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By DAVID BROOKS

Heidi Holman wants you to know that it’s not her fault all the lettuce you planted in the spring has disappeared.“I often get letters from people that are very upset about their garden because we’ve released so many rabbits,” said Holman, a wildlife...

By DAVID BROOKS

The last couple of years have seen such a parade of problems that it’s hard to be surprised by them any more. Even so, here’s a problem you probably haven’t thought of: New Hampshire is facing a shortage of bassoon players.A combination of factors...

By DAVID BROOKS

Smooth slender crabgrass, a plant known to exist only at Rock Rimmon Park in Manchester, has been officially declared globally extinct, the N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau announced Wednesday.This is the first documented plant extinction ever in New...

By DAVID BROOKS

Operators of hydropower dams face plenty of complications, including the wrong sort of bubbles, too many American eels and super-cooled “frazil ice,” but one thing that the owner of the Penacook Lower Falls dam doesn’t have to worry about now is...

By DAVID BROOKS

After years and years of declining birth rates, New Hampshire has surprised just about everybody by seeing the country’s biggest baby boom last year with a birth rate that rebounded 7% since pre-pandemic times, far more than any other state.Whether it...

By DAVID BROOKS

The continent-wide destruction of ash trees caused by an invasive insect has taken an economic toll in New Hampshire: The Peterboro Basket Co. is shutting down after making its specialty baskets for 168 years, partly because it can’t get enough of the...

By DAVID BROOKS

The news that Tesla is coming to New Hampshire – probably, at least – is the latest indication that life is changing for New Hampshire’s auto dealerships as electric vehicles take center stage. But it’s not the only one.“Prepping for EVs (electric...

By DAVID BROOKS

The coal-fired power plant in Bow has won another year’s funding from a program designed to guarantee future electricity supplies, although at about three-quarters of previous levels.The two units at Merrimack Station, the last coal-fired power plant...

By DAVID BROOKS

New Hampshire’s own Mount Washington will be the star of a major motion picture opening later this month but be warned: It’s not any Mount Washington we’re familiar with.“I told my friends who pointed that out: just roll with it!” said Pam Bales, a...

By DAVID BROOKS

For most of January, New England has been reliving a piece of our past. Unfortunately, it’s a smoggy, polluting piece.During the recent cold snap, more than a tenth of the electricity generated in New England has been produced by power plants that are...

By DAVID BROOKS

Far too often, a detailed analysis of any question produces the highly unsatisfying answer of “it depends.” So I’m delighted to say that today’s column comes down 100% on one side of this question:Do you really save energy by turning the thermostat...

By DAVID BROOKS

The region’s biggest greenhouse grower of salad greens, Lef Farms of Loudon, has been purchased by a national firm which plans to enlarge it.New York-based Brightfarms purchased Lef (pronounced “leaf”) this summer for an undisclosed amount. The...

By DAVID BROOKS

The news that criminals used fake e-mails to fool the town of Peterborough into sending them million-dollar payments comes as no real surprise to the state’s cybersecurity chief.“We’ve heard about this multiple times over the past four years,” said...

By DAVID BROOKS

New data from the 2020 census shows that the section of Concord that includes the area known as The Heights is one of the state’s most racially diverse neighborhoods. Except for Hanover/Lebanon, it is the only area north of Manchester with the...

By DAVID BROOKS

No, you’re not imagining it: Chipmunks really are everywhere.“We have no formal monitoring of chipmunks,” said Matt Tarr, a wildlife biologist with UNH Extension, “But my observation and what I’m hearing from folks all over New Hampshire is: There’s a...

It’s official: Bow has the last coal-burning power plant in New England.On Tuesday, Unit 3 of Bridgeport Harbor Station in Connecticut shut down, as has long been planned. The 400 MW unit had produced electricity by burning coal for 53 years but its...

By DAVID BROOKS

Coal, once the dominant fuel for heating buildings while driving industry in New England, has faded almost entirely from view. Julie Kinney can point to one remnant that she wishes would fade with it.“We have an ash pile right now. At some point we’ll...

By DAVID BROOKS

If your vehicle bears a “This Car Climbed Mount Washington” sticker, there’s a 60% chance that you were a little disappointed in the trip. That’s how often the summit is covered by clouds.But if you were there during the other 40% of the time, you...

By DAVID BROOKS

A New Hampshire hunting camp that was used by people more than 12,000 years ago has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance as an archaeological property.The eight-acre Potter Site in the North Country town of...

By DAVID BROOKS

Farming livestock is a good way to celebrate life but it also requires dealing with death. That can be a problem for small-scale and beginning farmers, including the many people who decided to start raising chickens during the pandemic.“There’s a...