Imagine sheep grazing at Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick, or goats and cattle browsing the greenery at Long Point Wildlife Refuge.

It’s not a long shot if farmers and conservation groups can manage land together, says David R. Foster, an ecologist and director of the Harvard Forest.

“This is a fabulous time for agriculture and there’s a wonderful opportunity for agriculture, land owners and conservationists to come together in a way that they haven’t previously,” Mr. Foster said in an interview at his home this week.

Here’s a hypothetical: you’re walking down the street, casually smoking a cigarette or drinking a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Now let’s assume that you don’t discard the derelict cigarette butt in an adjacent ashtray or bin as you assuredly always do, but flick it to the ground. Perhaps the coffee container to which you pressed your lips finds itself in a wastepaper basket, lying on the top of an office graveyard littered with post-it-notes, straws and the occasional phlegm-ridden tissue. Do you mind if someone picks up these relics?

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank reported revenues of $34,190 for the business week ending on Friday, July 12, 2013. The land bank receives its funds from a two per cent fee charged on many Vineyard real estate transactions.

The future is looking just a bit brighter. Cape Light Compact announced this week that more than 15,000 town-owned streetlights Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard will be replaced with LED lights. The change is part of the Cape Light Compact’s 2013-2015 Statewide Energy Efficiency Plan.

Dick Carlson of Oak Bluffs maintained his skeet shooting title by once again winning the Klays for Kids Charity Skeet Shoot, held Sunday, July 14 at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club. The annual event raised more than $250 for the club’s children’s projects.

An Edgartown woman has decided to euthanize her dog after he was involved in a fight with another dog earlier this month.

The Edgartown selectmen opened a vicious or nuisance dog hearing Monday about a fight involving Ann Wales’s dog, Tommy, a pit bull/hound cross and Damon Burke’s dog, Ramune, an American Staffordshire terrier.

On July 6 assistant animal control officer Jennifer Morgan said a call about a dog fight came through the communications center. A second call came that the situation was under control, she said, but she responded anyway.

Over the next few months Vineyarders can be on the lookout for some familiar seasonal residents: the monarch butterflies. The annual odyssey of the monarch butterfly has long delighted scientists and backyard naturalists. In early spring these delicate, diminutive creatures leave their overwintering site in south-central Mexico and make their way north.

Marilyn Horne has no plans to travel to Martha’s Vineyard this summer, but her influence and musical genius will arrive in the brain and muscle memory of mezzo Eve Gigliotti and producer Wendy Taucher.

Ms. Gigliotti and Ms. Taucher met with Ms. Horne, legendary American opera artist, for three sessions focused on developing the role of Isabella in Gioacchino Rossini’s L’italiana over the spring months. Ms. Gigliotti will star in a Wendy Taucher Dance Opera Theater production of a remix of L’italiana the first weekend of August.

On Thursday night at Alex’s Place at the YMCA, Jim Belushi received some startling news. He was not, in fact, the mother of Island teenager Della Burke. At least that was what the audience decided.
Mr. Belushi was performing with the IMPers, an Island-based, award-winning improv comedy troupe for teens and young adults. He and Miss Burke were playing a comedy game called Should Have Said. The game involved the two sitting in a car having a conversation.

With a central location in the private Meadow View Farms subdivision between County and Barnes Road in Oak Bluffs, this four-bedroom home is ideal for families. The property is well-suited for indoor/outdoor living, with a large lawn, gardens, a stone walkway and an outdoor shower on .78 acres of professionally-tended land. Family members will enjoy dining in an open living dining room, on a large outdoor deck, or in an adjacent screened-in porch overlooking the gardens. The modern kitchen includes stainless steel appliances.