Newsletters

March 2018 - St. Vincent's Farm, Bike Trail

WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES! MARCH, 2018    “Mother of us all  Place of our birth  How can we stand aside  And watch the rape of the world    This the beginning of the end  This the most heinous of crimes  This the deadliest of sins  The greatest violation of all time    Mother of us all  Place of our birth  We all are witness To the rape of the world “   -Rape of the World Tracy Chapman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPrGB-1lYkg     FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES – Like the 6th floor at Fall River's Government Center This is what happens when your community has a young mayor who thinks he's the smartest man in town, fails to know his limitations, and rewards his close friends with plum jobs and gives major campaign contributors whatever they want.   Saint Vincent's Farm hayfield sheltered bobolinks and other vanishing bird species. The milkweed growing along its edges produced dozens of the increasingly imperiled monarch butterfly. It won't be doing this anymore. The farm should have been part of a wonderful Urban Farming Program. Check out the back story here:http://www.greenfutures.org/?content=sgCnCw2BMo0B8DLw  Yes, actually not the same as the old mayor  ...worse than the old mayor.    Ripping apart Mother Earth. Some day we'll regret destroying our prime farmland.     EAT A PANCAKE – Save the trail Who said, “You can't fight city hall?” Not the Alliance to Save the Trail! Of course you can fight city hall, especially if it is as poorly led as is the one in our home town.  The fight continues, however the Alliance to Save the Trail is running low on ammunition. To acquire more and crush the evil forces arrayed against them the Alliance is holding a pancake breakfast fundraiser on March 24, 2018.  Please consider joining the Alliance at Applebee's Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 311 Plymouth Avenue, Fall River, Massachusetts on March 24, Sunday, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. $12.00 per ticket. For tickets call 508-673-2939.  Jump into battle. Eat a pancake ...help Save the Alfred J. Lima Quequechan River Rail Trail.     DO THEY RIDE BIKES? - Apparently not! For if they did, they would realize you don't ride a street bike, road bike, city bike on rough and unpaved trails over varying terrain. Unless, of course, you want to wreck your bike.  Hopefully some of the members of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance have actually biked the Blackstone River Bikeway, East Bay Bike Trail, Phoenix Bike Trail, Cape Cod Rail Trail, Woonasquatucket River Greenway Bike Path, etc. and come to their senses and realize they are wasting time, money and effort on a trail or trails meandering through the Bioreserve. As we've stated before, we support the transportation intermodal trail between Providence, Rhode Island and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Let's work together and get it done. Background here from our January 2018 Newsletter: The past month two members of the South Coast Bikeway Alliance came to meet with us and explain their plan. Another emailed their version of their plan to us. Although all their plans involved running a bike trail through the southern half of the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve, none of them understood the Bioreserve's mission, or if they did, they seemed to think ...or wish ...their destructive proposal could somehow be compatible with it.    That one can, right now, ride a mountain bike on numerous trails and wood roads through the Bioreserve apparently doesn't matter to them. That most mountain bike riders want a single track trail and topographical features to challenge them apparently is beyond their understanding.   After speaking with them, what is apparent is that they really don't know what they want, other than they want something. They all mention a “feasibility study” ...but they are really not seeking a study to see if a plan is feasible or not. Anyone can immediately see that in a bioreserve it would not be. What they are really looking for is a “feasibility” study that tells them how to make it feasible.   The South Coast Bikeway Alliance was originally created to work together, as an alliance of biking advocates from area towns, to build a transportation, intermodal trail from Providence, Rhode Island to Provincetown, Massachusetts. If they had been working on that for the past half dozen years they well could be on their way to making the local connection between Fall River and New Bedford ...making that Providence to Provincetown route a reality.   Instead, they are calling their sketchy off-road plan a Scenic Greenway, yet their latest map route iteration shows their “scenic greenway” following particularly unscenic electrical and gas utility corridors.    Should the South Coast Bikeway Alliance return to its original mission of working to have a transportation, intermodal trail along the rail line that is the shortest route between Fall River and New Bedford and is flat and scenic too ...we would enthusiastically endorse and support their plan.     DIGITAL BILLBOARDS – So large they need special approval Eight of them, ridiculously large at 70' tall and 50' wide.  Not so fast. Apparently the billboards are so huge the proponents need more than a “permit.” Supposedly they now need a variance from the Fall River zoning board. No word yet on when that is supposed to happen.  For some background go to our December 2017 newsletter here: http://www.greenfutures.org/?content=2hFpT1aWxhWU7rBC     RECENT ENVIRONMEMTAL NEWS – Links emailed in from our readersRhode Island fossil fuel hypocisy - https://www.ecori.org/green-opinions/2018/2/13/ocean-states-fossil-fuel-hypocrisy-does-nothing-to-address-climate-change   Patagonia wilderness - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/opinion/protecting-wilderness-democracy.html    EPA's Pruitt flies first class - http://www.businessinsider.com/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-first-class-flights-2018-2   Leave the dead trees - http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/feb/08/george-wuerthner-harvesting-dead-trees-is-bad-for-/   At least for now, Northern Pass denied - http://indepthnh.org/2018/02/01/regulators-vote-7-0-to-deny-northern-pass-application-in-deliberation-day-3-shocker/    Biofuels aren't better for the environment - http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/articles/study-warns-wood-bioenergy-supporters-cant-see-carbon-emissions-for-the-trees/   Defend wilderness - http://mountainjournal.org/an-unprecedented-assault-on-american-wilderness   Don't trash environmental reviews - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/13/trump-infrastructure-plan-environmental-reviews   Minority environmental concerns - http://www.localmemphis.com/news/local-news/african-american-faith-leaders-shine-light-on-environmental-concerns/974135201   Pruitt continues to act up - http://nhpr.org/post/epa-chief-signals-push-declare-wood-energy-carbon-neutral-nh-visit#stream/0   Right whales winking out. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/25/after-year-record-deaths-right-whales-produce-new-calves-which-could-catastrophic/wzPwtQSk9iRDlIvmaFp5nJ/story.html        SPRING IS ALMOST HERE  – 12:15 P.M. on March 20, Tuesday in Just – e. e. cummings   in Just- spring      when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles     far     and wee and eddyandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far      and      wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's spring and       the             goat-footed balloonMan      whistles far and wee    Although March is windy and rainy it contains the beginnings of spring. A perfect time to explore area forests, fields and wetlands and witness spring's shy and hesitant approach. What begins slowly in late March builds in intensity during April and reaches a climax in May's lush and fecund display of spring's new flora and fauna. If your outdoor walk takes you by wetlands and vernal pools listen for the “clak, clak” calls of mating wood frogs and the sleigh bell sound of tiny spring peepers. If you can get close to the edge of a vernal pool see if you can spot any jelly-like frog and salamander eggs. If on an evening walk along the muddy edge of an old field or pasture listen for the “peent, peent” of a calling woodcock and stop to watch its mating dance and aerial ballet. A warm and sunny March day is the perfect time to view mourning cloak butterflies flitting about through the still leafless forest. The mourning cloak has spent the winter hibernating in a hollow tree, loose bark or other sheltered crevice. It is joy to see the first spring butterfly after a long and cold winter Wood ducks and hooded mergansers are returning to wooded ponds and on salt marshes so are the first egrets. Local bald eagles will be incubating their next generation and phoebes will be returning to nest under roadside bridges and in old sheds and the eaves of country houses and barns. Feral snow drops, grape hyacinths and crocuses will be blooming alongside country roads and around old farm foundations. Coltsfoot will be up early as will skunk cabbage. Spicebush in low wet areas will also be blooming. Take advantage of the new season and observe how your wild neighbors react to the new season.    E-NEWSLETTER HIATUS – No monthly newsletter for next few months We are reorganizing and reevaluating. We will still be emailing out “Action, Info and Activity Alerts” when appropriate and necessary. Watch for them.   Don't forget to visit our calendar for outdoorsy things to do.

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