Residential developments, historically perceived as a threat to wildlife habitats, are taking on a positive role through a new Nature Conservancy program called the Vineyard Habitat Network.

Residences that can actually foster healthy habitats? It’s not only possible, it’s being done already, habitat officials say.

After coming from Nantucket to the Vineyard on Wednesday, Cormac Collier first noticed the trees lining the roads that wind through Chilmark.

“We took a little tour on the western side of the Island, and the one thing I was most amazed about was . . . the forests that are here. We definitely have some similarities in terms of geological formations and vegetation, but the amount of mature forests that are here is pretty remarkable. It’s definitely nice to come here, because we don’t have forests like you,” he said.

On Saturday, Nov. 24, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation will hold the annual meeting of its board of overseers at the Mary P. Wakeman Conservation Center auditorium off Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven. The overseers will meet at 1 p.m. The annual meeting of the board of trustees will follow. At 1:30 p.m., the foundation will invite the public to a presentation of its activities over the past year.

As community preservation committees across the Island prepare their recommendations for the coming fiscal year, they report growing interest by Vineyarders in the possibilities offered by Community Preservation Act funding.

More than $3 million in requests are under consideration by preservation committees on the Island.

Town officials who oversee CPA funds have seen a surge in activity and applications.

A forum bringing together those for and against the controversial Cape Wind electricity project drew more than 120 people to the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Thursday night and generated far more light than heat.

The forum, organized under the auspices of the Vineyard Haven library lecture and workshop series, was intended to establish a factual basis for further discussion of the project rather than encourage debate, and by that measure can be counted a signal success.

Approval of a mussel farm permit this week may lead to a collegial effort to clean up Menemsha Pond.

In the process of approving Hollis Smith’s aquaculture permit request, conversation expanded to disclose informal discussions between Chilmark and Aquinnah town officials and Wampanoag tribal members to work together to clean the pond.

Menemsha Pond waters lie in both Chilmark and Aquinnah and have been separately maintained by each town historically. The pond has not been dredged since 1971 and “has been dying for 20 years,” Mr. Smith said.

A staff report released by the Cape Cod Commission this week gives a decidedly mixed review to the controversial plan by Cape Wind Associates to build 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal. The report finds that Cape Wind’s plan to connect the turbines to land in West Yarmouth through underwater electricity transmission lines meets only eight of 32 performance standards set by the commission.

In general, the staff report concluded, a good deal more information is needed in order to satisfy the requirements of the commission.

The Oak Bluffs Community Preservation Committee (CPC) is pleased to announce that application forms are now available to request funding for projects for historic preservation, affordable housing and open space/recreation for the fiscal year that begins in July 2008.

Requests for proposals are being accepted through Oct. 5, 2007.

The lead foreman of Vineyard Gardens, Jeremiah Brown, doesn’t mince words about his expertise.

“What I know is pruning,” he said.

He shared his experience with members of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club at its September meeting by combining a talk and hands-on demonstration on the grounds of the Old Mill in West Tisbury. 

Mr. Brown admitted to starting out his career in horticulture by “knocking out false bamboo in his mother’s garden with a golf club.”

Local pool builders, contractors and Chilmark selectmen showed up to a public hearing of the planning board Monday afternoon to discuss a proposed amendment to town zoning bylaws.

The amendment would require heated swimming pools built in the town to use solar thermal heating systems as the primary source of energy to heat that pool. The planning board hopes to put the amendment on the warrant for an Oct. 29 special town meeting.