Category: environment

Town's work in river stirs controversy

Posted on September 15, 2011 |

• Middlebury
• environment
• flooding
• Irene
• Middlebury River

By Andrew Stein

MIDDLEBURY — When East Middlebury resident Charlie Hohn — a field naturalist who specializes in water movement — took a walk along the Middlebury River last week, he was troubled by what he saw: two excavators in the river clearing a wide channel.

The heavy equipment was used for infrastructure repairs in response to Tropical Storm Irene, said Middlebury Director of Operations Dan Werner. The work began on Sept. 1 and continued through Sept. 13.

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Update: McKibben spends the weekend in D.C. jail cell

Posted on August 25, 2011 |

• Ripton
• Bill McKibben
• environment
• Tar Sands

By Ian Trombulak

Update (8/25/11):

WASHINGTON, D.C. — From where he sits — behind bars in a Washington, D.C., jail cell — everything is going according to plan for Bill McKibben.

The environmental author and activist was arrested on Saturday, Aug. 20, in Washington while protesting the proposed construction of a 1,700-mile pipeline that would pump oil from the Tar Sands of Alberta, Canada, to oil refineries in Texas. He was one of 70 arrests on Saturday.

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Could switchgrass offer a CO2 solution?

Posted on July 21, 2011 |

• Addison County
• agriculture
• energy
• environment
• switchgrass

By Andrew Stein

ADDISON COUNTY — When the American settlers first crossed the Great Plains, they encountered native species of prairie grass like switchgrass and big blue stem.

Now those same grasses — seeded deep in the American perception of a rural aesthetic — are being sown in Addison County fields in an effort to make them an affordable and viable source of local energy.

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Ferrisburgh farm runoff raises stink

Posted on July 18, 2011 |

• Ferrisburgh
• agriculture
• dairy
• environment
• runoff

By Andrea Suozzo

FERRISBURGH — It’s been seven years since Garry Clark says manure first ran through the pond at his Ferrisburgh home, and after the most recent incident, he said that he’s had enough.

It’s not just that the manure fouls his property, he said he’s worried about of the health of nearby Lake Champlain.

State officials, who are looking into Clark's case, said farm runoff is an issue they constantly encounter in an agricultural state and county.

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