Also on today’s menu:
Speaking Of Beavers
Too Quick To Judgment
That full beaver moon: Since the near-total eclipse that occurred early this morning was the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years, according to scientists at NASA, we went outside for the 4:02 a.m. peak to observe the moon and take a few photos as the earth’s shadow moved across it. The image above is the best we got with a hand-held camera, so I went back inside to grab a tripod. Unfortunately, by the time I got back outside, the earth had rotated just enough to lower the moon in the sky and, no matter where I stood, there were trees in the way.
Apart from annoyance at the photographic problems, it was satisfying to see the moon 98% eclipsed, turning the surface red and making it a “blood moon,” knowing that it will be generations before that particular event occurs again.
Incidentally, the beaver moon gets its name from beaver hunting season, which used to peak this time of year. It’s also known as the digging moon (from the Tlingit), the whitefish moon (from the Algonquin), and the frost moon (from the Cree and Assiniboine).
Speaking Of Beavers
This is trapping season in New Hampshire, which the Fish and Game Department describes as “a long-standing part of New Hampshire’s cultural heritage…. Trappers are a unique group among New Hampshire’s outdoor enthusiasts, having an unparalleled eye for interpreting natural surroundings and understanding wildlife behavior. Though relatively few in number — 422 licenses were sold in New Hampshire during the 2020/2021 season — skilled trappers provide an extremely valuable service by helping to manage abundant wildlife populations and collecting biological samples at no cost to Fish and Game. They also contribute to public safety by maintaining beaver populations at manageable levels and reversing the flooding of public roadways in rural and urban areas. Trapping helps to keep furbearer populations at healthy levels and to prevent overpopulation, which can significantly increase the risk of disease transference, including rabies and canine distemper.”
Patrick Tate, a wildlife biologist and the furbearer project leader at Fish and Game, said, “State law prohibits traps from being set or arranged in a public way, cart road, or path commonly used as a passageway by human beings or domestic animals.”
He added, “New Hampshire has a long tradition of sharing the outdoors. During hunting and trapping seasons, it’s sensible for anyone walking a dog or using wooded areas to stay on established trails, keep dogs on a leash, and wear an article of blaze orange clothing.”
Too Quick To Judgment
Yesterday’s post at the News Café stated that the Republicans appeared to be attempting to poison the popular Education Freedom Accounts by having local taxpayers foot the bill. I was basing that on a reading of the amendment passed by the House Education Committee, the chair of which had not responded to a request for clarification. Later yesterday, I was able to reach both Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and the bill’s sponsor, Kevin Verville, who straightened me out on the bill and what it is seeking to accomplish.
The amendment would not change the state EFA program currently in place and is not aimed at decimating public school funding or increasing local property taxes. It is an amendment to a separate bill, five years in the making, that would allow the voters in local school districts to create local EFAs that would allocate 80 percent of locally raised education funds so they could “follow the student” if the parents chose to have their child attend “a public school, chartered public school, nonpublic school, or program approved by the department of education.” Because the student would remain part of the school district, the district still would be eligible for all federal and state funding, including special education money and adequacy aid that is distributed on the basis of average daily membership. (Of course, adequacy aid is derived from local property taxation that legislators simply deemed to be a “state education tax.”)
“This is enabling legislation,” Verville said. “This doesn’t force anybody to do anything, and it’s a local control issue. So this allows a local school district to decide whether or not they want local education monies to be able to follow the student or not, and the same mechanism that enables it disables it if a community changes their mind.”
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