Scenic Views and Wildlife Are Threatened at Southwestern Parks

Click Here to Send Your Comments! Dear Reader, Although improvements have been made, a revised federal solar energy plan for the American Southwest could allow industrial-scale projects along the boundaries of our national parks. This action could cut off wildlife corridors, harm scenic vistas, and destroy important habitat for wildlife like bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, and golden eagles. We can't let this happen. Tens of thousands of advocates urged the Department of Interior to limit solar development to low impact solar energy zones and also spoke out against developing these zones next to national parks. Your voices were heard, and many zones near national parks were eliminated or reconfigured to protect these special places! Despite that important victory, the latest proposal would unfortunately allow solar projects to be sited adjacent to our southwestern parks outside of the low impact solar energy zones we all worked so hard to create. Take  Action: Act today and tell the Departments of Energy and the Interior that you support solar energy development, but not at the expense of national park resources, including sensitive wildlife that roam across the landscape to find water, food, and mates. Thank you for speaking up for our desert national parks and the wildlife that inhabits them. Future generations will appreciate your action today! Sincerely, David Lamfrom Sr. Program Manager, California Desert Share this on Facebook    Share this on Twitter This message was sent by the National Parks Conservation Association. E-mail us at TakeAction@npca.org, write to us at 777 6th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20001, or call us at 800.NAT.PARK (800.628.7275). Can't see this message? View it on the NPCA Website.

NPCA | 777 6th Street, NW | Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20001 | 800.NAT.PARK | npca@npca.org

Senate Blocks Eminent Domain For Northern Pass - Politics News Story - WMUR New Hampshire

Senate Blocks Eminent Domain For Northern Pass - Politics News Story - WMUR New Hampshire

New Protections For Property Owners Added To Bill

POSTED: 2:42 pm EST January 25, 2012
UPDATED: 6:01 pm EST January 25, 2012

CONCORD, N.H. -- The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would prevent the controversial Northern Pass power transmission project from taking property by eminent domain.

The near-unanimous measure combines language in the state constitution and existing law to guarantee private property rights against private acquisition.

"While public purposes sometimes require the taking of private property by eminent domain as a last resort, it is completely inappropriate that New Hampshire citizens should live in fear of taking by private projects for private gain," said Sen. Jeanie Forrester, R-District 2.

The Northern Pass project would bring electrical power to New England by cutting a transmission line through New Hampshire. Opponents of the $1 billion project who do not want to sell their land have been concerned the company could ultimately take the property through eminent domain.

"This is our land," said Karen Placey, who owns land in West Stewartstown. "This is something that means something to us, and that's it. We don't want to sell. We don't want it taken, so I feel good about this today."

Read more: Click Here

The Day - Skiing to a Remote Mountain Hut in Sleet, Wind and Snow – What Fun! | News from southeastern Connecticut

Skiing to a Remote Mountain Hut in Sleet, Wind and Snow – What Fun!

By Steve Fagin

Publication: theday.com

Published 01/21/2012 12:00 AM

Updated 01/20/2012 07:53 PM

While hiking at night up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail toward the Hermit Lake Shelters below New Hampshire’s Mount Washington a number of years ago, I puzzled at a canned ham stuck in a snow bank.

A few yards farther up I encountered other food items and assorted gear similarly scattered along the path. I could hear shouting and cursing ahead.

Propelled as much by curiosity as a desire to reach shelter and burrow in my sleeping bag before tackling the summit the next day, I pushed forward and soon solved the mystery.

Half a dozen college-age guys were dragging an enormous toboggan laden with hundreds of pounds of supplies up the steep slope, and little by little they were jettisoning cargo to lighten the load. Among the last provisions they would sacrifice, I suspected, was a case of beer lashed down with rope.

The exhausted crew staggered noisily to the shelter hour later, and one peek through the zippered opening in my bag proved my prediction about the beer had been accurate.

I thought about their Sisyphusian struggle the other day as I slogged the last few yards to Zealand Falls Hut, perched more than half a mile high at the eastern edge of the Pemigewasset Wilderness in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

For three miles I had cross-country skied while towing a plastic sled loaded with about 60 pounds of gear along a relatively flat, unplowed forest road. Then the road ended and a winding, 2.8-mile path to the hut began. Because the narrow trail was deeply rutted and crossed several streams I found it easier to hike, so I took off my skis, strapped them to the sled and plodded rather than schussed while still towing the sled.

This worked relatively efficiently until the last 500 feet, when the trail rose steeply over ice-covered rocks. A light rain that had been falling for the past hour switched to wind-driven sleet, and I didn’t want to undo the waterproof tarp covering my pack and dig around for hiking boots and grippers, so I slipped and slid while dragging the cursed sled. I also may have let loose with a few profanities.

At this point a crew of skiers also heading to the shelter that had started out behind me caught up and I thought to myself, this is a nice way to make an impression. My buddy Phil Plouffe, who had arrived ahead of me, came back to help me pull the sled the last 50 yards, and a few minutes later we all stamped up the steps to the wooden shelter, tired but happy to be out of the wretched elements.

“We made it!” cried Rick Ely of Stonington, a longtime friend who organized the expedition.

In addition to Phil, Rick and me there were four others: Rick’s wife, Laura; and Jeff Parker, Andrew Watson and Chris Smarz, who all work in the bike store Rick and a partner own, Mystic Cycle Centre. The purpose of this outing, as if we needed one, was to celebrate Andrew’s birthday.

Zealand Falls Hut, owned and operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, is one of several White Mountain shelters open to hikers all year. A few years earlier I had spent a week as a winter caretaker a few miles north at the Gray Knob Shelter owned and operated by the Randolph Mountain Club. Over the years I’ve also bunked at virtually every shelter in the Whites, as well as pitched tents at campsites and hunkered down in just about every lean-to, when my son, Tom and I were tagging all 67 of the 4,000-foot-plus-high mountains in New England.

Zealand is one of the most accessible and one of my favorite winter destinations because the unheated bunkrooms are directly off the main cabin instead of located in separate buildings, making it a relatively easy transition from dinner table to sleeping bag. Also, the outhouse connects to the cabin.

Caretaker Steve Frens lit the wood stove right on schedule at 4 p.m., and soon our quarters were relatively toasty. (for complete story click here)

Super Bowl Blackout Looms For Some In New England

Contract Dispute Between WHDH, DirecTV Threatens Broadcast

POSTED: 7:41 pm EST January 24, 2012
UPDATED: 7:48 pm EST January 24, 2012

BOSTON -- Some New England television viewers may be unable to watch the New England Patriots play in the Super Bowl, unless a dispute between the owners of WHDH-TV and DirecTV is resolved before Feb. 5.

The battle between Sunbeam Television, which owns WHDH, and the satellite provider centers on so-called retransmission fees, the amount WHDH is paid to allow DirecTV to carry its signal.

Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/money/30291047/detail.html#ixzz1kQmafPJ2

Solar Storm: Strongest Geomagnetic Storm in Six Years to Hit Earth: (Credit: NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory/Getty Images) Earth will experience its strongest geomagnetic storm in six years today, but the radiation is expected to cause only minor problems with satellites, the power grid and navigation devices. “Operators are surely seeing a greater number of errors on...

By Alyssa Newcomb

Jan 24, 2012 6:00am

Solar Storm: Strongest Geomagnetic Storm in Six Years to Hit Earth

Credit: NASA/SDO and the AIA Consortium/Edited by J. MajorThis SDO image (AIA 193) shows an M9-class solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere at 03:49 UT on Jan. 23, 2012... just 4 days after a previous strong CME that sparked aurora around the world on the 22nd. More geomagnetic activity is expected for the 24th.

Earth will experience its strongest geomagnetic storm in six years today, but the radiation is expected to cause only minor problems with satellites, the power grid and navigation devices.

“Operators are surely seeing a greater number of errors on their system that are causing them to work a bit harder, but we’re not expecting satellites to stop,” Douglas Biesecker, a physicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told ABCNews.com.

The storm is forecasted to be a G-2 or G-3 on NOAA’s ascending five-point scale.

Biesecker said people should not worry about harmful radiation.

“The magnetic field around Earth is protecting us. That’s one of the great things about being on Earth,” he said.

The average person won’t be affected by the radiation unless they’re taking a flight with a polar route.

“Airlines will divert those flights because high frequency communications will be impacted,” he said.

The storm was set off by a chain of events Sunday evening. A moderate solar flare erupted on the sun, which occurs tens of thousands of times every solar cycle, Biesecker said. The solar flare was associated with a coronal mass ejection, which is also a frequent occurrence. However, this particular one was big and sent a cloud of plasma with a magnetic field hurdling toward Earth at 4 million mph.