Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:56 pm | Updated: 1:55 am, Fri Mar 23, 2012.

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP No one was injured a blaze that ripped through a Pennsylvania Avenue home in the Croydon section of Bristol Township Thursday night.

The fire broke out around 9 p.m., according to Croydon Fire Co. Chief Tom Tryon. At one point during the battle, flames were so intense that Tryon ordered all crews out of the structure.

The fire was caused by an electrical cord that was plugged into a laptop that was under a bed, officials said.

As fire crews were finishing up at the scene, police were called to break up a fight between restoration company workers who had arrived at the home. No one was arrested, fire officials said.

George Mattar, 215-949-4165; email: gmattar@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @mattarmuses

2012 phillyBurbs.com . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Fire heavily damages Croydon home

CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department won't need as much volunteer help this year stocking millions of inch-long salmon fry (young salmon) into the Merrimack River basin because of an exciting new development. About the same number of fry will be stocked, but fewer rivers are being targeted because Fish and Game does not want to stock on top of fry that may have hatched in the wild.

Last fall, adult salmon were released into the Souhegan, Baker and upper Pemigewasset rivers, and successful spawning was confirmed by monitoring radio-tagged fish and counting redds (salmon nests). The shift in strategy was inspired by a record number of 402 returning Atlantic salmon counted at the Essex Dam fish lift downstream in Massachusetts in the spring of 2011. Similar increases were recorded on salmon rivers throughout Maine and Canada. The increase in numbers allowed Fish and Game to take some big steps toward answering questions about natural salmon reproduction.

It has been 35 years since the first salmon fry were released in the Merrimack River watershed under the current Atlantic salmon restoration program, which is funded by the federal Sport Fish Restoration Program. Before 1976, Atlantic salmon had been missing from the waters of the Merrimack since the first attempt at salmon restoration ended more than a century ago in 1895. The original salmon population had been extirpated by dams built in Lawrence and Lowell in the early 1800s.

Optimism ran high in the early days of the modern program. Targets for adult salmon returns were set in the thousands. The program became a catalyst for habitat restoration, land conservation and fish passage projects throughout the Merrimack watershed. Yet the goal of achieving a sustainable salmon run has remained elusive, with an average of 121 adult salmon returning to the Merrimack River each year.

The restoration program holds the first 300 returning Atlantic salmon at the National Fish Hatchery in Nashua, where their eggs are used to produce the millions of juvenile salmon that are stocked throughout the Merrimack River watershed each year. Until 2011, this target was only exceeded once, with 331 salmon returns counted in 1991.

Salmon returns have typically been low because populations throughout North America are in decline. Poor survival in the ocean has been a major obstacle to salmon restoration efforts throughout the region. This remains true despite the closing of an ocean fishery off the western coast of Greenland, where Atlantic salmon congregate before migrating back to their home rivers. Determining the potential cause, or causes, of declining marine survival is a major focus of current research.

"If ocean survival is cyclical, then it is reasonable to believe that salmon restoration can succeed," said Matt Carpenter, a fisheries biologist who coordinates New Hampshire's salmon restoration program. "However, if there has been a fundamental shift in the North Atlantic ecosystem because of a changing climate or other factors, then salmon restoration may not be possible."

It was with this uncertainty about the marine phase of the salmon's life cycle in mind that regional anadromous fisheries planners began, in 2010, to rethink the strategy of the Merrimack River Salmon Program. A common theme has been scaling back hatchery production and shifting focus toward evaluating the potential for natural salmon reproduction in the watershed. This looks especially promising in the Souhegan River, where a recent dam removal has made salmon spawning habitat accessible for the first time in the history of the program. Releasing adult salmon and evaluating their ability to spawn in the wild, rather than waiting until we reach a minimum target of 300 fish before breeding adults are released, will tell us whether the Souhegan River contains habitat that is capable of supporting a sustainable salmon population if marine survival improves.

"It was encouraging to see that marine survival did improve, at least for salmon returning in 2011," said Carpenter.

Fish and Game will continue to monitor the progress of salmon breeding in the wild in the Souhegan and other rivers. In two years, biologists will be able to sample for juvenile salmon, called parr, in areas where successful spawning was recorded.

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A Shift in Strategy for Merrimack River Atlantic Salmon Restoration

Instability of the gorge wall beneath the former High Falls festival site has forced city officials to abandon restoration work there and turn their attention on other parts of the historic district.

A report due in May will detail the extent and pace of erosion, possible remedies and associated costs. Options could include permanently fencing off the festival site; partially demolishing that section of the gorge wall and abandoning an already-evacuated two-story building below; or erecting a concrete and rock retaining wall to hold everything up.

Neither option is particularly appealing aesthetically or financially, said City Engineer James McIntosh. For now, the city has ceased work at the site of what was an 1888 shoe factory, saw mill and old water wheel pit visible from a covered platform. Barricades wrapped in snow fencing limit access. The focus has become an intense imaging survey to track movement of the wall over a six-month period.

Its not safe for the contractor or anyone to be working over there, McIntosh said. The wall underneath ... has eroded away so you kind of have this cliff, and as you get lower and lower the wall is moving in.

City Council met in committee on Thursday and approved Mayor Thomas Richards request for an additional $23,000 to redesign restoration of the old Browns Race, shifting work westward beyond the area of concern to the old Triphammer Forge Water Wheel. That would increase LaBella Associates consulting and design fees to $152,000 so far.

Restoration efforts also will refurbish foot bridges, as well as seal and re-water the wet well along Mill Street. City Council approved a total project budget of $610,000 back in 2009, to be paid for with a state grant and $290,000 in city matching funds.

The gorge wall stability study by LaBella is a separate $85,000 item.

Developer Ben Kendig has restored and renovated four High Falls buildings including 40 Commercial St., which now sits abandoned. He leases that property from the city, and also has the city contract for upkeep of the festival site above.

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While glad to hear about the planned work on the Triphammer Forge, he is waiting like everyone else to gauge the possible impact of LaBellas findings about the gorge wall.

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Unstable gorge wall hampers High Falls restoration

A general view shows Kensington Palace, what used to be the official residence of the late Princess Diana, in London, March 20, 2012.

Kensington Palace - part museum, part royal abode - is reopening to the public after a two-year, 12-million-pound ($19-million) makeover designed to give visitors a sense of what it is like to live in a centuries-old building that has witnessed both affairs of state and affairs of the heart.

Senior curator Joanna Marschner said she hopes the renovated building will shake up preconceptions about royal palaces, offering both the "big, glorious, golden rooms" that people expect, and a trove of more personal, revealing items - from Queen Victoria's baby shoes to Princess Diana's little black dress.

Tucked into Kensington Gardens, a public park in central London, Kensington Palace is a warm red-brick contrast to gray Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's London home.

It was home to six British monarchs, including Victoria, who spent her childhood here, and now contains several royal "apartments" - actually Georgian houses, one of which William and Kate will move into next year.

It also has dozens of rooms that are open to the public. The public side of the palace reopens Monday, in time for a busy tourist season that includes the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June and the summer Olympics.

Many visitors will head straight for a ground-floor display of dresses belonging to the palace's most famous recent occupant, Princess Diana. She lived here for 16 years after her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981. After her death in a Paris car crash in 1997, thousands of mourners came to leave flowers outside the palace gates.

Display cases hold garments including a black silk taffeta gown by Emanuel, a Versace cocktail dress and a fuchsia Catherine Walker gown, alongside sketches of the garments and photographs - all revealing, according to curator Deirdre Murphy, "Diana's evolving style and the important role fashion played in creating her public image."

Upstairs is an exhibition devoted to Victoria, the only British monarch before the current queen to reach 60 years on the throne.

It includes the room where she was born and the room where in 1837 she was informed, at age 18, that her uncle had died and she was queen.

Read more from the original source:
Kensington Palace opens after a $19 million makeover

The US Supreme Court Wednesday ruled unanimously in favor of an Idaho couple seeking to have their day in court to challenge an Environmental Protection Agency order that scuttled plans to build their dream home on a subdivided lot the EPA said was a federal wetland.

The couple, Chantell and Michael Sackett, had started to fill the home site with dirt and gravel to prepare for construction. But the EPA intervened, announcing that the property was a regulated wetland. Agency officials ordered the couple to restore the land to its original state or face up to $75,000 a day in fines.

The Sacketts disputed the EPAs wetland designation and filed a lawsuit to litigate the issue in federal court.

The EPA argued that the Sacketts lawsuit must be dismissed because the EPAs Clean Water Act compliance order did not amount to final agency action.

How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz.

A federal judge and the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the EPA and threw the suit out. Facing bankrupting daily fines and no clear avenue for judicial review, the Sacketts took their case to the Supreme Court.

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, the high court said the Sacketts are entitled to challenge the EPA order in federal court.

The Sacketts may bring a civil action [under the Administrative Procedure Act] to challenge the issuance of the EPAs order, Justice Antonin Scalia said in a statement from the bench announcing the decision. The APA provides for judicial review of final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in court, he said.

The justices did not rule that the couple may proceed with construction of their home on the disputed tract. Instead, the high court decision sets the stage for a federal judge to examine the EPA order. In effect, the Sacketts won the opportunity to present their case to a neutral judge.

We are very thankful to the Supreme Court for affirming that we have rights and that the EPA is not beyond the control of the courts and the Constitution, Mr. Sackett said in a written statement.

See the article here:
EPA wetlands order can be challenged by land owners, Supreme Court rules

19-03-2012 09:58 Ace On the Job Episode 1: Home fire in Holyoke, MA where Gary Brunelle owner of Ace Fire & Water Restoration, explains the situation of that particular home.

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Ace On the Job Episode 1: Home fire in Holyoke, MA. - Video

LONDON It's the past home of Queen Victoria and Princess Diana, the future residence of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and, it's hoped, a stop on tourists' London itineraries.

Kensington Palace part museum, part royal abode is reopening to the public after a two-year $19-million makeover designed to give visitors a sense of what it is like to live in a centuries-old building that has witnessed both affairs of state and affairs of the heart.

Senior curator Joanna Marschner said she hopes the renovated building will shake up preconceptions about royal palaces, offering both the "big, glorious, golden rooms" that people expect, and a trove of more personal, revealing items from Queen Victoria's baby shoes to Princess Diana's little black dress.

"I hope what we have done will engage people who have always thought 'a royal palace is not for me,'" Marschner said Tuesday. "And for them to realize that these remarkable buildings part of the DNA of the city are for them."

Tucked into Kensington Gardens, a public park in central London, Kensington Palace is a warm red-brick contrast to gray Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II's London home.

It was home to six British monarchs, including Victoria, who spent her childhood here, and now contains several royal "apartments" actually Georgian houses, one of which William and Kate will move into next year.

It also has dozens of rooms that are open to the public. The public side of the palace reopens Monday, in time for a busy tourist season that includes the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June and the summer Olympics.

Project manager Jo Thwaites, who oversaw the renovation, said the changes involved "peeling back the layers of Kensington Palace in order to reveal much more for visitors to enjoy."

Formerly shielded by hedges and fences that made its public entrance hard to find, the palace is now much more welcoming.

The entrance from the park lies beside a lovely ornamental garden surrounded by manicured lawns on which visitors are encouraged to dawdle. It comes as a surprise to find the signs posted there do not say "keep off the grass," but merely warn people to take care on steep slopes.

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Princess Diana's home reopens to public

1:00 AM

By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com Staff Writer

PITTSTON -- The $200,000 historic restoration of Reuben Colburn's 1765 home, carriage house and barn is close to completion.

click image to enlarge

Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands historian Tom Desjardin hopes to have the restoration of the 1765 Reuben Colburn homestead in Pittston completed by June. The state has spent approximately $200,000 over the last three years repairing the historic home, barns and carriage house on the Kennebec River.

Staff photo by Andy Molloy

click image to enlarge

Tom Desjardin, historian for the state Bureau of Parks & Land, said the three-year project will end in June. Then the home of Colburn, who helped Colonel Benedict Arnold on his Revolutionary War expedition to Quebec City, will once again be open for tours in July and August.

Desjardin said it's been 30 years since anything has been done to the state's historic site.

He said workers have been putting the finishing touches on Colburn's home, including an old Greek Revival style door surround that includes door pillars and the door step.

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Colburn house almost ready for tourists again

Otiake Wetland in the Waitaki Valley has recently undergone some much-needed restoration work thanks to funding assistance from Environment Canterbury's Immediate Steps Programme.

The restoration work is being coordinated by the Department of Conservation, which is managing the wetland in partnership with landowner Kate White.

Lorraine Cook, DOC Flora Ranger, says the wetland is one of the best remaining habitats of its type in the Lower Waitaki. "It is also home to a number of native species including longfin eel and remnant native plants such as raupo, toi toi and Carex secta."

"It has been a very amicable partnership between us and DOC," Kate White said. "We love the wetland and get a lot of pleasure out of it. There are white swans that come and go, herons and other birds including two groups of pukekos that don't mix!"

Controlling invasive willows and other weeds has been a focus of the restoration work, as well as erecting fencing to exclude stock and planting native plants.

The wetlands not only provide important habitat for native species, they also protect downstream water quality by trapping sediment and absorbing nutrients.

The project received $32,000 in Immediate Steps funding and $16,000 from DOC.

More funding available

The Lower Waitaki - South Coastal Canterbury Water Management Committee has $100,000 in Immediate Steps funding to distribute each year towards biodiversity projects in the area.

See the article here:
Otiake Wetland restoration supported

A SCULPTURE on the banks of the Maribyrnong River will be flying the coop while it gets a full restoration and new home.

Everybird (right), near The Boathouse restaurant in Moonee Ponds, will be removed and treated for wood rot by a timber conservator.

>> Does Moonee Valley need more public art and where would you like to see it? Tell us below.

The restoration will cost about $24,000, including the cost of removal, relocation and improvements to site fixtures.

The costs are on top of the original $60,000 that Moonee Valley Council paid artist Bruce Armstrong for several sculptures in the city, including Everybird.

The sculpture will be installed at a new home in June.

Mayor Jim Cusack said it was vital to take care of the citys cultural assets for future generations.

The nest will still be in a public area but will hopefully be more protected from the elements than its current home, he said.

Afton Street Wetlands has been considered as a possibility along with another area alongside the Maribyrnong.

Everybird will still remain in a public place in its new home.

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YOUR SAY: Bird to fly again on the banks of the Maribyrnong