Rob Smith

1 week ago | ecori.org | Rob Smith |Bonnie Phillips

PROVIDENCE — After 18 months of study, more than a dozen meetings, and hundreds of pieces of testimony, evidence, and presentations, Rhode Island’s joint study commission on plastic waste released its report, which revealed, unsurprisingly, that legislation in support of a bottle bill faces steep opposition. The bottle bill is one of those pieces of environmental legislation that remain stuck in a state of political limbo.

3 weeks ago | ecori.org | Rob Smith |Bonnie Phillips

By Rob Smith / ecoRI News staff March 31, 2025 Managing the uses of and access to Rhode Island’s coastline is no easy task. It’s made more difficult when a citizen board lacking coastal knowledge and appointed by politicians ignores years of experience to overrule Coastal Resources Management Council staff.

3 weeks ago | ecori.org | Rob Smith |Bonnie Phillips

PROVIDENCE — Even in the best of times, farming in Rhode Island can be a challenge. It’s called the Ocean State, not the Farm State, for a reason. Farmland has rapidly vanished underneath strip malls and housing subdivisions over the years, while land and space for agriculture remains at a high premium. Farms in Rhode Island just don’t have the room to grow into the sizes seen in other, larger states.

4 weeks ago | ecori.org | Rob Smith |Bonnie Phillips

JOHNSTON, R.I. — Less than 5 miles west of downtown Providence lies the state’s biggest ticking clock. It’s not a real timepiece, it doesn’t tell you the time of day, although it’s not dissimilar to the sand that fills up an hourglass. Spread across 1,200 acres off Interstate 295 is a series of misshapen hills in an unusual shade of green. Passersby approaching from the west might be confused about what’s there, until they see the industrial equipment and dump trucks discharging mountains of trash.

1 month ago | ecori.org | Rob Smith |Bonnie Phillips

PROVIDENCE — What happens when a link in the circle of life is human-made? Rats are a species of animal close to the bottom of the ecosystem’s food chain. Their smaller size makes them a great meal for bigger, faster predators such as hawks, owls, and other raptors, and their habit of living amid human development to scrounge for food makes them an unwanted neighbor.