At a public forum held earlier this month in Westford, parents and community members gathered to voice concerns that are being felt throughout Vermont: whether their local schools will still exist in the years to come.

The forum was held to discuss a plan by the Essex-Westford School District that will move grades six through eight out of the Westford School and into neighboring Essex Middle School beginning in the fall, leaving grades pre-K through fifth grade in the Westford School.

The move is meant to consolidate resources at one middle school location and provide a better education experience for the district’s students, said Robert Carpenter, chair of the district school board from Essex.

But the proposal has worried residents and parents about the future of their school, which first merged with Essex to become the Essex-Westford School District in 2017.

Community members like Pat Haller, the vice chair of Westford’s selectboard, suggest the plan is a precursor to the school’s eventual closure.

While school district officials insist they have no intention of closing the school, community members at the forum suggested that with fewer students at the school, and, in turn, higher per-capita spending, the school could be a future target for closure.

The school’s shuttering, Haller said, would be “disastrous” for the town’s future.

“We know that the attractiveness of Westford for young families is our school, and if we no longer have a school, then Westford won’t be as attractive, and we’re worried that we will lose further population and lose some of our tax base,” he said in an interview. “This just looks like a future spiral downward for our small town.”

As statewide education reform takes shape in the Statehouse, proposals to further consolidate Vermont’s dozens of school districts down to as few as five are fueling fears that small, rural communities could see their schools shuttered.

In many parts of the state, this is already happening.

Last year, the Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools Board moved to close Roxbury’s only elementary school. The school’s closure, made as a cost saving measure, came six years after voters in Montpelier and Roxbury decided to merge the Roxbury School District and the Montpelier School District under Act 46.

The Addison Central School District voted this month to close Ripton Elementary School, moving roughly 20 students to Salisbury Community School this fall. And earlier this week, school board officials in the Grand Isle School District announced they would be shuttering the North Hero School amid declining enrollment.

But in Westford, parents and community members have pledged to safeguard what they say is a precious community asset. Some have even suggested trying to de-merge from the Essex-Westford School District.

“We are preparing for a closure, just because this is what’s happening in Vermont right now,” said Kirsten Tyler, a Westford resident and parent who helped organize the forum. “And so we are pushing back really hard against this.”

Officials in the district insist there are no plans to close the Westford School. Carpenter said the district views it as a valuable asset within the district and is committed to keeping it open.

Still, with budget cuts they’ve been forced to make over the past two years, Carpenter said it is impossible to predict what the district might face in the years to come.

“Many people are saying this is just a precursor of closure. We can say until we’re blue in the face that it’s not our goal to close Westford,” Carpenter said in an interview. “But, unfortunately, with the state landscape, I would feel like I would not have the integrity of making promises about what the next five to 10 years look like in the educational landscape.”

‘The community gathers there’

Timothy Allen and his family have lived in Westford for nearly eight years. Two of their three kids went through the town’s school, so, like other community members, he frequently found himself at the school for events and other community gatherings over the years.

“There’s always something going on in the community that brings parents to that school,” Allen said. “It’s a wonderful time to connect with other people in the community.”

For rural towns like Westford, the local school not only provides an education, but also serves as a community hub, Tyler said.

“It’s where people meet. It’s where you bring your kids to play,” she said. “The community gathers there.”

The possibility of losing the school, Haller said, would mean losing that sense of community and, ultimately, the appeal of Westford for folks looking to raise a family.

“All of my close friends, all of my neighbors, I’ve become friends with because my kids have been friends with their kids,” he said. “We see each other every day. Losing that social connection would be very bad for this town.”

The student population of Westford School has hovered around 200. That number is set to decline, with some 38 students in grades sixth through eighth expected to make the move over to Essex Middle School next year, Carpenter said.

At the community forum, held on Sunday, April 7, parents worried about the consequences of the middle school transition. They invited experts like Nikhil Goyal, a sociology professor at the University of Vermont, to speak.

Goyal, a former senior policy advisor on education for Sen. Bernie Sanders, said in an interview that he views what’s happening in Westford as “a harbinger for what could come if the governor’s consolidation proposal comes to fruition,” with five regional districts “drowning out the voices of small rural towns and communities and potentially even closing their schools in the future.”

Both chambers of the Legislature and Scott have made education reform a priority in response to last year’s double-digit average property tax increases.

Scott’s plan, released in January, calls for “regional comprehensive high schools, central middle schools, local elementaries,” according to his proposal. Schools would further be assessed “based on financial viability and educational quality,” and “schools that fall short of these standards will be offered a range of options, including resource sharing or merging, with support from the AOE.”

Meanwhile, the House last week advanced its own bill that drew Republican opposition because of its slower implementation timeline than Scott’s proposal, but still included plans for consolidation.

The changes being proposed in Montpelier have set off alarm bells for Goyal and other advocates like Margaret MacLean, an education consultant and Peacham resident who is opposed to school mergers and consolidations.

When schools close down in rural towns, “There’s evidence of depopulation, declining home values, eroding social capital and problems with attracting and retaining families,” MacLean said in an interview.

“People are not going to move to a town where you have to put your kids on the bus for 90 minutes one way and 90 minutes on the way home. They’re going to move to the town with the school,” she said. “It’s going to change the landscape of Vermont.”

Both MacLean and Goyal have testified against further consolidating school systems in Vermont, and have pointed to research that shows small elementary schools are associated with higher student achievement, engagement and more meaningful relationships between students and teachers.

“You could easily imagine a scenario where larger towns are dictating on behalf of smaller towns, whether those schools should be kept open, whether programs and services should be kept afloat, and essentially determining the future of those areas,” Goyal said in an interview.

‘Outside of the board’s control’

Still, other experts in education have noted that small, rural schools are already closing, regardless of current efforts to consolidate.

Nathan Levenson, the president of New Solutions K-12, an education consulting group, said he understands why folks would worry that consolidation would lead to the closure of small schools, but said he thinks they have it backwards.

“The history of Vermont has been that as schools shrink, their cost per-pupil increases and available services, supports and offerings decrease,” he wrote in an email. “This amps up the pressure to close what has become a high cost, low service, yet beloved school.”

“In order for small schools to survive the tight budgets of the next 10 years,” he said, district’s must manage financial strategies to maintain low costs at smaller schools.

The double-digit tax increases last year, fueled by several factors, including the state’s education funding formula and ever-increasing premiums for health insurances, are already forcing districts to look for ways to cut.

But, he said, “This is much easier to do as part of a larger district which has an efficient central office, dedicated curriculum specialists, other schools to share staff with, and a savvy business office.”

Carpenter said the move of sixth through eighth grade out of Westford School and into Essex Middle School saves the district roughly $250,000 annually — a fraction of the district’s more than $9 million budget.

But the goal of the move was less about saving money and more about providing a better educational experience for the district’s middle school students.

“By moving those 38 students down to EMS — which almost half of their families wanted to move — we’ve actually been able to consolidate resources into EMS so that we can provide more services for those students and a better experience,” he said.

Carpenter tried to assuage worries about the future of the Westford School.

Those concerned about the school should look at its track record: last year, when the district was looking for ways to cut $4.5 million from the budget, Carpenter said much of the community suggested the board close the Westford School.

“And we stood strong, we didn’t close Westford,” he said. “And this year, cutting $6 million, we stood firm, while having much of the community saying, ‘This is an option, why don’t you just close Westford?’”

The district’s commitment to the school is clear, he said. But it remains tough to predict what kind of state directives will come in the next several years.

In the meantime, the district continues to face rising pressure from health insurance costs. The district was hit with a $1.8 million health insurance increase over the past year, Carpenter said, and since 2017, the district has seen $7 million in increases to health insurance costs.

“At this point, things are moving outside of the board’s control,” he said.

Haller, who first moved to Westford in 2006, said these anxieties are nothing new. The community voted in 2017 to merge with Essex because, he said, residents felt it would stave off a future closure. Now, he’s not so sure.

“And this speaks to Vermont and in general: We desperately need young families to move into our state,” he said, “and these sorts of consolidations, I think, are going to make it less attractive for out-of-staters to come to anything but our larger towns like Burlington, and not find it as attractive to live out in our rural communities, because we won’t have a school.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As education reform takes shape in Vermont, community members in Westford worry for their school’s future.

MENDOCINO CO., 4/20/25 – The Trump tariffs have been a hot-button topic among Mendocino County small business owners in recent weeks. The ups and downs of the tariffs have made it hard for businesses to plan, but one thing we do know – if you import anything from outside the country, you are going to be paying more for it.  

That tasty guacamole you get from your favorite Mexican restaurant? It likely consists of avocados, chili peppers and tomatoes from Mexico and onions from China.  

“The price increase of chocolate, vanilla, coffee, eggs, avocados, just to name a few things have gotten and are crazy scary expensive for us,” shared one restaurant owner in the Mendocino County Foodies group on Facebook. Business is definitely down from last year, and I don’t think we will have as busy of a summer if people don’t travel from other countries to vacation here, so yeah, definitely scary times ahead,” she posted.  

And those eco-friendly, compostable take-out cups and packages? Those are made in China, including the Rohnert Park-based World Centric brand. According to a sales representative for the product, the price of World Centric products increased 25% effective April 1.  

The Trump administration placed baseline tariffs of 145% on all Chinese imports early this month.  

The owner of a cooking store in Ukiah shared that her vendors have increased pricing already and cited tariffs as the reason – and more increases could take place. “We’ve always tried to focus on U.S. [made] goods, but their cost has also increased exponentially over the last few months,” she wrote. “I suspect due to the supply chain and anticipation of what transpired over the last couple weeks.” 

Coffee enthusiasts are already being impacted by the tariffs, according to one Fort Bragg entrepreneur who imports coffee. They received word from a distributor last week that a one-pound bag of coffee is increasing by $1.20. That’s about a four-cent increase per cup even before retail mark-up.  

Coffee prices hit an all-time high in March at $7.38 a pound. That’s an 84% increase from January 2020. Given that 99% of the coffee we drink is imported, expect more records to be broken.

One local caterer reported that wedding clients are already reducing their commitments. She shared that the current economic situation “smells like 2020,” referring to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the economy. 

“I am not optimistic about this whole situation. The wedding and event industry is predicated on disposable income,” she wrote. “That is evaporating for our clients at the same time costs are spiking.” 

In contrast, a local rancher in Covelo who raises grass-fed, grain-finished lamb, goat and pork shares that the tariffs “shouldn’t affect my business at all, and besides I firmly believe that when everything settles down [the tariffs] won’t be an issue.” 

But no matter what your political leaning, there is no doubt that many of the local restaurants and food businesses we cherish will be impacted by the tariffs. 

And for consumers, that means it all comes down to supporting local businesses. 

If you have the means, consider dining out at least once a week at a local restaurant. Tip generously, too. A downturn in the economy means working-class folks, the servers and back-of-house staff, will be hit hard and even a few extra bucks in the tip jar can make a difference.  

Consider joining a local community-supported agriculture program (CSA) like the Mendo Lake Food Hub. The weekly deliveries of fresh produce you’ll receive can benefit your body, mind and the farmers that grow the produce. 

Visit a local farmers’ market and pick up groceries from locally owned markets, co-ops, fishermen, fishmongers and butcher shops. Don’t forget locally owned shops and boutiques for cookware and foodie gifts.  

Be sure to share dining, shopping and eating experiences on social media. Heck, it might even warrant a Yelp or Google review. Your kind words can make a huge difference for a small business.  

The post How will Trump’s tariffs impact local restaurants and food businesses? Owners share their thoughts appeared first on The Mendocino Voice | Mendocino County, CA.

Tractors stand at the ready along rolling wild blueberry barrens Downeast, where fields of naked stems offer no hint of the glorious techno-color display to come. By late spring, roughly 47,000 acres across Washington and Hancock counties will be carpeted in white blossoms before bursting into tiny blueberries.

But new federal immigration policies and ramped-up deportations have businesses across the state — especially in rural, agricultural communities — concerned about migrant workers showing up to rake those fields — out in plain sight.

“Our producers are very careful about vetting their workforce to ensure that they all have the necessary and proper documentation if they are coming from outside of the U.S.,” said Eric Venturini, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission. “But I am concerned about a decrease in the agricultural workforce due to shifting immigration policies that could make it more challenging for farmers to get their crops.”

Wild blueberry farms aren’t the only businesses statewide that could be facing a labor shortage, compounded by escalating threats of deportation and revoked visas. Agricultural farmers of all types, as well as wreath factories, restaurants, hotels, fisheries, and other businesses have come to rely on the largely Latino migrant and year-round immigrant communities. 

According to the most recent 5-year estimate reported in the American Community Survey, Maine’s foreign-born population is about 53,600. Among those aged 16 and over, 63 percent are in the workforce, or about 31,500 workers, according to Jessica Picard, communications director for the State of Maine Department of Labor.

Among those who employ foreign-born workers is the group of Whitney Family Companies, which owns and operates Whitney Wreath, Whitney’s Tri-Town Marina, Machias Glassworks, and Downeast Packaging Solutions, all located in Machias. Owner and CEO David Whitney employs an undisclosed number of seasonal migrant workers at his companies, workers he depends on to supplement his local workforce.

Whitney said he fully supports the Trump administration’s tightened immigration policies. In 2011 Whitney’s company became the first in the state to sign on to the federal IMAGE program, a voluntary partnership initiative between the federal government and private sector employers that strengthens hiring practices and monitoring of migrant worker documentation through an electronic verification system, regular audits, and payroll reviews.

“We’re under tremendous scrutiny, which is all the more reason that I continue to be motivated to follow the letter of the law. Always have,” Whitney said. “I sleep very well at night.”

But as federal immigration officials ratchet up surveillance around the nation, advocates say many immigrants — even those who are documented — fear deportation, with more of them choosing to lay low, avoiding school or work. 

Along the shores of Englishmen’s Bay, sea spray wafts over the wild blueberry fields of Welch Farm in Roque Bluffs, owned and operated for more than a century by Lisa Hanscom’s family.

Everyone pitches in on this small but productive farm, including Hanscom’s 77-year-old father. But come harvest time, they still rely on a handful of migrant workers to help get the tender berries raked and crated before they rot in the field.

So far this season, Hanscom hasn’t heard from the two Mi’kmaq migrant friends from Canada and the young Guatemalan man who she’s counted on in past years.

“The young man was legal, working on his citizenship and everything. But I don’t know what that means for me this year, whether he’s even going to be around,” Hanscom said.

Hanscom chairs the volunteer Wild Blueberry Commission in addition to running the farm and her full-time job as director of the Washington County Emergency Management Agency. She knows the blueberry business and is used to dealing with unexpected crises. But Hanscom said it’s hard for farmers to come up with contingency plans to deal with such a rapidly evolving immigration landscape.

Nationwide arrests and detentions are up sharply since Trump took office, and worries are mounting among seasonal employers in Maine. In late March, the detention of a teenager on his way to work in Lewiston rattled the local community; he was reportedly taken to New York City, more than 300 miles away from his mother and three younger siblings, according to the Bangor Daily News. His family was told by a Border Patrol agent that he would likely be deported to El Salvador, according to Maine Public.

In early April, the Wells Police Department in southern Maine entered into a formal agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allowing the police department to enforce certain aspects of federal immigration law. While ICE has similar agreements in place with other municipalities around the country, this is the first of its kind in Maine.

The Internal Revenue Department also struck a deal with federal immigration authorities to share the sensitive data of migrants who pay federal taxes under formerly shielded tax ID numbers. The exposure could make migrants reluctant to file taxes or share documentation with employers.

During an online presentation in February, Patrick Woodcock, the executive director of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, said that employers need to be aware of the potential ramifications on Maine’s workforce.

“Regardless of the merits of the polic[ies], we really do want to ensure that employers understand how to be in compliance,” Woodcock said. “There may be employees that were authorized to work that may be affected by changes and may not be authorized to work now or in the coming months.”

The Trump administration has signaled that it is considering eliminating, scaling back, or revoking some visas that employers have relied on to augment their work teams for decades.

The Monitor reached out to more than a dozen business owners and managers to gauge concerns. Half of those responded, with only one business expressing concern about losing the visa program it uses to supplement its summer staff of about 30. 

Victor Trafford, who owns the Fishermen’s Wharf Inn and Restaurant in Lubec, said the business typically employs 4-6 young women, mostly from Eastern Europe, each summer through the J-1 visa Exchange Student Worker Program. 

“I think we’re going to be okay. But laws can change — can change without notice,” Trafford said. 

The Trump administration has also revoked the visas of hundreds of international students and detained roughly a dozen others from college campuses across the US, often without any warning or recourse for appeals, according to a recent report by the BBC.

A J-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows students to study, work, or conduct research in the United States for three months or longer, depending on the visa. It’s one of roughly 200 types of U.S. non-immigrant and immigrant visas that grant foreign nationals permission to stay in the country for residence, study, or work. Another category is the H-1B visa program, which allows highly educated foreign professionals to work in “specialty occupations.”

But the visas that most impact farmers seeking to boost their local workforce are H-2A agricultural visas, which allow foreign workers to come to the U.S. to perform seasonal agricultural labor. Employers in the service industry, meanwhile, often rely on H-2B visas, which allow workers to temporarily come to the U.S. to perform non-agricultural services or labor, such as hotel and restaurant work. 

Last year in Maine, 41 agricultural companies each received anywhere between one and 140 H-2A visa approvals. Cherryfield Foods, Inc., a grower and producer of wild blueberries located in Cherryfield and Machias, received the most agricultural visas of any business in the state, a total of 140 H-2A visas.

A 2015 Maine Department of Labor 2015 survey, the most recent report available from the Department, found that 56 percent of migrant farm workers were from Mexico, with others from Haiti, Canada, Honduras, El Salvador, and the Philippines. A 2019 University Maine report found that Maine’s migrant workers also come from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and from elsewhere in the United States.

Ricker Hill Orchards in Turner was granted 33 agricultural visas in 2024. The tenth-generation small farming business has survived 200 years of challenges, including a slumping local workforce that began during WWII.

Although it’s bureaucratically burdensome and costly — north of $80,000 some seasons — company president Harry Ricker and his wife Nancy, who is the CFO, said H-2A visas have helped them hang on to the farm, allowing them to bring in dozens of hard-working apple pickers each harvest season, mostly from Jamaica. 

“There are a lot less local people that want to do it, so we have to have this program,” Ricker said. “Without it, we’ll just be out of the industry. We go away.”

Since businesses foot the bill for all visa fees, travel, and lodging, Ricker sees no reason for the administration to tamper with the H-2A visa program. 

Some critics, however, including authors of the controversial Project 2025, are pushing the Trump administration to cap and then phase out the program because they say it squeezes American workers out of the market. Nationally, DOL certified over 378,000 temporary H-2A jobs in FY 2023 — more than six times the number certified in 2006.

But H-2A visa advocates point to data that show persistent workforce shortages and the federal laws that tightly regulate migrant worker pay to make sure it doesn’t undercut the local market.

Employers must recruit U.S. workers, including posting jobs on the US Department of Labor’s seasonal jobs website, and give preference to U.S. workers over H-2A workers. The employer also must pay all workers at the same federally mandated Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs), which in Maine is $18.83 per hour, compared to the state’s current minimum wage of $14.65 per hour.

Non-agricultural workers also nervous

The authors of Project 2025 also have the H-2B non-agricultural temporary visa program in their sights, calling for the elimination of the visas that a host of industries depend on, from tourism and hospitality to restaurants and services at some national parks. 

The H-2B program is capped at 66,000 each year for the entire country, with an additional number of visas typically added to the cap each year, including an extra 64,716 for 2025 announced earlier this month. 

Although Trump recently signaled support for businesses that rely on H-2B temporary workers, the release of the supplemental visas was delayed this year. According to a recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services press release, only employers who will “suffer irreparable harm,” will be approved for additional H-2B workers, and must attest to that harm in writing on a new form as part of their petition for the workers.

There are never enough visas allotted to meet demand, requiring employers to compete in a lottery system, according to Kathryn Ference, director of Workforce Development for the Maine Tourism Association. 

“The programs are incredibly important to the [tourism] industry in Maine and making sure that we have what we need to make this industry run, which brings so much economic value to the state, adding $16.3 billion to the Maine economy in 2023, [is very important.]” Ference said.

Downeast’s largest tourism draw, Acadia National Park, doesn’t use any visa-permitted workers at the park. The seasonal National Park Service jobs all have U.S. Citizenship as a condition of employment, according to Perrin Doniger, vice president of communications and marketing for the Friends of Acadia.

But in neighboring Bar Harbor, 99 lodging facilities and 66 restaurants rely heavily on H-2B visas, including five of the six Witham Family Hotels, said Managing Director Jeremy Dougherty .

According to Dougherty, the Witham chain employs roughly 500 people, with about 200 at the Bar Harbor Inn alone, including about 82 foreign nationals working on temporary H-2B visas. Dougherty said many are from Jamaica, as well as El Salvador, Haiti, and other countries. He said they are some of his best workers and that some have returned for 15 summers — if they are lucky enough to secure a visa lottery slot.

Dougherty said the visa process is arduous for both the company’s human resource department and for the migrant workers, requiring months of applications, interviews, waiting, and then travel and housing arrangements before they even get to their first day on the job. This year, he said, some of the migrants are a little nervous, and not just about the possibility of being confronted by ICE agents.

“Some of our staff have asked how to best handle it if somebody were to say something that would maybe be inappropriate,” Dougherty said. “In the last few years, people are a little more emboldened to say things to people of color than they used to, and it just puts us more on alert, a little more protective, you know, like protective parents.”

The nation’s 573 national wildlife refuges are at risk and not a single refuge has the resources it requires, according to a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inventory. 

Put together, the national wildlife refuge system encompasses 96 million acres, an area larger than Montana, and includes everything from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 19 million acres in Alaska to the diminutive Bamforth National Wildlife Refuge — a springtime pitstop for migrating waterfowl — on Wyoming’s Laramie Plains. Created 122 years ago under President Theodore Roosevelt, the system now lacks the workforce and other resources necessary to fulfill its mission — “to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management and, where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans” — National Wildlife Refuge System Chief Cynthia Martinez shared on Wednesday.                         

“Capacity right now is at a tipping point that puts both the economic and the conservation vitality of the National Wildlife Refuge System at risk,” Martinez told members of a call hosted by the National Wildlife Refuge Association. 

The inventory, Martinez explained, sorted all 573 refuges into four categories. The first group of refuges was those that have “full required resources” — units that have adequate staff and funding to “fully achieve administration, management and mission goals and objectives” and provide public uses. 

“We acknowledge that we have no units or field stations that currently meet this standard,” Martinez said. 

Meanwhile, 57% of national refuges fall into the second category, defined as having “limited resources” and operating with “a portion of the required staff and funding.” These units can only “partially achieve goals,” she said. 

“This is where we begin to see limited visitor center hours and stations heavily supported by volunteers,” Martinez said. 

The third category of wildlife refuges are those with “insufficient resources.” Some 35% of the agency’s properties fall in this camp, and they “lack sufficient staff and funding” needed to achieve their goals and receive “little or no maintenance or management.” 

A fourth and final category of refuges, 8% of all sites, are those agency leadership considers “shuttered.” The classification means that the federal properties lack “staff and funding necessary to achieve any goals,” Martinez said. 

“Shutter doesn’t mean that the refuge isn’t still providing some level of habitat for species,” she said, “but it is just not receiving the staff or the funding that’s necessary to achieve [its] goals.” 

Martinez’s hour-long briefing with advocates, former staff and “friends groups” that support the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was carefully apolitical. She never named President Donald Trump or Elon Musk, the billionaire leading the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been gutting federal workforces and exacerbating conditions for refuges and other federal lands in Wyoming and around the country. 

“We’re still at the beginning of a new administration,” Martinez said. “We’re going to be getting more direction on our priorities of this administration as our new director is voted in.” 

The likely incoming director is Brian Nesvik, a former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director who’s cleared his first two hurdles in the U.S. Senate confirmation process. 

“He has identified refuges as one of his top five priorities for the Fish and Wildlife Service,” Martinez said. “I’m expecting that we’ll see Brian sometime, hopefully in early, mid-May.” 

If confirmed, Nesvik will be joined by Josh Coursey, a southwestern Wyoming big game hunting advocate who just announced an appointment to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

What about Wyoming’s refuges? 

Although Martinez outlined the status of the National Wildlife Refuge System’s properties in broad strokes, the status of individual refuges remains undisclosed to the public. The list detailing which refuges fall into each category has not seen daylight, according to Desiree Sorenson-Groves, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association.

“There is no way that’s getting leaked out until I’m sure Brian [Nesvik] has a chance to get in and see it,” she said. 

WyoFile was unable to ascertain which categories Wyoming’s seven federally managed refuges have been assigned to. Agency employees reported that they were unauthorized to talk with the media about the topic.

Wyoming’s refuges include: the 1,166-non-contiguous-acre Bamforth National Wildlife Refuge on the Laramie Plains; the 1,968-acre Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge along the Bear River; the 1,928-acre Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge on the Laramie Plains; the 1,968-acre Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge on the Laramie Plains; the 24,700-acre National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole; the 16,807-acre Pathfinder National Wildlife Refuge surrounding the reservoir; and the 26,210-acre Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge that winds along the Green River. (Refuges located on the Laramie Plains are included in the Service’s new Wyoming Toad Conservation Area — a complex that provides habitat for the endangered amphibian.)

WyoFile was unable to file an interview request with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mountain-Prairie Region, which includes Wyoming and seven other states. Its regional communications team has been eliminated and contact information has been scrubbed from its website. Most if not all 12 members of the team accepted a recent buyout offer — the second round of the Deferred Resignation Program — in anticipation of an upcoming “reduction in force,” according to a federal employee familiar with the situation. WyoFile is granting the person anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Part of the reason the entire regional communications team took the buyout is because Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has signaled in a secretarial order that he’s consolidating communications teams throughout his department and dedicated Fish and Wildlife Service teams will cease to exist. 

Other programs within the agency are also being eliminated, according to the source. Earlier this week, members of Fish and Wildlife’s “Science Applications” program showed up to work and were told to go home. 

“They were told the program is being dissolved — I would guess it’s because of the climate work — but they don’t really tell us why,” the source told WyoFile. 

In the wake of the second round of buyouts, the Fish and Wildlife Service as a whole is “pretty gutted,” according to the source.

“Moving ahead with even more cuts, I can’t imagine,” the employee said. “It’s going to be incredibly difficult to function.” 

In Wyoming, cuts have affected many different Fish and Wildlife Service programs: There are plans to close the agency’s tribal office in Lander, a hollowing out of the staff of the Saratoga National Fish Hatchery and blows to black-footed ferret recovery programs. The lack of communications and publicly available information makes it difficult to know if any other programs have been impacted. 

In shambles across the agency

During the National Wildlife Refuge Association call, one attendee asked Martinez about overall reductions in the workforce during the first three months of the Trump administration. Until the second round of buyouts are processed and contracts are signed, “we’re not going to know the true number,” she said. 

But Sorenson-Groves, the association president, has come up with some ballpark numbers for the National Wildlife Refuge System portion of the agency. At the end of 2024, she said, there were roughly 2,350 employees. Although the system manages more acreage than the National Park Service, she pointed out, its workforce was only about a tenth of the size. 

The cuts, she said, are expected to reduce the workforce down to 1,800-1,900 by the end of May — when people who are taking early retirements will leave.

“The refuge system will have lost at least 20% of their staff, and it could be more,” Sorenson-Groves told WyoFile. “Other agencies, they’re dealing with that too — like the Forest Service or the BLM or the Park Service, but the refuge system was in a different place already.” 

Wildlife refuges, she said, haven’t been prioritized by Congress or presidential administrations of either party for the last 15 years. During that period, the system lost 30% of its staff, while public visitation throughout the system climbed by 50%.

“People have found refuges and discovered them, which I think is wonderful, but they don’t have the capacity,” Sorenson-Groves said. 

It’s not just the rank-and-file biologists and workers being hemorrhaged. 

A third of Fish and Wildlife’s regional directors have quit, according to the federal employee who WyoFile is granting anonymity. In the Southwest Region, only two of eight members of the leadership team are still on the job, the source said, and the communications leadership and headquarters office are “pretty much wiped out.”

The loss of leadership is an especially painful blow, Sorenson-Groves said. 

“Those are people who have the institutional knowledge and, frankly, the political acumen to work through really complicated issues, whether it’s water or mineral extraction or habitat in highly urbanized areas,” she said. “These are complicated issues. And they’re all leaving.”

The post Report: Wildlife Refuge System ‘at risk’ with no units fully resourced amid DOGE uncertainty appeared first on WyoFile .

The Mississippi Department of Education and public schools in the state could lose over $137 million in federal funds after the U.S. Department of Education removed access to pandemic-era grant money.

The post Mississippi Education Leaders Reeling After Trump Administration Rescinds $137 Million in COVID-19 Relief Funds for Schools appeared first on Mississippi Free Press.

Living in the Shadow of Industry CANCER ALLEY, USA: On August 25, 2023, thick black smoke filled the sky over Garyville, Louisiana, as a fire erupted at the Marathon Petroleum refinery. The blaze, fueled by highly flammable naphtha, sent residents scrambling, unsure if it was safe to stay or flee. Sani, 13, stood outside with […]

Read more via Scalawag: Behind the Plants: Living in the Shadow of Industry on Cancer Alley.

Daniel Herrera Carbajal
ICT

In March, Gila River took out 10,000 acre-feet of their allotted water from Lake Mead after the Trump administration’s Unleashing American Energy executive order froze money for any program related to the Inflation Reduction Act. The act, which Congress passed during the Biden Administration in 2022, allocated money for tribes and states in exchange for giving up some of their shares of Colorado River water.

The Trump administration later unfroze the Inflation Reduction Act funds that would be used for water conservation projects and to build canals. The act allocated around $4 billion to compensate tribes, states and other organizations to not take water out of the Colorado River to use to generate revenue like crops.

Gila River Governor Stephen Roe Lewis wrote a letter to the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Feb. 11 before removing Colorado River water from Lake Mead.

“We have given the department every opportunity to avoid what could be a calamitous break in our longstanding partnership, with terrible consequences for the entire basin,” he said.

If water levels continue dropping, hydroelectric dams on the Colorado River will not be able to generate electricity. But the compensation to not take water out of the river has been seen as a short-term solution by many experts, including Mark Squillace, a professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder who specializes in natural resource law.

“My concern is that the Biden administration seemed to be focused on short-term buyouts of water consumption,” he said. “I just don’t think that kind of approach is sustainable. What we need on the Colorado River are permanent reductions in consumption, and so spending a lot of money to temporarily buy out the rights of people to use all of their water, right, is just not something that is going to solve the problem.”

Thirty tribes have rights to the Colorado River. The river is a resource, but for the Zuni Pueblo it is the source of life.

“For the Zuni people, the Colorado River is really important because the river and the Grand Canyon are our homeland. That’s where the Zunis emerged,” said Councilman of Zuni Pueblo Edward Wemytewa.

The Colorado River has important cultural significance to each tribe that has water rights to it, but the Colorado River compact that outlined how the river would be divided was not drafted in consultation with tribes.

“Laws were created by the US governments, by the US agencies, and during those times, the federal government, in the name of public interest, they started delineating territories. They start creating laws about water usage, water compacts,” said Wemytewa. “Well, in those earlier years, when the laws were being developed and implemented, the Zuni was not at the table. Many Native peoples weren’t at the table.

“Under federal law, those tribes have the right to take their water, usually in priority over everybody else, because the date of priority for Indian water rights is the date of their reservations, which is typically within the 19th century,” said Squillace. “So those water rights tended to date back before other non-Indian users.

“Those are legal rights that they are entitled to. And so one of the things I’ve suggested in my article is that maybe we should think about closing down the river to new appropriations. Why are we continuing to appropriate new water rights when we have this crisis and we have early water rights from Native American tribes that are currently legal but not being utilized for a number of different reasons?” he said.

The current compact being used was created in 1922, and it divided the river into two basins – upper and lower.

Each basin was allotted no more than 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year, equaling 15 million acre-feet of water each year. Mexico was also allocated 1.5 million acre-feet a year. The amount of water the river produces was vastly overestimated at the time of the compact’s creation.

“At the time that they negotiated the compact, it was thought that there was maybe 18 million acre feet of water on an annual basis in the river, which turned out not to be true,” said Squillace.

Currently, the Colorado River is producing about 12.5 million acre-feet a year. A vast over-allocation of water has led to states battling over water and how to use it.

Squillace proposed a new Colorado River compact. It proposes to update states’ water usage laws and to bring tribal nations into the conversation.

“I’ve suggested that maybe we could come up with a new compact, which would look very different from the current compact, but would basically be an agreement among the states to modernize their water laws,” he said. “Right now we have a number of principles in the various state water laws that I think allow for, I don’t want to call them wasteful, but at least inefficient uses. We could increase our efficiency in terms of the amount of water that we use if we sort of refined what we call beneficial use. There’s a principle in western water law that you only get as much water as can be beneficially used.”

For the Zuni Pueblo, a history of strong-handed negotiations and a lack of knowledge of a government system that is not their own led to signing deals that did not benefit them.

“When there were any land settlements or water settlements, tribes were never provided attorneys.Tribes were never given a heads up, They were never given funding to educate ourselves as Indigenous peoples,” Wemytewa said. “We are stewards of the water. We find the corn seed central. The corn seed is central. In fact, our abstract name is Children of Corn because we’re farmers, we’re agricultural people. What agricultural people would give up their water rights? What agricultural people would give up their watershed? We didn’t have much choice.”

Tribes have priority over everyone else when it comes to their water rights pertaining to the Colorado River, which means they must have a voice in the conversation.

“There are 30 Native American tribes with water rights along the Colorado River. And it may be impractical to basically have all 30 tribes represented during negotiations. We’ve got seven states, two countries, 30 tribes. That would be a very difficult kind of negotiation,” he said.

“But you could certainly have some representatives. The reason it’s tricky is that not all tribes agree on the best approach here. And so it’s important that we treat individual Native American tribes as people who can have their own views that might be different from other tribes. And so how do you ensure fair representation of all the tribal views without actually putting all those tribes at the table during negotiation?”

For Wemytewa, a new compact with tribes involved is necessary.

“Today, as a tribal leader, I submit comments to federal agencies, whether it’s the National Park Service or the Bureau of Land Management or (U.S. Geological Survey). We submit our comments trying to provide guidance to the federal agencies that you have to consider that you can’t continue to open up the lands. You cannot continue to give away water, because by doing so, you continue to remove Indigenous peoples from their aboriginal lands to make room for other people, other cultures.” 

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Border Patrol agents arrested three foreign men in northern Montana in March, alleging their affiliations to the infamous Tren de Aragua gang. Prosecutors charged the men with being in the country illegally.

A month later, the criminal cases against two of the men have been dismissed, and defense attorneys say that they’ve seen no evidence that substantiates a claim of gang affiliation. But those allegations could still seal the fates of the two men, putting them at risk of being sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. 

“I’ve seen nothing that suggests gang affiliation,” Jennifer Kaleczyc, a Helena defense attorney representing one of the men, told Montana Free Press. “There are no references to it in discovery. And I think it’s irresponsible for a government agency to put out a statement like that that puts people in danger.”

On March 4 in Shelby, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two Venezuelan men, Kledyber Gabriel Diaz-Rivas and Porfirio Alexander Suarez, as well as Carlos Alexis Ponce-Lopez of Honduras. All three were charged with entering the country illegally. They were found traveling with an American woman, Kristin Louise Mitchell, who authorities also arrested and accused of harboring the men in the country illegally.

The Havre Border Patrol office posted about the arrest on Facebook, alleging that Mitchell was smuggling the men. The post blurred out the face of Mitchell, a white American, but showed the faces of the other three men. A Border Patrol spokesperson told MTFP that “Mitchell’s face was blurred because she is a U.S. citizen and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has privacy restrictions relative to that.”

On social media, the Border Patrol also alleged that the men “have been identified as Tren de Aragua gang members.” Multiple TV news outlets recited the agency’s Facebook post and its allegations of gang membership.

The Trump administration has used alleged membership of Tren de Aragua as the impetus to send hundreds of people to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act with little or no due process. The administration has admitted that one man had been sent to a prison there by mistake, and a New York Times investigation found that while some of the men had faced serious criminal accusations, many had no criminal background. Moreover, the investigation found little evidence to support the government’s accusations of gang affiliation for most of the 238 men already sent to the now notorious El Salvadorian prison.

Doug Keller has seen this happen to his clients. A former federal public defender who now defends migrants in Texas accused of state crimes, he described the criteria used for gang affiliation as “flimsy.” He said authorities accused one of his clients of gang membership based on a social media post in which he wore Nike clothing. The Times investigation noted federal government guidelines that included “high-end urban streetwear” and the Micheal Jordan Jumpman logo as gang indicators.

“This is just so truly shocking and outrageous,” Keller told MTFP. “Never in my lifetime I thought it would happen that based on some vague innuendo someone would be sent to another country.”

After reports of the initial arrest, the cases against Mitchell and three men in Shelby took an unexpected turn. Ponce-Lopez was charged with illegal reentry, a felony, meaning he was accused of coming back into the country after being deported previously at least once. But Suarez and Diaz-Rivas entered the country for the first time in 2023 and were charged with “improper entry by an alien” rather than reentry, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court. That’s a misdemeanor.

Defense attorneys for the two men seized on the distinction and petitioned to have those cases dismissed. Keller said that someone charged with illegally entering the country at the southern border for the first time can’t be prosecuted months later in another state.

“With illegal entry, you have to charge them where they entered,” he told MTFP.

This is different from the charge of illegal reentry, which Keller said can be prosecuted anywhere a person is arrested.

Chief District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls dismissed the cases against Suarez and Diaz-Rivas April 9. The judge’s order noted that the “venue for those offenses is not proper in the District of Montana” and that the prosecutor didn’t object to the motion.

The cases against Ponce-Lopez and Mitchell, however, remain ongoing. Because Ponce-Lopez allegedly reentered the country after being deported in the past, he faced a felony charge different from the other two men. A press release from U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme’s office April 11 announced not guilty pleas from both defendants, despite Ponce-Lopez having reached a plea agreement four days earlier. He is scheduled to formally plead guilty to illegal reentry on April 22. 

The three men are now scheduled to provide testimony in the case against Mitchell, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted harboring of illegal aliens. Court documents say that Mitchell has previous convictions for smuggling migrants.

So far, the Border Patrol’s Facebook post appears to be the only public mention of the men’s alleged ties to Tren de Aragua. Nothing in the court record for any of the three men mentions evidence of gang affiliation, nor do press releases about the case. The Border Patrol spokesperson declined to offer any details regarding gang affiliation and wouldn’t comment on what the agency called an active case. Told that two of the defendants’ cases had been dismissed, the spokesperson wrote in an email that “since the cases are all related, comment on a particular case would essentially be a comment on the active case.”

Defense attorney Kaleczyc said that the evidence turned over by federal prosecutors against her client does not mention gang affiliation.

“When I discussed it with [Porfirio Suarez], he was visibly shocked to hear that he was accused of being a gang member,” she said.

The defense attorney for Diaz-Rivas, the second man whose case was dismissed, confirmed to MTFP that he saw no evidence of gang affiliation in the case but declined to comment further.

A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson declined to comment on the case.

Keller said that the lack of gang-related evidence isn’t unusual by itself, because the allegation wasn’t directly related to the charges of illegal entry. But Kaleczyc worries that even with the criminal case dismissed, the gang allegation might be used to imprison her client under the Alien Enemies Act.

Late last month, NPR highlighted a scoring system that the federal government has used to help determine whether someone can be deported under the Alien Enemies Act. Among the incriminating criteria in the checklist are “detailed open-source media (e.g. newspapers, investigative journalism reports) that describe arrest, prosecution, or operations of a subject as a member of TDA,” or Tren de Aragua. Kaleczyc wondered if some of the media’s stories, which relied solely on Border Patrol’s Facebook post, might lend credence to the claim.

“I am worried it’s a possibility,” Kaleczyc said.

On Wednesday, she wasn’t sure what would happen to her client. After being questioned in the case against Mitchell, Suarez is expected to be placed into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The U.S. District Court of Montana has seen an uptick in immigration enforcement cases this year. Nearly all of them are being heard at the Great Falls federal courthouse, where seven such cases are pending.

One of those cases is against a Mexican man named Jose Carlos Ambrose-Chigo. Court documents say that Ambrose-Chigo had been ordered to remain in Mexico by U.S. authorities at one point, but his current charge is illegal entry — the same charge that a judge dismissed against Diaz-Rivas and Suarez.

But Ambrose-Chigo’s experience is different. In early April, he agreed to plead guilty and faces six months in prison for the charge. He’s set to be sentenced on April 22.

The post The Border Patrol agents in Montana called them gang members. Defense attorneys saw no evidence of that as a judge dismissed their cases appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Last year, Sapelo Island residents sued county officials for blocking them from holding a crucial vote that could determine whether they would be displaced from the last Gullah Gechee community on the Georgia coast. 

Barbara Bailey, Christopher Bailey, and Stanley Walker, on behalf of 2,300 voters, claimed McIntosh County commissioners stopped residents from casting their ballots in a referendum. 

The issue stems from a lower court ruling that ordered an October 2024 election be halted during early voting, a decision aligned with commissioners who filed the lawsuit. The residents triggered the election, after collecting more than 2,000 signatures on a petition to vote on the commissioners’ decision.

The Baileys and Walker appealed the decision. Now, the Georgia Supreme Court’s nine justices will hear oral arguments in the case Wednesday, April 16, in Atlanta at 10 a.m.

Despite the ongoing lawsuit, just last month the county commissioners attempted to “reaffirm” the very zoning law they’re currently defending in court. The zoning ordinance, passed two years ago, would allow construction of homes to double in size. This would be much larger than traditional homes in the 427-acre historic Hogg Hammock, or Hogg Hummock, neighborhood on Sapelo Island, which is about 60 miles south of Savannah.

Residents fear the changes will result in higher taxes, attract developers, and lead to displacement. 

This is yet another effort by government entities, wealthy investors, or corporations to take land from historically Black under-resourced communities, said Larry Riley, state coordinator for the Georgia chapter of the ADOS Advocacy Foundation. He referenced Sparta, Georgia, where Black landowners are fighting to stop a railroad company from seizing their land, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, another Gullah Geechee community where the late Josephine Wright battled developers until her death to protect her family’s home.

But, the most alarming aspect, particularly in Sapelo Island, is the attack on voting rights and Black political power — and the precedent this Supreme Court case could set, he added.

“We’re seeing an increase in voter suppression. That’s another issue that makes Sapelo really unique, because they wanted a vote, but were blocked from it. The scary thing is if the court sides with McIntosh County, that sets precedent that this could happen more often in other places because they’ve seen it work here,” Riley said. “We need more organizations and the general public to know about these things and make noise about it.” 

As Sustainable Georgia Futures put it: “This case is about protecting legacy, land, and self-determination.”

This fight is the most recent of many between the residents here and its local government. Already, they’ve endured government neglect, property tax hikes, and white developers eyeing the land, known for its beaches and climate, as a place to build luxury resorts and golf courses. After celebrating their annual Cultural Day last fall, seven elders lost their lives due to a gangway collapse, which residents previously sounded the alarm about its poor conditions.

They’ve used litigation to settle disputes. In recent court battles, the county settled, promising to provide better fire equipment and emergency medical services, in addition to improved maintenance of roads and a 30% reduction in garbage fees to residents. 

They’re back in court, seeking an opinion on whether the referendum can move forward. In addition to the residents’ case, the Supreme Court will hear two other related cases between McIntosh County and county Probate Court Judge Harold Webster, who approved the petition and scheduled the October election.

Although the oral arguments on Wednesday will last 40 minutes, a decision may not be reached for months. Attorneys for all parties did not respond to Capital B’s request for comment.

30-year protections broken

As early as the summer of 2023, Sapelo Island descendants and activists actively worked to prevent the county from repealing protections established in the 1990s. McIntosh County created the Hog Hammock Historic District in 1994 to protect the community’s historic resources and ward off threats from land speculators and development. The area is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

“It is the intent of this district to reserve this area for low intensity residential and cottage industry uses which are environmentally sound and will not contribute to land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population,” according to Appendix C, Article 2, Section 219 of the McIntosh County Code of Ordinances. 

County commissioners reversed course in 2023 when they planned to raise the maximum square footage of a heated-and-cooled house from 1,400 to 3,000, which residents warned would lead to higher property taxes. They packed out zoning and planning commission meetings as well as county board meetings to share their concerns. Despite their pleas, commissioners voted 3 to 2 in favor of the proposal.

“What they voted on today was unjust and unfair to the descendants of the island,” Commissioner Roger Lotson, the sole Black board member, said at the time. Lotson, who voted against the motion along with commissioner William Harrell, tried to strike a compromise by postponing the vote for 45 days and allowing the proposal to be viewed by the community. He also tried to reduce the square footage.

Both of the motions failed, The Current reported.

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Read more: The Battle for Land, Identity, and Survival of Gullah Geechee Communities

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County manager Patrick Zoucks told the Darien News that the “proposed amendments to the Hogg Hammock zoning regulations are in the best interest of the residents of Hogg Hammock and all of the citizens of McIntosh County. These regulations provide the best protection that any county in Georgia can provide to similarly situated communities.”

Sapelo Island descendants and local groups immediately jumped into action and organized a petition to give voters a say on the matter. Residents petitioned the issue for a vote, following the Home Rule provision in the state’s constitution. It resulted in a special election. Home Rule allows that amendments to or repeals of local ordinances, resolutions, or regulations may be initiated by a petition filed to the probate court judge, who will then decide the validity of the petition within 60 days and issue a special election, if warranted.

Separately, a group of nine residents — who are mostly retirees or on a fixed income — from the Hog Hammock community filed a complaint in October 2023 against the commissioners to challenge what they call an “unlawful zoning amendment” in the Superior Court of McIntosh County. They argued that if the property taxes increase as a result of the amendment change, they will not be able to afford to live on the island anymore. The county asked the judge to throw out the suit in November. In March 2024, Superior Court Judge Jay Stewart dismissed the case without prejudice. 

The outcome of the case didn’t break the community’s spirit. 

By July 2024, they collected more than 2,300 signatures on their petition, and three residents filed it in McIntosh County probate court to put the referendum on the ballot. Weeks later, Probate County Judge Harold Webster validated the votes and approved an election for Oct. 1, 2024. 

Rather than allow the election to proceed, county commissioners filed a complaint in Superior Court to stop the election, stating that Webster lacked authority and jurisdiction to take actions on the referendum petition. In September, a month before the election, Superior Court Judge Gary McCorvey ordered a halt to the election, as voters were casting early ballots. More than 800 people had voted.

Capital B Atlanta’s Community Engagement Editor Ann Hill Bond and Community Listening Ambassador Dante Miller contributed to this report.

The post This Georgia Case Could Decide the Future of Gullah Geechee Land on Sapelo Island appeared first on Capital B News – Atlanta.