Environment - Marblehead Current

Marblehead’s tree enthusiasts help warden build out canopy

15Mar

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Nonprofit corner, Top Stories, Uncategorized

Marblehead’s tree enthusiasts help warden build out canopy

Several initiatives to further cultivate and grow Marblehead’s “urban forestry and tree canopy” are afoot. As the springtime approaches, Sustainable Marblehead is raising awareness about Marblehead’s tree fund and urging members of the public to send in donations. “Every spring in April, Sustainable Marblehead’s tree group collaborates with the tree warden to do tree planting,” the nonprofit organization’s executive director, Louise Yarmoff, told the Marblehead Current. “So, the more people know about this tree donation fund, the more money he will have to buy trees to replace all the trees that do die and have to be taken down.” Jon Fobert, Marblehead’s tree warden, said the town established the tree-donation fund in the mid-1970s after disease decimated the Dutch elm tree popul...

15Mar

By Rick CuznerNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Uncategorized

CUZNER IN NATURE: Bald eagle hunts ducks at Grace Oliver Beach

This photo is of an American bald eagle on the hunt at Grace Oliver Beach in Marblehead last winter. I was driving by and happened to notice the commotion and was lucky enough to get a few shots. Eagles are just such an impressive and massive bird to see — especially when you see them locally. The Marblehead Current is proud to partner with photographer Rick Cuzner. For the past 15 years, he has taken thousands of nature photographs that have captured the wild animals who call Marblehead home.

8Mar

By Kris OlsonNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Top Stories

Marblehead woman’s new job is for the birds (and more)

By her own admission, Marblehead’s Carole McCauley stumbled backwards into her environmental career. A newly minted Peace Corps volunteer, McCauley was dispatched to the eastern Caribbean for what was supposed to be an assignment performing adult literacy work. But upon her arrival, she discovered that her job opportunity had fallen through. At that point, McCauley was given a choice: Go home, or accept a hastily conceived substitute assignment with an environmental nonprofit that had a staff of one. McCauley would be employee number two. Pressed to decide, McCauley said her mind traveled back to her days as a camper at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm wildlife sanctuary in Lincoln. “Literally, the credential that came to my mind was, ‘I went to Audubon day camp; I can do this,’” M...

1Mar

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Science, Top Stories

Marblehead photographer lifts the curtain on natural world

A snowy owl roosting among the dried-out driftwood and grass of Devereux Beach. A coyote keeping low to the ground as it stalks prey. A deer foraging for food on a forest floor. The Milky Way's stars littering the night sky. For about 15 years, Rick Cuzner has photographed Marblehead's wildlife. COURTESY PHOTOS / RICK CUZNER Rick Cuzner's photographs lift the curtain on a natural world seemingly hidden in plain sight. But with enough patience and interest, one can lift this veil, too, he says. For the past 15 years, Cuzner has taken thousands of nature photographs that have captured the wild animals who call Marblehead home. "It's a good stress relief running around in the woods," Cuzner said. "I love hiking. I love nature. I love the wildlife." The Marblehead native's family ...

21Feb

By Chris StevensNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Municipal Matters, Top Stories

In Marblehead, roadmap paves the way for net zero emissions

Is it ironic that it was 50 degrees on Feb. 15, the day Marblehead's Net Zero Roadmap, a plan to combat climate change locally, was presented to the community? In 2019 the Marblehead Green Energy Committee partnered with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and developed a Climate Vision Plan. Brooks Winner, a senior clean energy specialist with MAPC, called the plan a framework or a foundation for some of what is now in the Net Zero Roadmap. A timeline of Marblehead’s net zero progress to date. COURTESY PHOTO Winner, who presented the roadmap during a public meeting on that warm Wednesday evening, said some of the strategies would be implemented by Marblehead Municipal Light Department, and the town would lead some. Some are changes that residents and business owners wil...

21Feb

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Politics, Top Stories

Armini, Crighton’s committee assignments focus on environment, justice, mental health

State Rep. Jenny Armini stumped on environmental issues when she ran for the 8th Essex District seat in 2022, calling climate change "the existential crisis of our time." Now, the Marblehead Democrat will sit on two legislative committees charged with helping curb the adverse effects of climate change. Massachusetts House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Democrat of Quincy, appointed the Marblehead Democrat to the House Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change and the Joint Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources. "These assignments offer a tremendous opportunity to shape environmental policy at a critical juncture for the 8th Essex District and the entire commonwealth," Armini told the Marblehead Current. "Marblehead, Swampscott and Lynn are coastal gems, rich...

31Jan

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories, Travel

Marblehead to open emergency shelter during weekend cold snap

As arctic cold sweeps through the Northeast, Marblehead Fire Chief Jason Gilliland said the town will open an emergency shelter in the Brown Elementary School on Friday afternoon. "The shelter will open at 5 p.m. Friday and stay open until Sunday morning,” Gilliland told the Marblehead Current on Thursday afternoon. "We will have cots, blankets and obviously heat. There are bathrooms.” extreme_cold_guideDownload The fire chief said the shelter will be open to anybody, but especially to people who do not have proper heat. The National Weather Service has forecast dangerously low wind chills, possibly reaching minus-25 degrees. “All of us are going to be spending a lot of time indoors this weekend,” said Marblehead Public Health Director Andrew Petty. ...

22Nov

By Submitted ContentNo Comments

Environment, Life Style

Cottage Gardeners to screen ‘The Gardner’ on Dec. 13

The Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott will be showing the movie, "The Gardener" on Dec. 13. The public is invited to attend free. Please come at 12:30 p.m. to the Jewish Community Center (4 Community Road, Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945) for light refreshments in the Weiss-Kirstein Right Room.The movie will start at approximately 12:45 p.m. According to organizers, Frank Cabot was a major force behind establishing the Garden Conservancy. He was an award-winning horticulturist, garden designer and philanthropist, who in 2009 at the age of eight-four opened his world-renowned twenty-acre garden "Les Quatre Vents," located in La Mainale, Quebec. Please RSVP to Sara Ewing: sewingjccns.com

21Nov

By William J. DowdNo Comments

Environment, Local News, Municipal Matters, Top Stories

Sustainable Marblehead offers primer on ‘the stairway to net zero’

Sustainable Marblehead supplied a small audience gathered in the Unitarian Universalist sanctuary and zoomers with a “think globally, act locally” primer on ways to mitigate their carbon footprint and save money. Lynn Bryant, the former Sustainable Marblehead executive director, moderated the two-hour presentation given by Marblehead Light Commission Vice Chair Lisa Wolf and Mark Adams, chair of the nonprofit's Green Homes and Buildings Working Group. In opening remarks, Bryant and Wolf painted a dire portrait of the adverse effects that human-induced climate change has had on the world. “In the news this week, the press was given a draft of the United States National Climate Assessment - a detailed look at the current and future consequences of global warmi...

14Nov

By Submitted ContentNo Comments

Community resources, Environment, Press releases, Viewpoints

Marblehead Garden Club update, wreath sale kicks off Dec. 3

The Marblehead Garden Club is putting the garden at the Lee Mansion to bed, just in time to start prepping for a green and festive holiday season. This year’s Christmas Walk activities for the MGC include the popular wreath sale and a Christmas tree in a special (and surprising!) location. The weather made the summer challenging, and it was a busy season for the MGC. In addition to protecting plants from drought conditions and ravenous rabbits, there were many new additions to the Garden. In the ongoing effort to only use native or historic plants, the Club chooses replacement plants that the Lee family could have had in the original garden. 2022 plantings include an American Hornbeam, Rhododendron maximThm, Ilex glabra (Inkberry), a Redbud Tree, Mountain Laurel, and Rosa virginiana....