The last heath hen disappeared from Martha's Vineyard in 1932 and the species declared extinct in 1933.

The heath hen’s story of decline and extinction has become inextricably linked to Martha’s Vineyard.

The heath hen is at the center of a new effort and a new debate on the Island, as scientific advances have made de-extinction a possibility.

More than three months after the Vineyard Gazette formally asked for public records from the town of Tisbury relating to the Stop & Shop expansion proposal, the town has provided only a portion of what was requested.

He was remembered this week by friends and colleagues as a distinguished Italian scholar and a man who loved the sea, where he fished, swam and walked the beach. And he felt deeply rooted on the Vineyard, where he had been coming summers with his family for some half a century.

On Island to attend a screening of the documentary about him, Barney Frank speaks about his life as a gay congressman and married man, in a conversation with the Gazette at the Chilmark Community Center.

It’s hard to imagine what justification the town of Tisbury might claim for withholding minutes of selectmen’s meetings from the public. Yet more than a hundred days after the Gazette formally requested copies of minutes that mention Stop & Shop between the dates of January 1, 2014 and April 1, 2014, we have received neither the documents nor an explanation why they have not been released.

It may well be a quirk of the two Islands that the people who live there care so passionately about the names of their ferries. But they do, and following a vote by Steamship Authority governors on the Vineyard this week, the new freight ferry, which is yet to be built, will have a quarterboard made with the name Woods Hole. It marks the first time that a ferry will be named for a mainland place, and it’s a fine choice.

Four years ago this week, Menemsha harbor was a chaotic scene. Dark smoke from the west dock billowed out to sea and burning embers floated on the water. The wooden Coast Guard boathouse built in 1938 was completely consumed before the first fire truck arrived. A wooden pier and a wooden road leading to the boathouse, along with a truck and at least one boat, were also destroyed.

Chilmark offers some of the lowest rates on the Island for community events. But local groups ranging from the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society to the Rotary Club could soon find themselves needing to hold their events elsewhere.