When: Thursday, July 25 from 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Where: The Nordic Lodge, 178 Nordic Trail, Charlestown
What: Live music by “Jus Tus”, hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, raffle
Why: Support open space preservation and protection in Charlestown and have a fabulous evening with live music
When: Thursday, July 11 from 6 pm to 8 pm
Where: Ninigret Park at the New Pavilion
What: Concert by Will Evans, whose album “Rise” was nominated for three categories by the New England Music Awards; movie Jaws; and 7 food trucks providing dinner
Who: Brought to you by Charlestown Parks and Recreation Department
Cost: Music and Movie are Free. Dinner – pay for as little or as much as you want to eat
Charlestown’s over 40-year practice of a seven-person Planning Commission with two alternate seats open and one or two voting seats open each election allows for up to four new faces on the Commission, preserves continuity for applications that cross an election, and complies with the requirement that a majority of voting members not be replaced in any one year.
When: Saturdays, June 29, July 13, July 27, August 3, and August 17, at 10:00 am
Where: Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge
Cost: Program is free
Registration: Please pre-register as space is limited
Hands-on experience that introduces children and their families to a variety of aquatic creatures living in the salt ponds.
Where: Kinney Bungalow, 505 Point Judith Rd., Narragansett, RI 02882
When: Thursday, July 11 from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm
What: Silent Auction, Food and Drink, and a Sunset View
There are items for all interests, from a guided kayaking tour, to local gift cards, art, theatre tickets, and more! Additional items are added to the auction website weekly, so keep checking back.
When: Every Friday – June 21 to August 30 from 9 am to 12:30 pm
Where: On the grounds of the Church of the Holy Spirit, 4150 Old Post Rd,. Charlestown (map in post)
Local fresh produce, fruits, honey, shellfish, specially prepared dishes, baked goods, and more.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is actively investigating the former Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (CNALF) under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program as a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS). CNALF is currently Ninigret Park and Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge in Charlestown. A Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) is one of many methods USACE may use to facilitate public participation. Details on how to be part of the RAB in post.
If passed, the bottle bill, H8312, would place a 10-cent refundable deposit on many beverage containers, not including milk, baby formula, or nutritional supplements. The bill would apply to bottles sized from 1.7-ounce (50-millimeter) nips to up to 3-liter bottles. If passed, the law would go into effect July 1, 2026.
When: Saturday, June 8 from 12 p.m to 4 p.m
Where: Ninigret Park
What: Dancing – Music – Shopping – Food
Tomaquag Museum is Rhode Island’s only museum entirely dedicated to telling the story of the Indigenous peoples of this land.
Parade on Old Post Road on Sunday
When: Sunday, May 26 at 1 p.m.
Where: Starts at the South Kingstown line and ends at Charlestown Liquor Store
Parade in Carolina on Monday
When: Monday, May 27 at 9:00 a.m.
Where: Starts at the Richmond-Carolina Fire Station and ends at St. Mary’s Church in Charlestown.
When: Friday, May 17 at 9:00 am
Where: Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown
What: Release of two seals back to the wild
Gnocchi is young male gray seal and Ditalini is a juvenile male harp seal.
Please remember that seal release dates and times may change without notice.
The Friends of the National Wildlife Refuges of Rhode Island announce their 24th Annual Amateur Photo Competition to highlight the beauty of the five refuges that comprise the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Amateur photographers are encouraged to enter their existing refuge color photos or to take new ones. Photos and a $10 entry fee per photo must be received by September 5, 2024.
Rhode Island’s seven native turtle species are on the move to find nests and resources after spending the winter in brumation, their own version of hibernation. When turtles leave their safe winter homes under mud or leaf litter, their search for resources and nesting spots often takes them across dangerous roadways. Read the post to learn how you can help turtles.
When: Friday, May 10 at 9:00 am
Where: Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown
What: Release of two seals back to the wild
Rotini is a female harbor seal yearling and Manicotti is a female gray seal.
Please remember that seal release dates and times may change without notice.
When: Saturday, May 11, 8:00 a.m. to Noon (come early for the best selection)
Where: St James Parish Center, 2079 Matunuck Schoolhouse Road, Charlestown
Cost: Free parking and admission
This Plant Sale features flowering annual plants, hanging baskets, vegetables, herbs, and perennials from members’ gardens. There will also be Mother’s Day gifts and a raffle. Again this year will be a soil-testing table run by their Master Gardeners; please bring a cup of your soil for analysis.
It’s Not Whether You Stock, but Where. Turek says he has no objection to hatchery fish being stocked in waterbodies that don’t have native trout already living there. Corayer believes the focus of trout management in Rhode Island should shift from recreation to conservation. “I firmly believe that our state would be far better served by teaching people about the beauty of our natural surroundings and the potential to catch a gorgeous brook trout in the woods or along the side of the road as opposed to just dumping fish in a pond and letting them succumb to predation and starvation.”
Natural Resources Conservation Service in Rhode Island announces a third application sign up period for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program RI Forest Health Works. Apply by May 17, 2024, to be eligible for the third round of fiscal year 2024 funding.
When: Saturday, May 04, from 9 a.m. to noon
Where: URI Botanical Gardens. Attendees are encouraged to park behind the URI Fine Arts building in Lot 7 off Flagg Road.
The sale will feature annuals, perennials, herbs, and vegetable seedlings grown by URI Master Gardener propagation volunteers in the East Farm greenhouses.
Insects and their importance to migratory birds is the focus of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day on May 11. Charlestown is part of the Atlantic Flyway, one of the main routes for both the north and south bird migrations. Our town is home to the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, which was established to protect migratory birds. The numbers of birds migrating through Charlestown is significant.
When: Saturday, May 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Casey Farm, 2325 Boston Neck Road, Saunderstown RI
Find spring ephemerals and early blooming perennials and shrubs, perfectly timed for early pollinators and nesting birds, along with ferns and grasses.
A URI-led team of researchers has found direct evidence of a species – the American woodcock, a migratory shorebird from eastern and central North America – that overlaps periods of migration and reproduction, a rare breeding strategy known as “itinerant breeding.”
Voters Passed the Chariho budget during Tuesday’s referendum. Charlestown voted 372 in favor to 78 against. Total District voters voted 1203 in favor to 949 against. Thank you to all who voted!
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with RI Department of Environmental Management, is hosting the Cinder Worm Workshop, now in its fifteenth year. There will be an evening class in fly tying instruction and one weekend evening of fly fishing, all free and without charge to registrants. The course syllabus is a treasure chest of comprehensive knowledge and instructional excellence. Dates and details in post.
The Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife is seeking the public’s help to identify Bald Eagle nests throughout the state. With your help, they can keep the nesting database up to date to better inform conservation in Rhode Island. Contact email to report your nest sightings is in this post.
DEM is reminding Rhode Islanders to remain vigilant for invasive species as their lifecycles progress and they emerge during the spring. The Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) and Winter Moth are two invasive species that remain the focus of DEM’s Division of Agriculture and Forest Environment’s Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) and Forest Health Program efforts to monitor and limit the spread of pests which represent a tangible threat to Rhode Island’s agriculture and forests.
The commission studying forest management and fire prevention in Rhode Island’s forests has released its final report, recommending that the state allocate considerably more resources to mitigating the risk of wildfires. With forestry staff at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management cut by 75% since 1990, the agency has been able to manage just 1% of the state’s forests.
2024 Earth Day Celebration
When: Saturday, April 20 from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Ninigret Park
What: Free activities for the whole family
Approximately 70% of all bird species are migratory and 80% of those that undergo migration do so at night. As countless numbers of birds pass overhead as you sleep, many of them will be drawn off course by bright lights scattered across the landscape below them, leading to fatigue and increasing risk of collisions with buildings.
When: Wednesday, March 27 at 6 p.m.
Where: Cross Mills Public Library, 4417 Old Post Road, Charlestown
What: “A Small Town’s Brush with Nuclear Power”, presentation by Journalist Brian Mitchell who was hired as the first editor of the Chariho Times in 1977, when plans to build a nuclear power plant in Charlestown were well underway. Brian will recount the story of reporting on this controversial proposal.
UPDATE: This cleanup was canceled and has been replaced with a clean-up at Schoolhouse Pond Preserve also at 9:00 a.m.
When: Saturday, March 16, at 9:00 a.m.
Where: Meet at the Preserve parking lot on Railroad Ave. in Carolina
What: Join with the Charlestown Conservation Commission to help them maintain this beautiful property.
Patricia Sprague Forest Preserve is owned by the Town of Charlestown with a conservation easement held by the Charlestown Land Trust.
