Spring Walking Series

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Please join the Elizabeth Taber Library and the Sippican Lands Trust for our Spring Walking Series:

– Saturday, April 21, 10:00 am at Brainard Marsh where we will be walking around listening to readings about oceans and beaches from writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.

– Saturday, April 28, 10:00 am at White Eagle where we will start our walk with a children’s book about cranberry bogs.

– Saturday, May 5, 10:00 am at Peirson Woods where we will be hearing excerpts from books on nature, trees and woods.

For directions to these properties, visit www.sippicanlandstrust.org and see you soon at one of our walks this spring.

Rain dates are scheduled for the next day on Sundays (April 22, April 29, and May 6) at 12:00 pm. For more information or to register for a walk, please contact the Elizabeth Taber Library at 508-748-1252 or the Sippican Lands Trust at 508-748-3080.

MCC Spring Sunday Morning Series

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Mattapoisett Congregational Church is offering a Spring Sunday Morning series for children Pre-K – Grade 6: “Loving God, Loving Neighbors, Loving Creation.” This series will run April 15 – June 3from 10:00 – 11:00 am and will include a variety of engaging activities such as art, music, nature, food, movement, and games to help children experience the transformational power of love, explore sacred writings, cultivate an inner life of the Spirit and pathways to God, foster community, stewardship and compassionate living, and encourage the expression of faith through peacemaking and service. Classes will be taught by a certified Christian Educator/ BU School of Theology student and talented adult volunteers with backgrounds in environmental studies, social activism, community building, music, art, and childhood development. To sign up, email mattcongchurch@gmail.com or call 508-758-2671. Drop-ins are welcome.

– April 15: “Gladness in our hearts,” Psalms and Pancakes in Reynard Hall

– April 22: “God leads me on right paths,” Psalm 23

– April 29: “All nations and all generations,” Psalm 22:25-31

– May 6: “Walking in God’s Creation,” Psalm 98 in partnership with the Mattapoisett Land Trust – exploring Grace Pond Meadow.

– May 13: “Caring for All Creation,” Psalm 104: 24-34

– May 27: Loving God, Loving Neighbors, Loving Creation, AND Loving Ourselves, Psalm 139, Celebration Sunday Prep

– June 3 Celebration Sunday: “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” Family Service in Reynard Hall.

For more information, visit mattapoisettcongregationalchurch.org or https://www.facebook.com/mattcongUCC/

The Spring Salamander

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There are eleven different species of salamanders in Massachusetts that come in as many different colors and patterns. The most commonly seen salamander around here by hikers on a trail walk is the small Eastern newt with black dots all across its body, as seen in my illustration. It has an unusual three-part life cycle that begins as a fully aquatic vertebrate with visible gills (aquatic larvae), and then morphs into the terrestrial bright “eft” (juvenile) stage. Then it returns to water as a yellow and green adult.

The “spotted salamander,” also illustrated, is brightly-colored and quite common with a dark blue body and large yellow spots. It spends most of the year hibernating in small underground burrows until emerging in spring to travel to vernal pools to breed.

Most species are poisonous to eat and can exude bad-tasting toxic substances when threatened by a predator. Salamanders do not have ears and communicate only by sensitive touch of skin. They advertise the deadly chemical nature of their body by flashing their bright unnatural color as a warning. If they should be caught by the tail, they also have the ability to quickly shed it and later grow a new one.

Vernal pools are essential to provide a safe breeding haven for salamanders, since vernal pools are temporarily formed by gathering spring rain or melting ice and snow in woodland hollows and meadows. Since they eventually dry up, they are inaccessible and inhospitable to predatory fish. After producing jelly-like egg masses on the moist forest floor attached to vegetation, parents keep close watch guarding them until they hatch.

Several salamander species are endangered through human interference such as global warming and encroachment of habitat by commercial and residential development The main threat, however, is building well-traveled roads across migration routes to vernal pools.

Courtship begins when the male brightens up his colors to attract a female, and then rubbing noses with her to ensure compatibility. This big gathering in large numbers is classified as a “congress” by naturalists and is activated by several consecutive days above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Like the unfolding fiddle-top ferns around their wetlands, the salamander has been a symbolic aquatic oasis linking this unbroken chain of evolution for millions of years.

After a heavy rain on a balmy night you may open your bedtime window to hear the orchestration of the tiny wood frog that carries for up to a quarter mile. The tempo of the chorus reverberates with the tempo of an Earthly heartbeat from the solar pulse and the new life brought forth by the season of spring.

By George B. Emmons

Tabor Girls Experience STEM in action in NYC

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A group of six Tabor Academy girls was selected through an application process to attend the GAINS Conference (Girls Advancing in STEM) in New York City last week. Topics over the three-day event included science, math, engineering, and technology and how these fields interconnect for innovation.

Three seniors and three juniors along with faculty Mackenzie Chaput and CK Kennedy enjoyed the excitement of the city and exposure to cutting-edge ideas. They also interacted with many women in the field and learned how women are participating and leading in these fields today.

The group met with women executives from Rent the Runway, Spoon University and Mented and enjoyed experiencing new technologies through interactive games and augmented reality. They learned first hand from entrepreneurs the challenges and joys of starting a company and how important it is to surround yourself with the right people who will motivate and challenge you as a leader. They took tours across the city to see innovation first hand. Examples included tours of the Central Park Zoo, the NYU MakerSpace, a Computer-aided Drug Design lab, and a Science History Walking Tour. In their blog, the students remarked, “The walking tour allowed us to get a feel for the history behind New York City and the way science played into everyday life. During the Central Park Zoo tour, students got to follow zookeepers around their daily routine and ask about their personal experience working with animals. Our favorite part of the day was the tour of the NYU Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering lab in which we were shown the research students were working on at the time. Lindsay, a student in NYU’s dual MD/PhD program, explained her research about developing a way to more efficiently cure breast cancer.”

On the last day, the students enjoyed small group exchanges to understand how creativity and communication skills are critical to the tech world along with the technical skills more commonly associated with these fields. It was an exciting and eye-opening opportunity for these students to see how they could advance their own interests in science, math, engineering and technology.

The students wrote a blog and shared photos of their experience. You can enjoy the blog and at https://bit.ly/2GEBVsE.

Rochester Historical Society is Going to the Library

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The Rochester Historical Society meeting for April is being held at the Plumb Library at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, April 18, and will feature “The Power Behind Your Library Card” by Librarian Gail Roberts.

What can you do with your library card? Check out books, DVDs and more, certainly. But you can also download free ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and music; use Ancestry.Com; access the Rochester Historical and Architectural Survey; and much more. Learn all about it on Wednesday, April 18 at the Joseph H. Plumb Memorial Library. Come and learn what your library has to offer. Everyone is welcome.

Mindfulness Walk

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Enjoy the peace and beauty of nature with Jessica Webb, owner of Anchor Yoga, and the Buzzards Bay Coalition during a mindfulness walk at Tinkhamtown Woodlands, 29 Long Plain Road, Mattapoisett, on Saturday, April 14at 11:00 am. Through guided mindfulness meditation, participants will experience the outdoors with their senses wide open.

All fitness levels are welcome on this free, one-hour walk. The walk will be conducted at a deliberately slow and mindful pace in social silence without digital devices. Please wear appropriate footwear and layers to ensure you are comfortable during the walk.

Pre-registration is required. To RSVP, visit www.savebuzzardsbay.org/events/mindfulness-walk-tinkhamtown-woodlands-apr-14-2018/ or contact the Buzzards Bay Coalition at 508-999-6363 ext. 219 or bayadventures@savebuzzardsbay.org.

This walk is part of a monthly Mindfulness Walk series hosted by Anchor Yoga and the Coalition. The next Mindfulness Walk will take place on Saturday, May 12 at Star of the Sea Reserve in Dartmouth.

This event is part of Discover Buzzards Bay, an initiative to help people across the Buzzards Bay region find unique and exciting ways to explore the outdoors, get some exercise and connect with nature. Local residents can use Discover Buzzards Bay to get outside and discover woods, wetlands and waterways from Fall River to Falmouth. To learn more, visit savebuzzardsbay.org/discover.

Greyhound Wins Place in the Heart of Plumb

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The door opens to the Plumb Library and in walks 8-year-old Amos, followed by his adopted dogmother Holly Abramson and a splash of Saturday afternoon sun across the library foyer floor. Amos is eye-catching in his bright turquoise-blue woolen coat that contrasts against his pale white fur and little brown and gray spots. He continues without pause towards the children’s section where he’s likely read all the favorite titles over the past year since he first moved to Rochester, some of them over and over again.

“That must be Amos and Ms. Holly,” says Library Assistant Jenn Frasier, who’s become accustomed to the sounds that accompany Amos and Holly and the way their cumulative six feet make their way across the room. Amos waits calmly for Holly to place Amos’ soft, fluffy brown reading pad on the floor so he can lower himself down, fold his long limbs beneath his lean, mean, racing machine body, and stretch across the floor with a ‘ffffump.’

Amos has been a regular patron at the Plumb Library since January 2017 when The Wanderer first met the ‘tail-waggin tutor,’ Rochester’s own book-loving dog as he sat down for the first time with his first Rochester early reader that would mark the next chapter in Amos’ own book of life.

On Saturday, April 7, it didn’t take long for Amos to drift into a deep state of relaxation to the spoken words of Matt Simmons as he read aloud to Amos and Simmons’ 3-year-old daughter, Autumn.

Once upon a time there was “Iruska Danny,” a young racing greyhound from Florida before his ‘happily every after’ in Rochester as Amos, in the library, in Rochester, with Ms. Holly. But watching Amos lying still with his eyes closed drifting off into a literal bliss, it’s clear how far he is now from that chapter in his story. Every time Abramson asks Amos, “You wanna go to the library and see the kids?” he sinks deeper into his new life in Rochester as everyone’s favorite reading buddy, and the Abramsons’ adopted love bug of six years.

Amos, a certified Canine Good Citizen, therapy dog, and avid book listener, comes to the Plumb Library for sessions with young readers eager to practice their emerging skills with Amos. The more he likes a book, the more he will snuggle into the reader and pass right out until the turning of the next page brings his attention back to the moment, said Abramson.

Some of his favorite books are from Dr. Seuss, especially Go, Dog, Go!

“Anything that rhymes,” said Abramson. “He literally sticks his face in the book. It’s very natural for him. He positions himself in just the right way.”

Frasier says Amos is “the perfect patron” at Plumb. When he’s at the library on the first Thursday and Saturday of the month, “He greets everyone, every time there’s other people around, the reaction to a dog in the library is everyone wants to pet him.”

“He’s very patient, always quiet,” Frasier said. “We have a fan club coming to the Thursday session very regularly and Amos is always very happy to see them. He cuddles right up to them.”

With quite the following, the next step is of course to produce the Amos merchandise, including free stickers with Amos’ face on them and an Amos bookmark that can be punched each time the child reads to Amos – after five punches, the child receives a free gift from the librarian.

And now, with his very own Facebook page called “Amos the Therapy Greyhound,” his following only continues to grow.

When he’s not delighting everyone at the Plumb Library, he enjoys accompanying Abramson to her day job during the week at the very pet-friendly equine supplies store she works at in Middleboro. In his free time, Amos loves running wildly in his backyard and doing zillions of ‘zoomies’ till he’s dizzy.

“We do take him hiking quite a bit,” said Holly, hitting the trails together all throughout Rochester. “He’s usually in the front leading the way.”

And anywhere he hears a child’s voice, Abramson said, “He’s just like, ‘Where are they?’”

Abramson said being Amos’ adopted dogmother is a blessing and an honor.

“He’s a really special dog. We found each other.”

Haven’t met Amos yet? He will be attending a special April school vacation session at the Plumb Library on Friday, April 20, from 12:30 to 2:00 pm appropriately called “Breed All About It!” with various dog-themed stories, activities, and crafts assisted by the Junior Friends. Register by calling 508-763-8600 or emailing LFuller@sailsinc.org.

By Jean Perry

 

All is Well for Fairhaven Well Request

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There have been many, many nights at the Mattapoisett Town Hall when the Conservation Commission’s meeting began in the waning light of a spring day and ended deep in the darkened evening. But on April 9, it was light outside when the meeting began and still light just twenty-five minutes later when the meeting was closed.

Commission members on this night included Chapman Dickerson, John Jacobsen, Chris Nicolosi, and Chairman Mike King.

The Town of Fairhaven Board of Public Works, for property located at 29 Tinkham Lane in Mattapoisett and represented by Allison Shivers of Tata and Howard, Inc., came before the commission with a RDA for the construction of a new freshwater well. Fairhaven’s primary source for freshwater resources is located within the town boundaries of Mattapoisett.

Shivers said the well would be approximately 36-feet by 40-feet with an 18-foot by 24-foot gravel patch. She also said there would be limited clearing and very little fill brought onto the site. Shivers concluded her comments by adding that the project would not negatively affect wildlife habitat. The filing received a Negative 3 determination with King saying, “Yeah, let’s get some good drinking water.”

Coming before the commission was Neil Oliveira of 4 Ocean Breeze Lane represented by Prime Engineering with a Request for Determination of Applicability for the construction of a 36-foot by 16-foot in-ground swimming pool surrounded by stone pavers. The project was described as being some 75 feet away from delineated wetlands but situated within the 100-foot buffer zone. A note from Conservation Agent Elizabeth Leidhold indicated that the project as proposed would have no negative impact on wildlife habitat. The project received a Negative 3 determination (no Notice of Intent required).

Continued until April 23 was a Notice of Intent filed by Stingray City Realty Corp., William Bachant, for property owned by Rahim Aghai Revocable Trust for a proposed three-lot subdivision planned off Marion Road.

Before closing the public meeting, King commented on questions the office had received pursuant to agenda items for executive sessions dealing with litigation between Daniel Craig of Seabreeze Lane and the Town of Mattapoisett. He said that to the best of his knowledge, the matter was nearing agreement between the two parties and that for at least five months the Conservation Commission had not taken up the matter in executive session. King also clarified that the litigation had not been between the commission and the Craigs, but was instead between the Town and the Craigs.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for April 23 at 6:30 pm in the town hall conference room.

Mattapoisett Conservation Commission

By Marilou Newell

 

Associate Members Needed

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Are you interested in protecting wetlands in Rochester? Have you thought about serving on a board and learning more about what’s going on in town? The Rochester Conservation Commission is looking for volunteers interested in serving as Associate Members to the Conservation Commission. Associates are non-voting members who help share the workload of the voting Conservation Commission that was officially appointed by the Board of Selectmen. Associate members provide a pool of future members and allow more people to participate. Most of the full voting members of the Commission served as Associate Members prior to being appointed by the Board of Selectmen.

The Conservation Commission was established in Rochester in 1963 and is charged with protecting Rochester’s natural resources. The Conservation Commission also advises other municipal officials and boards on conservation issues that relate to their areas of responsibility. In 1972, the Commission was given the responsibility of administering the Wetlands Protection Act (MGL Ch. 131 40). The Conservation Commission serves the community in a regulatory as well as a conservation capacity.

Please feel free to contact Conservation Agent Laurell J. Farinon at 508-763-5421 ext. 206 or lfarinon@townofrochester.com with any questions about becoming an Associate Member, or send a letter of interest to the Rochester Conservation Commission, Rochester Town Hall Annex, 37 Marion Road, Rochester, MA 02770.

Marion Planning Board

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Dear Editor:

I am writing to correct a misimpression that may have arisen as a result of the comments I addressed to the Planning Board on April 2 (“Resident Critical of Town, Developer” – The Wanderer, April 5, 2018) concerning the condominium project at 324 Front Street in Marion.

All Town personnel with whom I have dealt, including allBuilding Department staff, have at all times been careful, professional, thorough and helpful in every instance and in every respect. Marion residents are extremely lucky to have such dedicated, competent, devoted and capable Town personnel – they are deserving of our admiration and gratitude in every way.

Sincerely,

Peter Douglas, Marion

 

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned or unconfirmed submissions. The Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.