Stories

UNH Ph.D. student Caroline Kanaskie holds a beetle trap. Kanaskie discovered Southern Pine Beetles in New Hampshire and Maine.

Why climate change has brought southern pine beetles to New England

January 25, 2022

There’s a new bug in town. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have spotted the southern pine beetle, an insect that feeds on pine trees and can kill them in large numbers, in New Hampshire. This is the first time the insect has been seen this far north – and Jeff Garnas, an associate…

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Stephen Foster, director of Facilities at Plymouth State University, and Bill Johnstone, business development executive at the New Hampshire Electric Co-op, stand in front of PSU's EV chargers. The school plans to get two new ones in the spring.

How an EV charging pilot program at Plymouth State could help transform the grid

January 25, 2022

If you’re not looking for them, Plymouth State University’s electric vehicle chargers don’t stand out as much as the town’s Irving Oil and Citgo. But soon, the school will have two new chargers that are part of a much bigger project — a pilot program to test out technology that could help power New Hampshire’s…

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A portrait of Professor of Mechanical Engineering Yan Wang at his laboratory at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Mass. startup transforms old electric car batteries into better-than-new ones

January 25, 2022

The switch to electric vehicles is accelerating worldwide. There are about 10 million battery-powered vehicles on the road today, and by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency predicts there could be 230 million. But there’s a problem down the road. All those EVs are powered by batteries, and when they come to end of…

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A bulldozer levels ash on a landfill mound beside Covanta's Haverhill waste facility that incinerates trash and generates electricity.

Reducing trash may reduce the need for incinerators in Mass.

January 21, 2022

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series about trash incineration in Massachusetts. Part 1 looks at the perspectives of the communities housing incinerators. The roads heading to the incinerator in Haverhill, Mass., can at times look like a parade in honor of trash. Dump trucks rumble in carrying garbage bags from 24 cities and…

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Berkeley Parenteau stands in front of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services during a rally against the development of a landfill near Forest Lake State Park.

N.H. lawmakers consider bill that would stop new landfills, for now

January 20, 2022

New Hampshire legislators are considering a bill that would prohibit the Department of Environmental Services from issuing new permits for landfills until they revise the state’s solid waste plan. Controversial landfill expansions, lack of leadership The state’s solid waste plan is supposed to be updated every six years, but the most recent plan is from 2003. Rep. Linda…

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A front end loader pushes garbage into the bunker, so a grab crane can lift it from there into the furnace chute.

Trash is a burning question with mixed answers in some Mass. towns

January 20, 2022

Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories about the state of trash incinerators in Massachusetts.  The first thing you notice in the warehouse at the Haverhill incinerator is the giant mechanical claw. It moves across the ceiling and drops into the second thing you notice: a pit of trash, 30 feet deep. The…

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A photo of the rare Steller's sea eagle along the coast of Maine on Dec. 31, 2021.

Far from home, a big, rare sea eagle finds devoted fans on Maine’s coast

January 12, 2022

Since late December, a rare, wayward eagle native to Russia and Japan has taken up residence along Maine’s Midcoast near Boothbay Harbor. The Steller’s sea eagle is one of the largest raptors in the world, weighing up to 20 pounds with an eight-foot wingspan. There are only about 4,000 of them left, and the chance…

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Maine's Wells Beach at low tide after a nor'easter in October 2021.

Early data suggest 2021 was one of the hottest years on record in Gulf of Maine

January 12, 2022

Surface water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine this fall hit new seasonal highs, and it looks like 2021 overall will be one of the hottest ever in the gulf. Researchers at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute said that this fall, temperatures in the gulf ran more than four degrees Fahrenheit above the historical norm. “It…

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Arctic air brings extreme cold temps, subzero wind chill to region

January 11, 2022

Dry air from the barren reaches of the north will be here for just about 24 hours, but will certainly make an impression for those of us that need to be outside for any extended amount of time. You may think of air as all the same, but Arctic air is heavy and dense and…

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Mass Wildlife Deer & Moose Biologist Martin Feehan prepares to insert a cotton swab into the nose of a dead 140-pound deer buck, found in Needham, to test it for the presence of the COVID-19 virus. Deer across the country have been found to carry COVID-19.

Mass. is monitoring white-tailed deer for COVID. Here’s why

January 11, 2022

On a recent evening at the MassWildlife field headquarters in Westborough, Mass., Martin Feehan stood face-to-face with a 160-pound dead buck, splayed out on the loading dock. The deer died of a broken leg, after it was apparently hit by a car in Needham. Feehan, a deer and moose biologist, had brought it to headquarters to…

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