Concerned down-Island homeowners and some experts are reporting an unusual and troubling abundance of the ravenous creatures. If confirmed the Island’s trees face a cruel spring, but it appears that the damage, though severe, may be localized.

The Chilmark planning board this week took up the thorny subject of large houses, their impact on the environment and how to regulate them.

At a special meeting Wednesday afternoon that drew a small crowd, the planning board announced the formation of a large house working group charged with determining whether existing zoning bylaws should be changed to limit house sizes.

Planning board chairman Janet Weidner said it would be the first of many discussions.

Frustrated by policies that increase overfishing, a San Francisco-based environmental group filed suit in federal court last week against the National Marine Fisheries Service, charging that its most recent rule changes are allowing additional harvesting of bluefin tuna by expanding the fishing season.

The original posts and beams from the 1755 house sag with history. Bittersweet clings to the rafters of the 1850 barn. Milking stalls still stand from the 1950s, waiting for the cows to come home.

Tea Lane Farm has been many things in its more than 250-year history — a longtime dairy farm, once a vegetable farm and even host to a Revolutionary War contraband tea operation.

Now, with any luck the old farm off Middle Road in Chilmark will soon get another lease on life with a new tenant farmer.

Three months after abruptly shuttering operations on the Vineyard and laying off much of its staff nationwide, the lifestyle cable network Plum TV said this week it has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The Vineyard Gazette has named Joel Greenberg as managing editor, the newspaper’s publisher Jane Seagrave announced this week.

Mr. Greenberg comes to the Gazette after 20 years at The Los Angeles Times, where he served as science and medicine editor. For the last two years he has worked as a writer in the media relations office of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

A New Year’s Day fire caused severe damage to an Oak Bluffs home, with Oak Bluffs fire chief Peter Forend saying the home is likely “a total loss.” The cause of the fire at 17 Spruce avenue has yet to be determined.

The two-story home was “pretty well gutted out,” said Mr. Forend. “There wasn’t much we could do.”

Two renters were home at the time of the fire but escaped without injury, he said. The home is owned by Vineyard Haven residents Ronald Jackson Jr. and Rene Jackson.

Rep. Keating to Visit

U.S. Rep William R. Keating (D-Mass.) is scheduled to visit Martha’s Vineyard Monday for a series of tours and meetings.

The West Tisbury selectmen say they will need to call a special town meeting to secure additional funds for the roundabout lawsuit after preliminary attorney fees have quickly drained the town’s legal funds budget.

Prompted by by a 40 per cent drop in ridership and scheduling inconsistencies, beach officials said Tuesday they are considering eliminating the summer bus route connecting Chilmark inns to Lucy Vincent Beach.

Beach superintendent Martina Mastromonaco and beach committee chairman Kristen Maloney said at the Chilmark selectmen’s meeting that last summer’s schedule was the most difficult to manage in recent years.