The Old Harbor Life-Saving Station was built in Chatham in 1897, one of a string of life-saving stations that dotted our coast before the Coast Guard took over maritime rescue. […]
Environment
PILGRIM WASTE
Shape of Bay Means Poisons Would Linger
Activists, legislators look to stop release of radioactive water from closed reactor
PLYMOUTH — Cape Cod Bay is not a good place to dump one million gallons of radioactive effluent from systems at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, according to an expert on […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Jan. 25 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Jan. 18 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ECOLOGY
Comments Are Sought on Stellwagen Bank Plan
Soundscape and shipwrecks are upcoming action initiatives
PROVINCETOWN — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, which manages the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) — an 842-square-mile stretch of ocean three miles north […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Jan. 11 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
'STATE OF THE WATERS'
Water Commissioners Question Wellfleet’s ‘Poor’ Rating
APCC ranking of town’s water was based on 2020 incident
WELLFLEET — A report issued in late December by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) singled out Wellfleet’s municipal water system as the only one among 20 on Cape […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Jan. 4 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ENVIRONMENT
Bush-Whacking With AmeriCorps
A band of eight based in Wellfleet support environmental initiatives up and down the Cape
On the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 13, the Wellfleet AmeriCorps cohort — a band of eight 20-somethings, fresh out of college — rolled up near the Shank Painter Wildlife Sanctuary, just off […]
PILGRIM NUCLEAR
Fishing Community Raises Alarm on Radioactive Water
Releases into Cape Cod Bay began as early as 2011, NRC documents show
PLYMOUTH — The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station had slowly drifted out of the public’s consciousness in the years since the troubled reactor’s final shutdown in 2019. But the region’s residents […]
THE RAT REPORT
Town Eschews Poison in Favor of Education
Is rodent birth control the solution?
PROVINCETOWN — Rats are both intelligent and resourceful, requiring those same traits in the humans who would like to get rid of them without also poisoning pets and wildlife. On […]
THE YEAR IN ECOLOGY
Salt Marshes Through the Seasons, So Far
Six months’ worth of lessons about life on the tides for bloodsuckers, turtles, grasses, and golf balls
WELLFLEET — Throughout August, the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater spritzed the outdoor set of Nat Turner in Jerusalem with bug spray, so performers Ricardy Fabre and Robert St. Laurence could […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Dec. 28 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ON THE WATERFRONT
Eastham Pulls Out of Nauset Dredging Plan
After investing $600K, Orleans unlikely to find a way forward
EASTHAM — At a joint meeting with the Orleans Select Board on Dec. 13, the Eastham Select Board voted unanimously to pull out of the Nauset Estuary Dredge permitting process. […]
LIGHTBULB MOMENT
Wellfleet’s Long-Awaited Solar Array Is Up and Running
The project stalled because title to land for a utility pole was unclear
WELLFLEET — After a two-year delay, Wellfleet’s solar array is “on.” The power company Eversource and the solar contractor Ameresco flipped the switch on Dec. 9, bringing online 2,400 solar […]
