Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Eelgrass is struggling in the Great Bay, a bad sign for the whole ecosystem
From a Conservation Law Foundation news release: Eelgrass – underwater seagrasses that are the foundation of the Great Bay estuary’s ecosystem – say its coverage across the estuary fall by 80 percent in a single year, from more than 1,000 acres in 2024 to just 211...
NH is being humiliated in the Rain Gauge Rally. Quick – sign up!
Every year CoCoRaHS, the citizen-science precipitation-watching group, holds a month-long rally to sign up new "watchers." As of right now not a single person has signed up in New Hampshire, and we're halfway through the month! Four people have already signed up in...
Want to be a wildlife biologist? Get your culvert maintainer’s license.
New Hampshire Fish and Game posted this on their Facebook page, with the above illustration. As a long-time fan of culverts, those tubes running beneath roads that are a major but mostly invisible bit of infrastructure, I had to reprint it. Why would a biologist need...
Cyanobacteria blooms are a nasty and expensive (and growing) problem
New Hampshire Bulletin has a long story about cyanobacteria blooms (often called, inaccurately, algae blooms) in the state's lakes and ponds. The full story is here. About 60 to 70 water bodies in the state deal with a bloom each year, and half of those tend to be...
A reminder that renewables beat ‘new nukes’ for NH
IndepthNH has an op-ed that says what I said about the nuclear dreams in New Hampshire, although their piece has more background and details, If the Governor really wants to drive down consumer electricity and energy costs and create more “energy independence”, she...
Shutting Bartlett Research Forest celebrates willful ignorance
A while back, federal and state biologists spent 12 years —12 years! — studying the reproductive cycles of mice and voles, seeing how they interact with the amount of seeds and nuts that trees produce each year. Why? Because because small mammals are a major route for...
Every month for the past 9 has been below-average in precipitation
It’s hard to remember after a winter that had snow on the ground for months and a recent stretch of damp weather, but all of New Hampshire is still in various states of drought and it’s time to start being a little cautious about outdoor fires. A look at weather data...
NH patents through April 11
Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number or inventor’s name. By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire in the week through April 11. Predictive Multidimensional Search and Selection Tool...
Speaking of renewables …
Estimated rooftop solar in New England topped 7 GW yesterday (Wednesday) for the first time, one year after it topped 6 GW for the first time. Utility solar is creeping up toward 1 GW (992 MW today). 7 GW (7000 MW or 7 million KW or 7 billion watts) is equal to the...
New nukes would be cool, sure, but renewables (and batteries) are here already
I was delighted to hear Gov. Ayotte and other New England governors recently push for ways to strengthen our energy independence through increasing use of modern technology. Because we do need more solar, wind, batteries and non-wire alternatives to keep New Hampshire...
Return to the Concord Monitor