New England Winter 2024-25 Bantering, Whining, and Sobbing Thread

[weatherwiz]

2 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Anyone have any idea what these prints are?

Could be a samsquanch

[ineedsnow]

5 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Anyone have any idea what these prints are?

Snowshoe hare?

[dendrite]

I thought hare, but looks slightly different from what I see online. 
 

It looks like the hind feet of a skunk, but no sign of the front paws. We do have one that hangs around. 

[Heisy]

Anyone see end of 18z euro? Will, this looks like it may have actually done something here



.

[DavisStraight]

10 minutes ago, dendrite said:

I thought hare, but looks slightly different from what I see online. 
 

It looks like the hind feet of a skunk, but no sign of the front paws. We do have one that hangs around. 

Maybe a neighbor went streaking? Looks like human foot prints without shoes.

[ineedsnow]

23 minutes ago, Heisy said:

Anyone see end of 18z euro? Will, this looks like it may have actually done something here



.

That was looking fun!

[DavisStraight]

On 2/21/2025 at 6:19 PM, dendrite said:

Anyone have any idea what these prints are?

I was the hunting/fishing expo in Springfield today and showed these prints to a couple of guides and no one could tell what they were.

[Layman]

@tamarack I was heading up 95N in Maine yesterday and near Kennebunk there was a tree cutting operation on the side of the road for a few miles. Looked to be predominantly pine, all stacked nicely in bundles/piles. 
That stretch has always seemed to flow really well so I assumed it wasn’t for some future fourth lane expansion. I was curious though, does the state harvest the wood to their setback and use that for income? 
It looked to be a good deal beyond what I see when Eversource comes through trimming their ROW’s and was staged very cleanly for retrieval. 
 

[dendrite]

14 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

I was the hunting/fishing expo in Springfield today and showed these prints to a couple of guides and no one could tell what they were.

Appreciate the effort. It was light enough to not bust through the snow. I still lean skunk.

[CoastalWx]

6 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Appreciate the effort. It was light enough to not bust through the snow. I still lean skunk.

Looks like bare foot human prints lol. Eek?

[DavisStraight]

5 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Looks like bare foot human prints lol. Eek?

It does. I talked to a trapper there who had every fur of animals in the wild of New England and he had no idea.

[DavisStraight]

7 hours ago, dendrite said:

Appreciate the effort. It was light enough to not bust through the snow. I still lean skunk.

I think you're right, I've been looking at skunk tracks and some of the are pretty close.

[tamarack]

On 2/23/2025 at 7:35 AM, Layman said:

@tamarack I was heading up 95N in Maine yesterday and near Kennebunk there was a tree cutting operation on the side of the road for a few miles. Looked to be predominantly pine, all stacked nicely in bundles/piles. 
That stretch has always seemed to flow really well so I assumed it wasn’t for some future fourth lane expansion. I was curious though, does the state harvest the wood to their setback and use that for income? 
It looked to be a good deal beyond what I see when Eversource comes through trimming their ROW’s and was staged very cleanly for retrieval. 
 

Maybe those pines had grown sufficiently tall to reach pavement if toppled in a crosswind.  I've heard nothing about a 4th lane - would be dumb.

Loggers get paid to cut along the interstates, due to the strung-out harvest area and the cost of ensuring safety for the traffic.  The timber value defrays much of the cost to the state.

[MJO812]

15 years ago

[tamarack]

The worst 10" dump ever - 4:1 mashed potatoes that splattered on landing, mixed/followed by 1.1" of 34-35° RA, this latter while NYC was mid 20s with its 20.9" snowicane - on the same NE winds as up here.  Snowblower was broken and running the scoop in that mush was harder than moving the 24.5" storm a year earlier.  The only one of the 4 KUs that gave us a flake (though what fell here wasn't exactly flakes.)

[Brewbeer]

7 hours ago, tamarack said:

mashed potatoes

Having some with dinner

[Ski Patroller]

On 2/23/2025 at 7:35 AM, Layman said:

@tamarack I was heading up 95N in Maine yesterday and near Kennebunk there was a tree cutting operation on the side of the road for a few miles. Looked to be predominantly pine, all stacked nicely in bundles/piles. 
That stretch has always seemed to flow really well so I assumed it wasn’t for some future fourth lane expansion. I was curious though, does the state harvest the wood to their setback and use that for income? 
It looked to be a good deal beyond what I see when Eversource comes through trimming their ROW’s and was staged very cleanly for retrieval. 
 

I've been involved in this Northeastern issue for several years. It's essentially welfare for contractors as it is grotesque overkill. Federal funding covers 90% of it so state DOT grant managers are thrilled even if it means destroying the landscape aesthetic - their interest is in grabbing every grant they can get, needed or not. The states and federal government could literally save millions by simply having arborists tag hazard trees for removal but they don't do this, they senselessly clearcut. It is out of control across New England and beyond. The income from the trees is insignificant because they are sold below market rate or given to the contractors "for disposal". A recent project in CT produced 16,000 logs pole-to-sawtimber size and the gross receipt to the state was $22,000 ($1.38/tree gross).

Most of the contractors have invested in multi-million-dollar specialized machines for clearcutting roadsides instead of hiring manual cutters so the jobs impact of these programs is limited. DOTs say that they are creating pollinator habitat in the deforested areas, ignoring the fact that they are creating sink habitat for insects because, you know, a zillion cars cruising by at 70mph. I've been doing habitat restorations for a living for over 30 years and a key tenet of ecological restoration is don't create production habitat within or adjacent to kill zones. For example, the foraging range of a honeybee is 2 miles (1 mile radius from hive), so ... splat.

Additionally, these cleared areas become densely populated by non-native invasive plants whose #1 vector of dispersal is ... roads. These plants are disturbance-specialists and are highly adapted to quickly exploit the macerated soils of the cleared sites. So these roadside-clearing programs are not only contrary to good science and the landscape aesthetic, they greatly aid in the spread of invasives, a phenomenon called "the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss" by E.O. Wilson.

But to end on a positive note, we just finished a project in NW Maine that permanently protected 3500 acres in the Mahoosucs. Most of it was paper company land and it will now be forever wild. Onward.

[BrianW]

24 minutes ago, Ski Patroller said:

I've been involved in this Northeastern issue for several years. It's essentially welfare for contractors as it is grotesque overkill. Federal funding covers 90% of it so state DOT grant managers are thrilled even if it means destroying the landscape aesthetic - their interest is in grabbing every grant they can get, needed or not. The states and federal government could literally save millions by simply having arborists tag hazard trees for removal but they don't do this, they senselessly clearcut. It is out of control across New England and beyond. The income from the trees is insignificant because they are sold below market rate or given to the contractors "for disposal". A recent project in CT produced 16,000 logs pole-to-sawtimber size and the gross receipt to the state was $22,000 ($1.38/tree gross).

Most of the contractors have invested in multi-million-dollar specialized machines for clearcutting roadsides instead of hiring manual cutters so the jobs impact of these programs is limited. DOTs say that they are creating pollinator habitat in the deforested areas, ignoring the fact that they are creating sink habitat for insects because, you know, a zillion cars cruising by at 70mph. I've been doing habitat restorations for a living for over 30 years and a key tenet of ecological restoration is don't create production habitat within or adjacent to kill zones. For example, the foraging range of a honeybee is 2 miles (1 mile radius from hive), so ... splat.

Additionally, these cleared areas become densely populated by non-native invasive plants whose #1 vector of dispersal is ... roads. These plants are disturbance-specialists and are highly adapted to quickly exploit the macerated soils of the cleared sites. So these roadside-clearing programs are not only contrary to good science and the landscape aesthetic, they greatly aid in the spread of invasives, a phenomenon called "the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss" by E.O. Wilson.

But to end on a positive note, we just finished a project in NW Maine that permanently protected 3500 acres in the Mahoosucs. Most of it was paper company land and it will now be forever wild. Onward.

I remember awhile back they were trimming along 395 in CT. They had like an insane 18 wheeler size chipper that was just shredding whole large trees into the woods. Seemed like an absolute waste. 

[DavisStraight]

4 hours ago, Ski Patroller said:

I've been involved in this Northeastern issue for several years. It's essentially welfare for contractors as it is grotesque overkill. Federal funding covers 90% of it so state DOT grant managers are thrilled even if it means destroying the landscape aesthetic - their interest is in grabbing every grant they can get, needed or not. The states and federal government could literally save millions by simply having arborists tag hazard trees for removal but they don't do this, they senselessly clearcut. It is out of control across New England and beyond. The income from the trees is insignificant because they are sold below market rate or given to the contractors "for disposal". A recent project in CT produced 16,000 logs pole-to-sawtimber size and the gross receipt to the state was $22,000 ($1.38/tree gross).

Most of the contractors have invested in multi-million-dollar specialized machines for clearcutting roadsides instead of hiring manual cutters so the jobs impact of these programs is limited. DOTs say that they are creating pollinator habitat in the deforested areas, ignoring the fact that they are creating sink habitat for insects because, you know, a zillion cars cruising by at 70mph. I've been doing habitat restorations for a living for over 30 years and a key tenet of ecological restoration is don't create production habitat within or adjacent to kill zones. For example, the foraging range of a honeybee is 2 miles (1 mile radius from hive), so ... splat.

Additionally, these cleared areas become densely populated by non-native invasive plants whose #1 vector of dispersal is ... roads. These plants are disturbance-specialists and are highly adapted to quickly exploit the macerated soils of the cleared sites. So these roadside-clearing programs are not only contrary to good science and the landscape aesthetic, they greatly aid in the spread of invasives, a phenomenon called "the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss" by E.O. Wilson.

But to end on a positive note, we just finished a project in NW Maine that permanently protected 3500 acres in the Mahoosucs. Most of it was paper company land and it will now be forever wild. Onward.

They've been trimming on the road near me all week, they put all the wood through a chipper here. When I drive through CT I see logs on the side of the road from the trees they cut, they mulch the branches but leave the trunk, if I had a truck I could ride through the back roads of CT and get a years worth of firewood free.

[Ginx snewx]

53 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

They've been trimming on the road near me all week, they put all the wood through a chipper here. When I drive through CT I see logs on the side of the road from the trees they cut, they mulch the branches but leave the trunk, if I had a truck I could ride through the back roads of CT and geti a years worth of firewood free.

You could get decades of wood.The amount of down dead Oaks insane never mind clear cut.

[Ginx snewx]

5 hours ago, Ski Patroller said:

I've been involved in this Northeastern issue for several years. It's essentially welfare for contractors as it is grotesque overkill. Federal funding covers 90% of it so state DOT grant managers are thrilled even if it means destroying the landscape aesthetic - their interest is in grabbing every grant they can get, needed or not. The states and federal government could literally save millions by simply having arborists tag hazard trees for removal but they don't do this, they senselessly clearcut. It is out of control across New England and beyond. The income from the trees is insignificant because they are sold below market rate or given to the contractors "for disposal". A recent project in CT produced 16,000 logs pole-to-sawtimber size and the gross receipt to the state was $22,000 ($1.38/tree gross).

Most of the contractors have invested in multi-million-dollar specialized machines for clearcutting roadsides instead of hiring manual cutters so the jobs impact of these programs is limited. DOTs say that they are creating pollinator habitat in the deforested areas, ignoring the fact that they are creating sink habitat for insects because, you know, a zillion cars cruising by at 70mph. I've been doing habitat restorations for a living for over 30 years and a key tenet of ecological restoration is don't create production habitat within or adjacent to kill zones. For example, the foraging range of a honeybee is 2 miles (1 mile radius from hive), so ... splat.

Additionally, these cleared areas become densely populated by non-native invasive plants whose #1 vector of dispersal is ... roads. These plants are disturbance-specialists and are highly adapted to quickly exploit the macerated soils of the cleared sites. So these roadside-clearing programs are not only contrary to good science and the landscape aesthetic, they greatly aid in the spread of invasives, a phenomenon called "the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss" by E.O. Wilson.

But to end on a positive note, we just finished a project in NW Maine that permanently protected 3500 acres in the Mahoosucs. Most of it was paper company land and it will now be forever wild. Onward.

Great job. My degree is environmental Science.  I believe the cutting in CT greatly reduced our power loss numbers which saves millions. Would selective timber harvest by a forester eliminate the power threat? There has to be a balance.

[Ski Patroller]

16 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Great job. My degree is environmental Science.  I believe the cutting in CT greatly reduced our power loss numbers which saves millions. Would selective timber harvest by a forester eliminate the power threat? There has to be a balance.

I agree about the balance. Street trees should be managed by arborists with their very high level of education in tree pathology and risk assessment. Foresters are all about growing trees as crops and their education level is not in the realm of individual tree health. CT recently upped the municipal tree warden education and experience requirements so that 1st selectmen and their appointees (often the road foreman) aren't making arboricultural decisions which often led to bad outcomes. People like their street trees.

I am completely on board with balancing risk in street tree management but we are nowhere near that right now.

[Go Kart Mozart]

I read that NOAA has been ordered to fire 880 employees.  I hope forecasting gets a lot worse.  I miss surprise storms.

But with the rise of AI, I wonder if we will even notice?

 

[monadnocks]

I hope all our NWS posters are safe from the job cuts and aren't forced to work unwanted shifts.

[MJO812]

2 hours ago, Go Kart Mozart said:

I read that NOAA has been ordered to fire 880 employees.  I hope forecasting gets a lot worse.  I miss surprise storms.

But with the rise of AI, I wonder if we will even notice?

 

I want to go back to the euro years when it predicted storms a week out.

[ineedsnow]

Andy Hazelton

 

@AndyHazelton

 

 

Unfortunately I can confirm the rumors going around today since I received "the email"...I don't want to make any comments other than I am exploring legal options in a couple of avenues. I will probably be deactivating this account for a variety of reasons soon. I always advocate contacting representatives about the importance of the NWS/NOAA mission.

[Hoth]

If there is a single government agency that generates great value for the tax payer's dollar, it is the NWS.

[Ski Patroller]

Cutting NOAA staff is another example of the utter chaos brought by President Musk and his portly pet. WTF is wrong with the voters of this great country of ours?

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, Ski Patroller said:

Cutting NOAA staff is another example of the utter chaos brought by President Musk and his portly pet. WTF is wrong with the voters of this great country of ours?

Because that doesn't affect them, they think they'll be better off with the current president.

[snowman21]

2 hours ago, Hoth said:

If there is a single government agency that generates great value for the tax payer's dollar, it is the NWS.

$4 per year per taxpayer for everything NOAA does is a ridiculous bargain. It's stupidly cheap. NOAA's budget is $6B out of the $5.9T total spend. We're talking 0.1% of the budget and 0.4% of the federal work force.