Recently, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department fielded a survey on Vermonters' attitudes towards trapping.
Despite spending $45,000 on this survey - more than twice the revenue generated through trapping licenses each year in the state - documents obtained via a public records request show that the Department seemed more interested in advancing a pro-trapping agenda than in genuinely understanding the public's attitudes.
Despite this bias, with vaguely worded survey questions, the results still reveal that most Vermonters oppose trapping.
The survey didn't clarify what types of trapping the questions were referring to, so respondents answered without knowing whether the survey was asking about live-capture cage traps (like Havahart traps), leg-hold traps, or body-crushing kill traps (such as Conibear traps).
Next Stage Arts in Putney is receiving $4,000 in grant funds from AARP Vermont, one of six grants awarded to Vermont communities to initiate or enhance winter placemaking demonstration projects. The projects focus on creating or reinventing public spaces to improve safety, accessibility, and overall appeal on a temporary...
BUHS music dept. offers Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Union High School music department is once again offering the Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service to Brattleboro residents. This program, in its 31st year, is endorsed by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture as well...
Next Stage Arts presents a screening of The Reverend, a documentary feature film, followed by a discussion with director Nick Canfield, on Saturday, Jan. 7, at 2 p.m. The subjects of the film, the (1)Rev. Vince Anderson and his band, known as The Love Choir, will perform at Next Stage later that day at 7:30 p.m. “Monday nights in Brooklyn are world-famous because of Reverend Vince and His Love Choir,” Next Stage executive director Keith Marks said in a news...
Obituaries • Barbara Brooks of Newfane. Died at her home on Dec. 20, 2022, with her children Tom and Amanda nearby. She said she wanted to be at home surrounded by family, and had asked God if He could please make it snow on the night of her passing. He obliged, even though it was not in the forecast. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Marjorie (Fairbanks) and Clarence Stacey, she grew up in East Dummerston and attended Brattleboro Union High...
Imagine you are walking near a river and you see a river otter playing in the water, twisting and turning. It is a few feet long, maybe 2 to 3 feet. Sleek and dark, tumbling over others of its kind. It looks like it's dancing! Believe it or not, these otters are in danger of getting trapped. Hi, my name is Luca, and I am a fifth grader at Academy School. We have been studying Vermont river otters for about...
When I was walking on a trail at Sweet Pond with my grandmother and my sibling, I saw an otter just barely peeking its head over a rock. It was an incredible experience that I hope I will get to repeat - but I am worried I won't be able to. Hi, my name is Elsa. I am 10 years old. I would like to talk to you about the river otters we have here in Vermont. About 900 licensed...
The Townshend Historical Society has been awarded a $221,000 Save America's Treasures grant from the national Historic Preservation Fund, to be administered by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. Together with a matching sum raised by the Historical Society and the town of Townshend, the grant will partly fund restoration of the West Townshend Stone Arch Bridge. The West Townshend Stone Arch Bridge carries Back Windham Road across Tannery Brook at the east edge of West...
The Brattleboro Music Center's Season Guest Series welcomes back Palaver Strings on Friday, Jan. 6. Included will be a pre-concert Meet the Composer talk from 6:30 to 7:10 in the BMC recital hall with Artist-in-Residence Ashleigh Gordon. Gordon will interview one of the composers of the evening's offerings, Jeffrey Mumford, via Zoom. Titled “Painted Dreams,” the Jan. 6 concert recalls sunnier times in the depths of a New England winter. It begins with Reena Esmail's “Nadiya for Violin and Viola,”
Upper Elementary students Solen Rosenberg and Eleanor Horton initiated this year's Community Toy Drive at Hilltop Montessori School. Building upon last year's inaugural project, which grew out of the passion to help children and their families who are unhoused (1)and/or experiencing economic hardship, the students expanded their drive this year to include more families within the community. Rosenberg and Horton contacted early education programs and schools in Windham County. After they followed up with phone calls with directors, principals, and...
When the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a knockout blow to Strolling of the Heifers in the fall of 2020 that resulted in the suspension of the nonprofit's operations, an end to its annual parade, and the sale of the River Garden, many speculated over what would happen to what remained of the organization. On Dec. 14, the Vermont Secretary of State recorded a change of name from the Strolling of the Heifers to Agritech Institute for Small Farms, Inc. On Dec.
Being the southern-most Division I school in Vermont has long been a problem for Brattleboro in basketball, since with the exception of Mount Anthony and Burr & Burton, all the rest of their competition is located to the north. This means a lot of long bus rides to places such as Burlington, St. Johnsbury, and Rutland. Logistically, it would be easier to play nearby New Hampshire teams such as Keene, ConVal, or Monadnock, or Massachusetts teams such as Amherst, Greenfield,
A little over a year ago, when her mother, Jean Brady, was a patient at Hartford (Conn.) Hospital, Susan MacNeil got the call. Brady was 94, in declining health, and her hearing had become seriously diminished. The call was not unexpected, but it's one you never are really prepared for. “I think this is it - I'm dying,” Brady told her daughter in Bellows Falls. In the hospital, where they talked every day, Brady had been in intensive care, where...
Charlotte Bishop was standing at her kitchen window in January 2019 when she saw water streaming into her yard. A block of ice had clogged the brook that snakes around the mobile home park where she and her husband Rollin live. Bishop grabbed her keys and rushed outside to move their cars to higher ground. Within minutes, she was wading through knee-high water. Bishop lives in Tri-Park Cooperative in Brattleboro, Vermont's largest and oldest resident-owned mobile home community. The co-op...
In all the talk about encroaching autocracy in the United States and elsewhere, politicians, pundits, media personalities, and others need to remember the words and wisdom of the revolutionary second first lady, Abigail Adams, who admonished her husband to “remember the ladies.” Another first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, echoed her predecessor in a recent CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour when she called out the absence of misogyny in various analyses of forces at work when countries descend into autocracies and...
Closed in May 2022 after pandemic conditions resulted in a shortage of money and qualified nursing staff to run it, former assisted living facility Holton Home is now being transformed into housing for traveling health care workers. The new incarnation of this historic building at 158 Western Ave. is a result of a collaboration among M&S Development, which is adapting the structure; Garden Path Elder Living, its owner; and the Brattleboro Retreat, whose temporary staff can find housing there in...
Brattleboro Union High School continues to grapple with what has become a national concern: drugs in school, especially post-pandemic. On Dec. 22, Interim Principal Cassie Damkoehler confirmed that on the previous day, “two, possibly three” students visited the health office at the school “complaining of some odd symptoms that came on suddenly.” “The students were unaware of any reason they would be experiencing these sorts of things,” Damkoehler said in an immediate message to staff members and parents. She later...
Best wishes for a happy New Year appear not to have extended from all when students returned to classes on Tuesday, Jan. 3 in the Windham Southeast School District. Instead of diving into their studies, students spent up to 30 minutes in their classrooms while police responded and ascertained they were safe, which they quickly did. Unconfirmed reports suggest an alum might have made aggressive statements while involved in social media gaming, prompting the caution. Law enforcement responded, and it...
Townshend Historical Society Awarded Prestigious Save America's Treasures Grant for Restoration of West Townshend Stone Arch Bridge Townshend Historical Society has been awarded a $221,000 Save America's Treasures grant from the national Historic Preservation Fund. Together with a matching sum raised by the Historical Society and Town of Townshend, the grant will partly fund restoration of the West Townshend Stone Arch Bridge. It is to be administered by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. The West...
Next Stage Arts in Putney is receiving $4,000 in grant funds from AARP Vermont, one of six grants awarded to Vermont communities to initiate or enhance winter placemaking demonstration projects. The projects focus on creating or reinventing public spaces to improve safety, accessibility, and overall appeal on a temporary or permanent basis. Proposals from Burlington, Rutland, White River Junction, Mendon, Putney, and Swanton were selected from dozens of applications for the initiative. Next Stage Arts says it will use the...
FILM SCREENING AND CONCERT FEATURE REVEREND VINCE ANDERSON & HIS LOVE CHOIR at NEXT STAGE ON 1/7 PUTNEY, VT- 12/13/2022 - Next Stage Arts presents a screening of The Reverend, a documentary feature film, followed by a Q&A with director Nick Canfield on Saturday, January 7 at 2:00 pm at Next Stage. The subjects of the film, Reverend Vince Anderson & His Love Choir, perform at Next Stage at 7:30 pm. Monday nights in Brooklyn are world-famous because of Reverend...
Neighbors on Oak Street still tell stories about Ferguson, the late but seemingly immortal calico tabby cat that fearlessly sauntered and sunbathed in the middle of traffic, even after an accident sparked swelling nearly as grotesque as the vet bills. But the feline had nothing on its family's patriarch, William Joseph “Bill” Callahan, the Depression-era child turned World War II soldier, husband, father, mail carrier, middle-age college student and teacher, post-retirement cyclist and heart attack survivor with nine lives -
BUHS music dept. offers Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service BRATTLEBORO - The B.U.H.S. Music Department is once again offering the Merry Mulch Christmas tree collection service to Brattleboro residents. This program, in its 31st year, is endorsed by the Vermont Department of Agriculture as well as the New Hampshire/Vermont Christmas Tree Association. For a $10.00 donation, members of the band and chorus will transport undecorated trees from homes to a community garden in West Brattleboro where they will be...