Lucas Thors

2 weeks ago | bluedotliving.com | Lucas Thors

The future of the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest, Martha’s Vineyard’s largest woodland reserve, is again under debate. Purchased by the state in 1908 to protect the now-extinct heath hen, the forest was converted into a resource for the public in 1932. The state introduced non-native white pine plantations (clusters of trees that have been planted, often for commercial purposes) to promote reforestation, biodiversity, and timber production.

2 weeks ago | bluedotliving.com | Lucas Thors

In the years after he directed Jaws, Steven Spielberg came to have regrets about the film. He said to the BBC a few years ago that he thought the 1975 summer blockbuster about a great white shark terrorizing Amity Island had harmed the shark population. “That's one of the things I still fear,” Spielberg said.

3 weeks ago | bluedotliving.com | Lucas Thors

When Bret Stearns, the Director of Natural Resources for the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe, arrived on Martha’s Vineyard in 1994, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) had just constructed their town building and community center. The tribal Natural Resources Department consisted of one person, who had little ability to enforce indigenous land and sustenance rights. Now the Wampanoag Environmental Laboratory is pioneering new research and public education initiatives.

Dec 19, 2024 | bluedotliving.com | Lucas Thors

Martha’s Vineyard’s Adopt-A-Bike-Path program was created after two seasonal residents, Michelle Oldershaw and her son Luke Oldershaw, began to notice litter piling up along their favorite bike route. The organized effort to keep Vineyard bike paths clear of trash started as an offshoot of the state Adopt-A-Highway program. In the highway maintenance program, individuals or groups can “adopt” sections of roads or highways that they then regularly clean.

Dec 6, 2024 | bluedotliving.com | Lucas Thors

Island food waste experts are working collaboratively to ensure that the Vineyard can eventually redirect 100 percent of its food waste away from the landfill. The Oak Bluffs select board recently agreed to pursue more than $2 million in grant funding from the EPA’s Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Program to construct a composting facility at the Oak Bluffs transfer station.