The Vineyard Conservation Society announces the winners of its annual Art of Conservation student competition.
The dire forecast for the future of the Vineyard environment, signed onto by the Island's major conservation groups 10 years ago this week, was wrong. Dramatically, happily wrong.
Among other things, the 1997 white paper predicted the Vineyard would be built out within eight years, and that only a little over 25 per cent of Island land would be protected by 2005. History has proven these figures to be way off the mark.
Not Too Many Fish in the Sea to Count
By KATE BRANNEN
The Vineyard Conservation Society met Thursday for its annual
meeting and to hear about the Marine Life Census, an ambitious and
inspiring global project that is attempting to catalogue and identify
every life form in the planet's oceans.
The census puts Vineyard conservation efforts into a global context
where scientists around the world are racing to protect marine life.
Anniversary: Conservation Is Crux of Mission Across 40 Years
By IAN FEIN
Forty years ago a group of Island residents formed the Vineyard
Conservation Society to fend off a development threat in the
Lobsterville moors of Aquinnah. The group convinced the state to put a
limited access designation on West Basin Road, effectively prohibiting
any future subdivision or development in the area and preserving the
untouched strip of land that runs along the northern edge of Menemsha
Pond today.
The Vineyard could see as many as 7,032 more homes on its 17,475
remaining acres of developable land, officials from the state Executive
Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) said at an Island forum held
Thursday night.
"That's a relatively short time frame to be faced with
some tough choices," said Christian Jacqz, director of
Massachusetts Geographic Information System, in a presentation to Island
officials at the Howes House in West Tisbury.
At a joint meeting held this week in Aquinnah, the board of selectmen and conservation commission unanimously endorsed two conservation restrictions along Moshup Trail. The gift of the restrictions -- called CRs -- was held up several weeks ago as selectmen inquired into the relative benefits to be gained from them.
The day was cold and clear at the old John Hoft Farm. Pale grasses danced in the wind buffeting the pasture, and nearby ponds were alive with wavelets. Gathered by the farmhouse were more than two dozen Islanders, walkers ready for a tour of this historic property off Lambert’s Cove Road.
