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization hearings, and committee discussion of anti-consolidation measures for the New England groundfish fleet. read more..

From California to Craigsville Beach on Cape Cod, nearly twelve hundred people joined together over the past week to voice their support for Cape Wind’s clean, renewable energy and to oppose the ongoing delays depriving our country of its first offshore wind project. Their comments were directed at the Department of Energy (DOE), which was seeking the public’s input as the agency considers a federal loan guarantee for Cape Wind. The immediate issue before DOE is whether to accept the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement in its consideration of the loan. The rigorous environmental review has been deemed more than adequate by the country’s leading national, regional and local environmental organizations, including Greenpeace, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Mass Audubon, Conservation Law Foundation and read more…

I’ll be honest with you – I tend to stay on top of the water when I’m in the ocean. Or, I try, anyway. As a surfer the goal is to spend as little time underwater as possible. Especially in the winter. But I’m starting to think I’m missing out on something by avoiding the chilly depths of our Gulf of Maine. The Boston Sea Rovers, one of the oldest underwater clubs in the nation, hosted its 59th annual show this past weekend, and I was lucky enough to be there with some fellow CLFers. We went to talk about the importance of preserving valuable habitat, like Cashes Ledge, for protecting our fragile ocean ecosystems and helping our dwindling groundfish stocks recover. We hoped that by showing people Brian Skerry’s read more…

Residents of Newmarket, New Hampshire went to the polls on Tuesday and sent a powerful message: that clean water is essential, and that we need to make needed investments to support it. Up for vote yesterday was a warrant article to fund the $14 million construction of a major upgrade to the town’s sewage treatment plant. The result? More than 80 percent of voters approved the measure, making Newmarket a leading community in the efforts to improve the health of the Great Bay estuary. Last December, Newmarket’s City Council voted unanimously to become the first New Hampshire Seacoast community to accept stringent reductions in nitrogen pollution from a sewage treatment plant. It has long been recognized that nitrogen from sewage treatment plants is a major, controllable source of the pollution read more…

A new interactive map released by USDA shows where the greatest challenges, and potentially the greatest opportunities, exist for the growing urban agriculture movement. In many communities across the country, availability of fresh food is low, or even non-existent. A grocery store may be several hours away on foot, leaving families with little to no access to fresh fruits and vegetables, or other elements of a healthy diet. These areas, known as “food deserts,” usually exist in low-income regions, and they will present stark challenge as we face climate change, an obesity epidemic, and a fragile economy. USDA’s map undoubtedly presents a sobering picture. However, it also provides a blueprint of opportunity. Areas lacking access to fresh food are exactly where inspiring urban farm initiatives are increasingly cropping up. Across read more…

All over Rhode Island, people want to keep backyard chickens. The trouble is that the law often doesn’t let them. Until 2010, Providence banned chicken-keeping entirely. That year, a coalition of residents worked together to overturn the ban. These efforts paid off – now, chickens peck away happily at sites ranging from Southside Community Land Trust’s almost-a-whole-block City Farm to my friends’ snug 1700-square-foot lot in the West End. After this success in Providence, other cities and towns looked more closely at allowing chickens. Swanky Barrington followed Providence. The City Council in Cranston, where I live, repealed the city’s chicken ban; unfortunately, though, our mayor vetoed the repeal so the ban remains on the books (for now). As spring approaches and our thoughts turn to our backyards, a city and read more…