The Longest Journey
Fisher Travels From Durham To Lincoln
Also on today’s menu at the News Café:
Governor Lauds GE Aerospace’s Investments In Hooksett
Iran War ‘Complete’ But Waiting For ‘Ultimate Victory’
One morning, while looking out the window, I saw a large black animal that might have been a cat race across Summer Street and disappear behind another house — but I didn’t think it was a cat. Perhaps a fisher?
Well, the University of New Hampshire has announced that Rem Moll’s research team had found a fisher they identified as F003 on campus in October 2024 and outfitted her with a GPS collar to allow them to track her. “First, she started moving south, and hit the Great Bay, which she couldn’t cross. Then, she traveled back to Durham and tried again, moving into Maine. Then, in early 2025, she crossed back into New Hampshire, traversed a frozen Lake Winnipesaukee, and moved north, looking for space with enough food and few other female fishers. She ended up settling in Lincoln,” NHPR reports.
Could it be F003 that I saw? I was convinced, until I came to the map showing that her journey did not bring her anywhere near Newfound Lake, and that she had reached Lincoln on February 24, 2025 — a year before I saw my “fisher”.
NHPR went on to state, “Most fishers move about 12 miles to find their own territory after they leave their mothers. F003 seems to have taken a roughly 80 mile path, ending up 73 miles from her starting place — the longest documented dispersal journey for a fisher. … The distance is especially impressive given the threats fishers face: disease, development that disrupts their forested habitats, cars and rodenticides are just a few.”
Then comes the sentence, “The tale of Fisher F003 has a sad ending. She died last December, likely killed by a bobcat.” Whatever I saw by my house was a couple months later.
Discussion: Jane Westfall of Bristol was a wildlife rehabilition worker who brought a small animal to Bristol Veterinary Hospital while my wife, Lee, worked there. It was a baby and she had no idea what type of animal it was. As it grew, it turned out to be a fisher.
Governor Lauds GE Aerospace’s Investments In Hooksett
GE Aerospace, which is investing more than $275 million to upgrade sites producing defense engines and components, has announced a $12 million investment in its Hooksett facility that, according to its website, will help increase engine deliveries, scale durable parts production, and support suppliers to strengthen the defense industrial base.
Governor Kelly Ayotte greeted the news by saying, “New Hampshire is proud to be a hub for advanced manufacturing in the aerospace industry and beyond, and to have companies like GE Aerospace creating good-paying jobs for Granite Staters.”
GE Aerospace employs more than 700 Granite Staters. The company’s Hooksett location produces engine components used in narrow-body and wide-body aircraft, along with military fighter jets, helicopters, and ships. The investments include adding and upgrading machines, adding inspection equipment, and making building improvements.
Discussion: The new investments bring the total amount that GE Aerospace has invested in defense sites over three years to more than $600 million. The Iran War may be devastating the general economy, pushing gasoline prices to their highest levels since 2022 to rival the oil crisis of the 1970s, but it is providing good jobs to New Hampshire workers.
Iran War ‘Complete’ But Waiting For ‘Ultimate Victory’
President Donald Trump has provided mixed messages on the Iran War in which the US military has struck more than 5,000 targets, damaging or destroying more than 50 Iranian vessels. He told CBS News that “the war is very complete” but told Republican lawmakers in Miami that the US needs to achieve “ultimate victory” before ending the conflict he started alongside Israel. Trump added that he is focused on keeping oil flowing.
Referring to the country’s sanction on Russian oil, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to take those sanctions off until the strait [of Hormuz] is up.” He had held a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which they discussed ways to reach a quick settlement to the Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars while easing the global oil market situation. “I had a very good call with President Putin,” Trump said. “We were talking about Ukraine. … I think it was a positive call on the subject.” Putin, he said, “wants to be helpful” in the Middle East, but that ending the Russia-Ukraine war would be “more helpful”.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, said Washington had wanted to “discuss a series of extremely important questions linked to the current international situation” and that “The conversation was serious and constructive.”
Discussion: We are making our way through an interesting maze where Trump’s decision to withdraw from an Obama-era agreement with Iran that limited Iran’s nuclear capabilities led to Iran expanding its program, leading to Trump’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran. Russia initiated the war with Ukraine, prompting the US to impose sanctions on Russian oil before Trump labeled Ukraine as the aggressor and chose unilateral discussions with Putin about ending that war while allowing Russia to keep the territory it had gained. But Russia is an ally of Iran, and has been providing intelligence allowing Iran to aim its missiles at Israeli and US targets in the Mid-East. Ukraine has been providing drone technology to the United States to aid in its aggression against Iran. Now Trump is lifting the Russian oil sanctions which will allow Russia to continue its war against Ukraine. Meanwhile, US taxpayers are supporting the Iran War at a pace of $1 billion a day, but that war is providing jobs for Americans in the defense industry. And civilians are being killed in Ukraine, Iran, Israel, and all the other countries now engaged in warfare.