The red pine plantations of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest have been described as recently as 1998 by this paper as a “pine cathedral,” with evenly spaced rows of the northern evergreen towering above a forest floor nearly barren except for a carpet of needles. Now that cathedral has been all but sacked by fungal barbarians known as diplodia pinea which infect the trees from the shoots and rot them to the core.

A blast reverberated around the Island on Wednesday night as an off-Island team of Naval explosives experts detonated five potentially dangerous World War II-era bombs on the beach near Quansoo in West Tisbury.

On Wednesday morning a couple walking the beach near the cut between Tisbury Great Pond and the Atlantic Ocean discovered a suspicious object in the water and contacted the police.

The All-Island School Committee approved a $3.85 million 2012 shared services budget for Vineyard schools presented by superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss last Thursday.

The budget is up 7.65 per cent over last year, mainly due to three new programs. The superintendent’s office will expand the Bridge Program for children with autism, add an at-large physical therapist and expand the summer school program.

After months of discussion, the Edgartown library building committee has selected its current North Water street location as the site for expansion.

The committee had been considering either the current Carnegie building or the old Edgartown School as two possible sites for the new library. The preliminary structural report for both buildings came back favorably, but a new building code that came into effect at the end of September found the old school unsuitable for use as a library.

With a potentially generous state grant on the line, the West Tisbury Library trustees are gearing up for a grant application this winter to help underwrite an ambitious plan that would see doors to a dramatically expanded library open early in 2014.

The perceived decline in striped bass stocks was underscored by a report out of Maryland last month that shows fewer young fish than last year in Chesapeake Bay, the place where stripers spawn.

The annual young-of-the-year index for striped bass released by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is 5.6, well below the average of 11.6. Last year, the index was 7.87; in 2008 it fell to 3.20. In 2007 the index was 13.39.

The young-of-the-year index is considered a barometer on the health of striped bass, which spawn in the spring each year.

After the most intense contest in memory at a county election, Dukes County sheriff Mike McCormack was back in his office yesterday, but offering the prospect of some changes in response to the criticisms of his two challengers.

As it turned out, Mr. McCormack won re-election reasonably comfortably in Tuesday’s election, receiving 4,509 votes across the six Island towns, compared with 3,251 for his main challenger, former state police Sgt. Neal Maciel. The third candidate, former Oak Bluffs Det. Warren Gosson, garnered 405 votes.

The Edgartown selectmen are threatening to withdraw from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission amid ongoing complaints about whether the town is paying more than its fair share of the commission’s annual budget.

After several years and tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs, Tisbury has finally resolved its problem with the three poultry-killing huskies belonging to the Garde family. The dogs have been exported to Edgartown.

But the story did not end without more brinkmanship and controversy: a last-minute aversion of a court proceeding, concerns among the dogs’ new neighbors and some claims that Tisbury had dumped its problem elsewhere.

Help Homeless Animals

Kym Cyr, who runs the Helping Homeless Animals shelter in Oak Bluffs, has a critical need for people to adopt cats. The summer season has left the shelter full of cats and dogs in desperate need of a home. Call Kym at 508-221-6931 for more information and directions to the shelter on June avenue.

Volunteers are also needed.