Durham resident Lorraine Morong recently donated a conservation easement on her 23-acre parcel of upland and wetland habitat, abutting fields and oak-pine forests. Located around Johnson and Bunker creeks in Durham, the land is considered a high conservation priority because its south-flowing tidal creeks empty into Oyster River just north of its mouth on Great Bay.

Jazz Society launches Seacoast Jazz Appreciation Project

When Terry MacDonald was growing up in a Boston suburb in the mid 1950s, the Teenage Jazz Club would meet at Storyville in Boston, one of the city’s premier jazz clubs.

On the last Friday afternoon of every month, they would take in an exclusive performance by whichever jazz musician happened to be playing at the club that week. MacDonald and his fellow young jazz fans heard legends like Max Roach, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing and others. The musicians would also interact with their teenage listeners, giving them an informal education in jazz.

Now a board member of the Seacoast Jazz Society, MacDonald hopes to replicate his experience with a new program called the Seacoast Jazz Appreciation Project.

new federal legislation supports dairy farmers, but is it enough?

Throughout 2009, dairy farmers struggled against worsening markets. Milk prices declined 27 percent from the last quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. On average, the price producers received for milk marketed in the summer was about half of what it cost them to produce milk.

Dairy farmers failing to break even will get financial help from the federal Agriculture Appropriations Act recently signed into law, but the temporary boost isn’t expected to recover recent losses in New England.

Art-Speak is organizing another outdoor public art exhibition to be held in the summer of 2010. Completed applications are due at City Hall by Friday Jan. 29. 

During its last run in 2008, Overnight Art proved to be a good opportunity for artists to receive exposure. At least three private commissions were requested of the six participating artists, and Nathan Walker’s “Giant Red Ant” in Market Square especially gained attention.