Richard Foye

Be careful on the ice: tips for the Retreat Meadows

In response to a recent letter in the Reformer about people falling through ice at the Retreat Meadows, I will reiterate a letter I sent in about 10 years ago on the same subject.

It is not anyone's job to test and affirm the safety of the ice. You must treat being on ice with caution, as you would crossing a road. When people fall through the ice, it usually means they are not using common sense.

• Two inches of black ice will hold a 160-pound person safely, but if you are on a river or a lake, you might wish to be on thicker ice. That 2 inches of white ice is very porous, and you ought not to trust even a foot of it. If you are on the Connecticut River, you want the ice to be at least 8 inches, preferably solid black ice.

• At the Retreat, there are places which are not safe. The edges near the cattail reeds are a good place to expect to fall through at any time. Stay away from the reeds at all times.

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Putting 35 decibels in context

Focusing on decibel levels is extremely subjective and avoids the larger issues with wind generation

I did not want to write another piece about wind turbines, but two recent letters from people I know and whose intelligence I respect struck me with their absence of clear thought and lack of logic. Focusing on decibel levels is extremely subjective and avoids the larger issue with...

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Big Wind threatens our bird habitat and our fragile land

Our forests have grown back after 150 years of neglect. When they have been destroyed by a bulldozer, it will take 10,000 years for them to recover.

Vermont is currently being invaded by an insidiously destructive development that could change the rugged hills irrevocably: the arrival of Big Wind. But wait, you might say. Wind? No carbon dioxide is produced. Environmental activist Bill McKibben supports it. Isn't wind environmentally good? I disagree. * * * Big...

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‘Just don't burn your bridges until you’ve spent a rainy season’

I have spent time in Costa Rica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. After reading Susie Crowther's “Plan A” [“Plan A,” Viewpoint, April 25], I am moved to caution her that the tropics seem to be paradise if you spend vacation time there during the dry season, January through April. Vermont can also be paradise during May through August, absent hurricanes. May through December is the rainy season in most of Central America and the Caribbean Basin. After four months without...

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