Features
Heat pumps and underground holes: Dartmouth announces $500 million investment in decarbonization
By MARA HOPLAMAZIAN
Dartmouth College announced this week it would invest half a billion dollars on climate mitigation efforts, including transitioning the school’s heating system off of fossil fuels.Sian Leah Beilock, Dartmouth’s president, said in a statement that the...
JAG Productions announces closure, citing ‘crisis facing the arts’
By NICOLA SMITH
JAG Productions, the White River Junction theater company that has championed the work of Black, queer and trans artists, announced last week that it is closing in June after eight years of bringing groundbreaking work to the Upper Valley.Jarvis...
Saint-Gaudens forest areas off limits for spring to protect ecosystem
CORNISH — To protect plants, Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park has closed a floodplain forest that sits between the Connecticut River and Route 12A during the months of April and May.Plants such as ramps and fiddleheads typically emerge in the...
How a hurricane and a cardinal launched a UVM professor on a new career path
By K. FIEGENBAUM
Before Hurricane Katrina hit her newly adopted city of New Orleans in 2005, Trish O’Kane knew next to nothing about the environment — let alone birds.O’Kane had spent much of her life working as an investigative human rights journalist in Central...
Out & About: Vermont Center for Ecostudies continues Backyard Tick Project
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The Vermont Center for Ecostudies is looking for people who are willing to allow researchers to study their lawns as part of the Upper Valley Backyard Tick Project.Jason Hill, a quantitative ecologist at the White River...
Art Notes: After losing primary venues, JAG Productions persists
By ALEX HANSON
For much of its history, JAG Productions, the small, White River Junction theater company that specializes in telling stories from deep inside the black, queer, American experience, has had to be nimble. Company founder Jarvis Antonio Green has...
Over Easy: Marvels in the heavens, and in the yard
By DAN MACKIE
It was Traffic vs. the Eclipse on Monday, a showdown of celestial proportions. Would I risk everything like Marco Polo who bravely set out to see the world, or follow the example of his brother Rocco, who said their hometown of Venice was “plenty good...
Amid financial difficulties, Lebanon-based Revels North cancels midwinter show
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
LEBANON — A Lebanon-based arts organization has canceled an annual production that has been an Upper Valley holiday season staple for decades.Revels North Creative Director Alex Cumming made the announcement about December’s Midwinter Show in a letter...
Art Notes: The Pilgrims to perform ‘last’ show Saturday in Hanover
By ALEX HANSON
The journalism and the arts can meet at a fraught crossroads. One relies on facts and on creating an account as close to the truth as possible in the time available. The other is interested in truths that are more personal, less grounded, and time...
Upper Valley residents witness total eclipse
By CHRISTINA DOLAN
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. — Scores of Upper Valley residents were among the crowd of about 7,500 people gathered in front of the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium on Monday to cheer as Vermont Public’s Jane Lindholm announced the arrival of the eclipse’s...
Sunshine, snacks and laughs features of Bugbee’s solar eclipse party
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Thousands of travelers might’ve been headed north to see the total solar eclipse, but people gathered at the Bugbee Senior Center Monday in downtown White River Junction thought they had the best seat on Earth.“No kidding we got...
Vermont promotes travel and safety tips for an easier glimpse of the eclipse
By KEVIN O’CONNOR
Ask Vermont public safety officials how to most carefully navigate the April 8 solar eclipse and they advise not to stare at the “generational spectacle” with the naked eye.Instead, they suggest focusing on the expected galaxy of gawkers circling...
Upper Valley farms’ manure piles stack up amid wet weather
By FRANCES MIZE
ROYALTON — While many Upper Valley residents have been contending with piles of snow lately, the region’s dairy farmers have been dealing with teetering piles of another kind — livestock poop.At Westland Farm, where Peggy Ainsworth grows sweet...
East Bethel Community Church is reborn
By ALEX HANSON
EAST BETHEL — From their cars, parked in a neat row on the grass outside, worshipers walked through the front door of the village’s stately, 200-year-old brick church for a symbolic rebirth.Not only was it Easter Sunday, but some of the 30 or so...
Upper Valley space enthusiasts eager for Monday’s solar eclipse
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
During 2017’s partial solar eclipse — when the moon obscured part of the sun — educator Rob Hanson set up a telescope at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock.He was impressed by the crowd.“There’s probably over 100 plus...
Out & About: Lion’s Club action auction offers community-building opportunities
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
HANOVER — Three hours of babysitting. Freshly picked flowers. A custard pie.These homemade goods and services might not seem to have much in common, but they’re three among 42 things that are part of the Hanover Lions Club’s annual “action auction,”...
East Coast earthquake felt in Upper Valley
By JENNIFER PELTZ and MIKE CATALINI
An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said, with residents across the Northeast reporting rumbling in a region where people are unaccustomed to feeling the ground...
Out & About: Volunteers needed to revitalize Lebanon blueberry patch
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
LEBANON — Volunteers working to revitalize blueberry patches on conserved land near downtown Lebanon are looking for more help.The Lebanon Conservation Commission is planning to host a blueberry pruning work day this Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at Jackson...
Art Notes: We the People opens big musical Friday night
By ALEX HANSON
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — In its relatively short history, We the People Theatre has specialized in sweeping musical theater projects, starting with productions of “1776” and “Working.” The coronavirus pandemic put an end to the company’s momentum,...
Suspended saturation in the greenhouse
Before going to lunch, Chris Clemson, owner of Frost Gardens in Ely, waters hanging plants in one of their greenhouses on Friday. The business will open May 1.
