The Outer Cape is the last stop on the train for Ilex opaca, the American holly, a southern tree whose range snakes up the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts before […]
News
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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. 10 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
PROVINCETOWN: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS
Recruiting a Police Chief
Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a […]
TRURO: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS
A ‘Big Deal’ for the Cloverleaf
Meetings Ahead Meetings in Truro are often held remotely, and live meetings usually have an online-attendance option. Go to Truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you are interested in for an agenda […]
WELLFLEET: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS
Tax Bill Delay
Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Wellfleet are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at wellfleet-ma.gov for details. All […]
EASTHAM: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS
Bricked Chargers
Meetings Ahead Most meetings in Eastham are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at eastham-ma.gov for details. All […]
DOWNTOWN
Bylaws Aimed at ‘Keeping the Life in Provincetown’
Boards consider zoning changes and funding for accessory dwellings
PROVINCETOWN — If an autumn evening spent in a meeting room with the select board, planning board, affordable housing council, and Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust doesn’t sound like a […]
EARTH KEEPERS
Middle Schoolers Study Indigenous Past and Present
Farming, cooking, and time outdoors are part of ‘place-based education’
ORLEANS — A pair of place-based education classes at Nauset Regional Middle School aim to help students gain a deeper understanding of their home by putting Indigenous knowledge at the […]
RADIOACTIVITY
NRC Finds Apparent Security Violations at Pilgrim
‘Escalated enforcement action’ may be needed to protect spent fuel storage area
PLYMOUTH — Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have found apparent violations in the security measures being used to protect the spent fuel storage area on the grounds of […]
TRURO HOUSING
Five Years of Fits and Starts for Walsh Property
A new ad hoc committee is told that water supply is the project’s next major hurdle
This article was updated on Dec. 10, 2024. TRURO — Political roadblocks, infrastructure challenges, and bureaucratic delays have kept the 69.9-acre Walsh property in a kind of limbo since Truro’s […]
PUBLIC HEALTH
Officials Want Handlers of Rabid Raccoon to Seek Care
If tests show the animal was from here, wild animals will be vaccinated in spring
EASTHAM — A dead raccoon that turned up on Smith Lane with a face full of porcupine quills on Nov. 17 tested positive for raccoon variant rabies — a variant […]
IN THE DEEP
$2M Grant to Fishermen’s Alliance Means More Boats Gathering Ocean Data
Center for Coastal Studies will install sensors to expand a measurement network
CHATHAM — Strange things have been happening in recent years in the Gulf of Maine, the 36,000 square miles of relatively enclosed ocean stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
A Look Back on the Fishing Season
In 2024, fewer bass and blues on the bay side and the return of fluke
As we wrap up the year, there’s some recent news: the early arrival on Nov. 18 of two North Atlantic right whales. Scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies were […]
MORNING FLIGHT
Not Just Birds of a Feather
In the off-season, mixed flocks of disparate birds work together instead of apart
Winter is not easy if you’re a bird. The abundant food supply you relied on all summer is gone, you use a lot of energy keeping warm, and without leaves […]
BULLY FOR YOU
Cats ’n’ Dogs
There are three species of cattail that one might find around these parts — a meatier one that’s well behaved and local, a slim one from Eurasia and northern Africa that […]
