Plum Island is a living laboratory to study the effects of storms, climate change and sea level rise. This book chronicles the events of 2016 when island residents started turning away from fighting the Atlantic Ocean and the Army Corps of Engineers to working with nature to slow erosion. It tells the engaging story of people lives being transformed by nature, science and our rapidly evolving environment. This is the third book in a series about the changing face of Plum Island that includes, "Islands in the Storm," "Plum Island; 4,000 Years on a Barrier Beach" and "Plum Island 2016."

Back from the Cold War, intelligence officer Keith Landry returns to his hometown of Spencerville, Ohio. Twenty-five years after their last encounter, Keith runs into his first love, Annie, now unhappily married to the town's chief of police--an abusive alcoholic. In his efforts to reclaim Annie, Keith will have to draw on all the skills of a violent lifetime.

“Your brother should know the truth.” These are the last cryptic words that Ava Barrett’s father says before he dies. But Ava doesn’t have a brother, as far as she knows, so how can she tell him the truth? She dismisses the conversation and dedicates herself to bringing her family together for her father’s funeral. This is no easy task, since her sister, Elaine, has been estranged from the family and still harbors resentment against their stepmother and half-sister, Gigi. Ava, on the other hand, is a single mother who sees Gigi as a troubled teen in need of love and connection. Ava, too, could use more love in her life and finds it where she least expects it. But the biggest surprise of all is that Gigi holds the key to the mystery surrounding her father’s dying words, and joins Ava in uncovering a secret that rapidly unravels the very fabric of their entire family… CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

Archival snapshot of entire looseleaf Code of Massachusetts Regulations held by the Social Law Library of Massachusetts as of January 2020.

The interaction between land and sea is controlled by a number of processes that are in general driven by the equilibrium between environmental forcing components (e.g. hydrodynamic - waves, currents, surges), atmospheric (e.g. winds) and terrestrial (e.g. catchment land cover) and sediment dynamics. In the context of the Anthropocene epoch, the equilibrium in many coastal regions is now often altered by the influence of human activities. Successive human activities globally influence (indirectly) these forcing components, helping magnify the negative impact of extreme meteorological events and sea level rise. Directly, human activity can also influence a number of processes at a local scale within and between the catchment, the sea and the coast. For example, misplaced engineered infrastructure inside these naturally dynamic environments can accentuate disequilibrium, destabilizing shores and deltas. Development in catchments can promote rapid runoff, inducing sometimes-dramatic effects on downstream urbanized areas, the socio-economy as well as on coastal resources and ecosystems. This Research Topic aims to assemble research and review papers that focus on the dynamics of shores and deltas in peril under present conditions as well as in the future context of sea-level rise, climate change and adaptation strategies under various scenarios.

Strictly off limits to the public, Plum Island is home to virginal beaches, cliffs, forests, ponds -- and the deadliest germs that have ever roamed the planet. Lab 257 blows the lid off the stunning true nature and checkered history of Plum Island. It shows that the seemingly bucolic island in the shadow of New York City is a ticking biological time bomb that none of us can safely ignore. Based on declassified government documents, in-depth interviews, and access to Plum Island itself, this is an eye-opening, suspenseful account of a federal government germ laboratory gone terribly wrong. For the first time, Lab 257 takes you deep inside this secret world and presents startling revelations on virus outbreaks, biological meltdowns, infected workers, the periodic flushing of contaminated raw sewage into area waters, and the insidious connections between Plum Island, Lyme disease, and the deadly West Nile virus. The book also probes what's in store for Plum Island's new owner, the Department of Homeland Security, in this age of bioterrorism. Lab 257 is a call to action for those concerned with protecting present and future generations from preventable biological catastrophes.