17 Feb, 2015 Author: administrator

In January we received terrific news. The Tidmarsh Restoration Project received $790,000 in funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service through the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grants Program. Together with an earlier award from USDA NRCS, this award insures the realization of the project. This spring, we will be selecting a lead contractor; we expect the restoration earth moving work to begin in earnest early summer 2015! Many thanks to Alex Hackman of the Division of Ecological Restoration and to all our partners for your continued support for this project!

As the work ramps up, we will post weekly updates concerning activities on this site, and you will be able to follow progress on a variety of channels including our Living Observatoryfacebook site, on the USFWS blog (occasional), and at the DER website. We will provide an overview of what to find where later this spring.

Ok, now for the weather. I have it on reliable authority that the arctic inversion we experienced in late November/early December may have been long enough to do real damage to the ticks. Very cold weather with no snow on the ground seems to be the only natural recourse against these pesky critters. Lets hope for some relief this spring!

Meanwhile, who has ever seen Southeastern Mass looking so white for so long? Record snowfalls this month have kept many of us in shape shoveling, but enough already! Snow and issues with the T in Boston, caused us to postpone last week's planned Living Observatory Research Summit. In the future, I shall avoid planning any large meeting for a Friday the 13! On the farm, Valentine's day brought us another 8-12" (up to my arm pit in some drifts). Winds blew the snow over the small snow buttress left by Juno; as a result almost overwhelmed our greenhouse. Meanwhile, a few of the sensors deployed by the Responsive Environments Group still look out on the white expanse.

After the storm: a small snow buttress grows and almost overwhelms greenhouse. Time to shovel!