Latest news with #MassachusettsPortAuthority
Boston Globe
05-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Fire damages W.B. Mason's South Boston warehouse
W.B. Mason, a Brockton-based office supplier, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday evening. Firefighters used an 'aggressive' attack on the interior and exterior of the building to stop the spread throughout the large warehouse, Deputy Chief Martin McCormack of the Boston Fire Department Firefighters battled a two-alarm fire at the W.B. Mason warehouse in South Boston on Sunday. Boston Fire Department No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation, McCormack said. Advertisement Massachusetts Port Authority owns the land at 647 Summer St. and leases it, according to Samantha Decker, a spokesperson for Massport. The building is assessed at about $16 million, according to Ava Berger can be reached at
IOL News
29-04-2025
- IOL News
The ‘owl man' is busy at Boston airport
Norman Smith with an Arctic Snowy Owl. Image: Supplied Andrea Sachs Every winter, Arctic snowy owls fly thousands of miles south to Boston Logan International Airport. And every season, Norman Smith drives less than an hour to try to snatch them up. 'I've seen a plane taxiing down the runway and the people looking out and seeing me with a bird,' said Smith, 73. 'They're like, 'What's that? What are you doing?'' Known as the 'owl man of Logan airport,' the raptor researcher has caught and released into the wild more than 900 snowy owls that decided Boston Logan was their Boca Raton. When the temperature begins to drop, the Arctic raptors, especially the juveniles, migrate to relatively warmer climates. Many choose the airport, home to the largest known concentration of snowy owls in New England. The East Boston site also sits along the Atlantic Flyway, a superhighway for migratory birds that stretches from Greenland to Florida. With the congested airspace and constant rumble of jets, the airport is hardly a tranquil bird sanctuary. But Smith said the terrain resembles the Arctic tundra. It's open, flat and barren, with water on three sides and plenty to eat, including waterfowl and small mammals. The airfield is also a dangerous place to alight. A collision between a plane and an owl can end badly for both types of fliers. 'The importance of Norm coming in is that he helps us take out a significant threat to aviation safety, which is a large, dense-bodied bird on the airfield,' said Jeff Turner, the airport facilities supervisor for the Massachusetts Port Authority. In 1981, Smith sent a letter to his home airport, asking whether he could study the visiting raptors. He offered to humanely trap the owls from October to spring, or whenever the last bird decided to return home. After checking their vitals, conducting a few tests and banding their legs, he would release them farther afield, such as from Cape Cod or the North Shore. 'If it was early in the season, you'd want to move them south of the airport, because the birds were generally heading south,' said Raymond MacDonald, a wildlife photographer who has been collaborating with Smith for 15 years. 'If you released them north of Logan, they might run into Logan again.' Smith started that fall and has not stopped. Several times a month, Smith will drive to Boston Logan, where he has a high security clearance. In the back of his truck, a bow trap rattles, and the live mice don't make a peep. (No animals, including the bait, are harmed in the process, he says.) He typically catches 10 to 15 snowy owls a year, plus several other birds of prey, such as short-eared owls, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks and harriers. He set a personal record in the 2013-2014 season, capturing 14 snowy owls in one day and 121 over the winter. In late March, it was 15. 'They might be just sitting there, they might be hiding or they might be sleeping,' Smith said of his targets. 'They could be out on the salt marsh, roosting or feeding on a duck or a rabbit. Obviously, those birds you're not going to catch, because the bird has to be hungry.' The Boston-area native, who started working at Mass Audubon as a teenager and recently retired as director of its Blue Hills Trailside Museum, is a preeminent authority on snowy owls. He was the subject of a recent award-winning short documentary film by local filmmaker Anna Miller, called 'The Snowy Owls of Logan Airport.' Through tagging, satellite telemetry and field work, he has made numerous discoveries about the species' life expectancy, vision, migratory routes and feeding habits. He was a pioneer in bird tracking, attaching transmitters to wintering snowy owls and determining that the animals successfully complete the 3,000-mile odyssey to the Arctic. But not all of them do. 'I was out there one time, and a snowy owl was sucked into a Learjet engine. It blew the engine, and the plane had to turn around and come back,' Smith said. 'That's the reason why we catch them and move them from the airport.' Smith said some people have suggested he leave the snowy owls alone. He shrugs them off. 'That's not good for the owl,' he said, 'and it certainly isn't good for the plane.' Boston Logan is haunted by the specter of a 1960 bird strike that ranks as the deadliest of its kind. In October of that year, a flock of starlings caused Eastern Airlines Flight 375 to plunge into Winthrop Bay minutes after takeoff. Of the 72 passengers and flight crew members on board, 10 survived. More often than not, bird strikes are not life-threatening to airplane passengers, but they can be harrowing. One of the most famous nonfatal incidents occurred in New York in 2009, when a US Airways plane flew into a flock of Canada geese. Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger III safely landed the aircraft on the Hudson River. Wildlife strikes are on the rise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's most recent and complete data. In 2023, the agency recorded 19,603 run-ins in the United States, a 14 percent increase from the previous year's 17,205 collisions. Around the world, wildlife accidents involving civilian and military aircraft have killed more than 491 people and destroyed more than 350 aircraft between 1988 and 2023. Domestically, the numbers are 76 and 126, respectively. During roughly the same period, nearly 800 species were involved, including 651 bird species, such as black and turkey vultures, gulls, brown and white pelicans, trumpeter swans, American kestrels, bald eagles, and snowy owls. Among birds, the FAA said, waterfowl, raptors and gulls cause the greatest amount of damage. Airports employ a battalion of tactics to deter birds and mammals from tangling with aircraft operations. Not all of the strategies are well-received. In 2013, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey instructed its airports to shoot any snowy owls on the premises, a legal method despite protections from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Workers at JFK International killed three snowy owls, unleashing a public outcry. The episode also spurred Turner, who was a Department of Agriculture biologist at the time, and Smith to create a USDA-accepted protocol for airport wildlife practices dealing with raptors. On a late March morning, the Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton was still in winter's grip. Smith wore a blue Mass Audubon hoodie, baggy black jeans and scuffed leather hiking boots. With his snowbank of hair and intense gaze, he resembled a snowy owl. When he smiled, his bushy white mustache quivered like feathers in the wind. I followed him into the small museum and to a glass case containing a pair of taxidermied snowy owls. Smith launched into a lesson about the birds - their size and coloring, courtship rituals, breeding habits, and taste for lemmings. In addition to his research, the grandfather of six is an educator. One of his primary goals, he said, is to inspire people, especially young ones, and help them 'better understand, appreciate and care for this world in which we live.' Back outside, two snowy owls in an enclosure coolly regarded us as Smith recounted their backstories. Both were airport rescues. The female bird had been sitting on a snow-melting machine at Boston Logan, and the heat caused irreparable damage to her feathers. 'This bird is not going to find its way back to the Arctic,' Smith said.
Boston Globe
24-04-2025
- Boston Globe
The ‘owl man' keeps busy at Logan Airport
Advertisement With the congested airspace and constant rumble of jets, the airport is hardly a tranquil bird sanctuary. But Smith said the terrain resembles the Arctic tundra. It's open, flat and barren, with water on three sides and plenty to eat, including waterfowl and small mammals. The airfield is also a dangerous place to alight. A collision between a plane and an owl can end badly for both types of fliers. 'The importance of Norm coming in is that he helps us take out a significant threat to aviation safety, which is a large, dense-bodied bird on the airfield,' said Jeff Turner, the airport facilities supervisor for the Massachusetts Port Authority. Related : In 1981, Smith sent a letter to his home airport, asking whether he could study the visiting raptors. He offered to humanely trap the owls from October to spring, or whenever the last bird decided to return home. After checking their vitals, conducting a few tests and banding their legs, he would release them farther afield, such as from Cape Cod or the North Shore. Advertisement 'If it was early in the season, you'd want to move them south of the airport, because the birds were generally heading south,' said Raymond MacDonald, a wildlife photographer who has been collaborating with Smith for 15 years. 'If you released them north of Logan, they might run into Logan again.' Smith started that fall and has not stopped. The owl man of Logan airport Several times a month, Smith will drive to Boston Logan, where he has a high security clearance. In the back of his truck, a bow trap rattles, and the live mice don't make a peep. (No animals, including the bait, are harmed in the process, he says.) He typically catches 10 to 15 snowy owls a year, plus several other birds of prey, such as short-eared owls, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks and harriers. He set a personal record in the 2013-2014 season, capturing 14 snowy owls in one day and 121 over the winter. In late March, it was 15. 'They might be just sitting there, they might be hiding or they might be sleeping,' Smith said of his targets. 'They could be out on the salt marsh, roosting or feeding on a duck or a rabbit. Obviously, those birds you're not going to catch, because the bird has to be hungry." The Boston-area native, who started working at Mass Audubon as a teenager and recently retired as director of its Blue Hills Trailside Museum, is a preeminent authority on snowy owls. He was the subject of a recent award-winning short documentary film by local filmmaker Anna Miller, called 'The Snowy Owls of Logan Airport.' Advertisement Through tagging, satellite telemetry and field work, he has made numerous discoveries about the species' life expectancy, vision, migratory routes and feeding habits. He was a pioneer in bird tracking, attaching transmitters to wintering snowy owls and determining that the animals successfully complete the 3,000-mile odyssey to the Arctic. But not all of them do. 'I was out there one time, and a snowy owl was sucked into a Learjet engine. It blew the engine, and the plane had to turn around and come back,' Smith said. 'That's the reason why we catch them and move them from the airport.' Smith said some people have suggested he leave the snowy owls alone. He shrugs them off. 'That's not good for the owl,' he said, 'and it certainly isn't good for the plane.' Birds strike again and again Boston Logan is haunted by the specter of a 1960 bird strike that ranks as the deadliest of its kind. In October of that year, a flock of starlings caused Eastern Airlines Flight 375 to plunge into Winthrop Bay minutes after takeoff. Of the 72 passengers and flight crew members on board, 10 survived. More often than not, bird strikes are not life-threatening to airplane passengers, but they can be harrowing. One of the most famous nonfatal incidents occurred in New York in 2009, when a US Airways plane flew into a flock of Canada geese. Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger III safely landed the aircraft on the Hudson River. Advertisement Wildlife strikes are on the rise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's most recent and complete data. In 2023, the agency recorded 19,603 run-ins in the United States, a 14 percent increase from the previous year's 17,205 collisions. Around the world, wildlife accidents involving civilian and military aircraft have killed more than 491 people and destroyed more than 350 aircraft between 1988 and 2023. Domestically, the numbers are 76 and 126, respectively. During roughly the same period, nearly 800 species were involved, including 651 bird species, such as black and turkey vultures, gulls, brown and white pelicans, trumpeter swans, American kestrels, bald eagles, and snowy owls. Among birds, the FAA said, waterfowl, raptors and gulls cause the greatest amount of damage. Airports employ a battalion of tactics to deter birds and mammals from tangling with aircraft operations. Not all of the strategies are well-received. In 2013, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey instructed its airports to shoot any snowy owls on the premises, a legal method despite protections from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Workers at JFK International killed three snowy owls, unleashing a public outcry. The episode also spurred Turner, who was a Department of Agriculture biologist at the time, and Smith to create a USDA-accepted protocol for airport wildlife practices dealing with raptors. Searching for No. 16 On a late March morning, the Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton was still in winter's grip. Smith wore a blue Mass Audubon hoodie, baggy black jeans and scuffed leather hiking boots. With his snowbank of hair and intense gaze, he resembled a snowy owl. When he smiled, his bushy white mustache quivered like feathers in the wind. Advertisement I followed him into the small museum and to a glass case containing a pair of taxidermied snowy owls. Smith launched into a lesson about the birds - their size and coloring, courtship rituals, breeding habits, and taste for lemmings. In addition to his research, the grandfather of six is an educator. One of his primary goals, he said, is to inspire people, especially young ones, and help them 'better understand, appreciate and care for this world in which we live.' Back outside, two snowy owls in an enclosure coolly regarded us as Smith recounted their backstories. Both were airport rescues. The female bird had been sitting on a snow-melting machine at Boston Logan, and the heat caused irreparable damage to her feathers. 'This bird is not going to find its way back to the Arctic,' Smith said. The other snowy owl, a male, was hit by a plane at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport and suffered a broken shoulder. It will never soar again, either. The tour ended at his truck, a hybrid classroom and mobile office. Smith keeps snowy owl specimens in his vehicle, as well as the bow trap he uses at the airport. On a hard patch of dirt, he demonstrated the contraption, which he jury-rigged with a fishing pole and long line. The box containing the bait was a miniature version of a great-white-shark cage: The prey can see the meal but not taste it. When choosing a location to set up a trap, he coordinates with the airport staff to avoid active runways. He doesn't want an owl to dash across the tarmac and get slammed by oncoming traffic. 'There have been cases [at other facilities] where they try to chase the snowy owls off the airfield and the birds get upset and are looking at the vehicle that's trying to chase them,' Smith said. 'They're not looking for the plane, and then they get hit by a plane.' Advertisement In the field, he camouflages himself in his vehicle, sometimes peering at the owl through binoculars or a night vision scope. As soon as an unsuspecting bird lands on the trap, he yanks the fishing rod, releasing the net over the catch. He will then drive over to the apparatus, seize the bird by its feet and stash it in a carrier. 'You grab it before it grabs you,' he said. On Monday, he received a tip from a birdwatcher. He dashed over to the airport but didn't see the reported owl. His season tally remained 15.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
I'm a Climate Activist Facing Criminal Charges for Protesting Private Jets at Hanscom Field
Haley McB Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take In April 2024, I was arrested alongside 20 others at Hanscom Field, an airport in Bedford, Massachusetts that primarily serves private and corporate aircraft. We sang as the police arrived, confiscated our fabric signs (including this gorgeous twist on Britney Spears's 'Toxic'), and rounded us up. The song on our lips was a fervent rejection of the airport's planned expansion of 17 private jet hangars that, if completed, would effectively cancel out over half, if not more, of Massachusetts' carbon emissions reductions from solar power, according to an estimate from local nonprofit Save Our Heritage. Starting this May, some of my friends who were arrested are slated to go on trial for trespassing and disorderly conduct, while billionaires are free to trespass on the rights of our planet and our people and conduct climate chaos. (The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) told Teen Vogue to direct all questions about the expansion to the project developers. A representative for the developers did not return our request for comment.) So many lives have already been lost to climate disasters fueled by a concentration of largely wealthy man-made pollutants in our atmosphere. My fellow arrestees and I were infuriated that the people whose wealth far exceeds whatever wealth the majority of the population can scrape together in their lifetimes would seek to expand the use of their private jets, irrespective of the increases their jets' excess carbon emissions would contribute to asthma rates, air and noise pollution, biodiversity and habitat loss, and the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. As British climate scientist Kevin Anderson suggested in 2018, if the richest 10% reduced their emissions to the average carbon footprint of an individual in the European Union, that reduction alone could cut global emissions by a third. Luxury emissions from ultrarich lifestyles violate our common right to a livable climate. Sitting on the sidewalk in the rain, hands cuffed behind our backs, cheeks flushed with the invigorating gratitude one feels when taking a stand alongside loved ones to resist injustice, my friends and I called upon Massport (which operates the airport and backs the expansion project) to do the right thing and halt the airport expansion. We gathered in the downpour to be arrested merely a town away from where Henry David Thoreau resided, who himself was arrested in 1846 for refusing to pay his poll tax to a government that enslaved people. Like Thoreau, we were arrested for disrupting business as usual. In the spirit of Thoreau, we could not sit idly by and watch as private jets take off with our future. I decided to risk arrest at Hanscom Field because I don't have a retirement plan. Thousands of climate scientists predict that 'untold suffering' will wreak havoc on the planet if fossil fuel expansion, among other actions worldwide, does not come to a screeching halt. In fact, in many ways, the havoc is already here. Even the privileged people whose homes have yet to be lost to flames, floods, or brutal bombings, those who have not yet been reached by the ripple effects of crop failures, or whose organs have not yet failed during a heat wave still cannot lay claim to a livable future. A lot of the concerns that white, middle-class climate activists like myself have about our future are already the current reality for a majority of the world's population. I don't have a retirement plan because I wonder whether someday I will join the legions of people whose everyday survival is already under threat as a consequence of the very systems upon which my middle-class American comforts depend. Nearly a year after my arrest at Hanscom Field, tragedies and disasters stack up, but legislators, like our Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, drag their feet (or simply shirk responsibility) in enacting policy that would relieve Americans of the issues ailing our daily lives. For example, defending women, as a recent Trump executive order claims to do, means addressing issues that affect women. A more effective way to defend women than legislating word choice would be ending the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, which is only rising. As I have elaborated on elsewhere, the same harassment, degradation, and assault that women face daily go hand in hand with the practices sucking the life out of this Earth and, as research suggests, limiting our life expectancy. Stopping private jet expansion halts an egregious source of emissions that accumulate, making our lives more vulnerable to tragedy and disaster. There is already precedent that points to the legality of our actions: On this same airfield in 1971, more than 150 peace activists were arrested protesting the Vietnam War and the lack of a record of their arraignments suggest that they never faced charges. If you're reading this, please start a volunteer organization in your community or join your nearest chapter of Extinction Rebellion to resist the systems driving the destruction of our world. In the words of Uruguayan journalist Raúl Zibechi, 'It is impossible to change the world without first changing ourselves, because change, like movement itself, is singular and it is multiple, and we cannot afford to not be involved.' To truly defend ourselves from harm, we must not sit idly by, but continue to speak out, loudly and visibly against those legislators and executives who set our future on fire and are content to feed the flames. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want more Teen Vogue climate coverage? 17 Young People on the Moment the Climate Crisis Became Real to Them 7 Ways to Manage Climate Anxiety Why Activists Go on Hunger Strikes In California, Incarcerated Teens Help Fight Wildfires
Politico
12-03-2025
- Business
- Politico
Cruz cancels migrant-related subpoena vote, but pledges more subpoenas to come
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz canceled a scheduled vote on Wednesday to subpoena the Massachusetts Port Authority for sheltering migrants in Boston's Logan International Airport, announcing that the authority — known as Massport — complied with his request for information at the last minute. 'This is a win for the federal taxpayers and airline passengers who thought their money was going to pay for services at Logan but instead financed a dormitory for illegal aliens," the Texas Republican said at the start of a committee meeting. The conclusion allowed both parties to stand down after last week's unusually fiery committee hearing for the panel that has historically prided itself on bipartisanship. Democrats accused Cruz of acting too quickly to use the subpoena power without their buy-in, while Cruz argued it was necessary given Massport's then-lack of compliance. 'It turns out even the threat of subpoenas work,' Cruz said Wednesday. He had just one week earlier also withdrawn two other slated subpoena votes for the online service provider Bonterra — which he argues has deplatformed conservatives — and for the consulting firm Newpoint Strategies — related to diversity training for federal workers — after both companies turned over the materials requested. Yet Cruz also signaled more subpoenas could be coming as he intends to make oversight efforts a significant focus of his new chairship, arguing that his colleagues have previously let their oversight power atrophy. 'I hope this is a message to other entities that when Congress has serious oversight questions, you should answer them,' Cruz said. 'If you refuse, this committee will exercise all the authorities it has.' Cruz's warning, however, comes after he asked committee Republicans to give him unilateral subpoena authority that wouldn't require sign-off from the ranking member or a vote by the full panel. Members of his own party privately balked at the request, with the White House also signaling reservations about allowing Cruz the unfettered ability to haul Big Tech CEOs before the committee — including those with whom officials in the Trump administration are cozy. That effort appears to now be on hold as Cruz pursues a more narrow set of subpoenas that would have Republican support. GOP committee members would have voted in favor of subpoenaing Massport, for instance, which had, up until July, permitted migrants to sleep at the airport as the state lacked the sufficient number of beds at official shelters to house the flow of immigrants coming into the region. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, then prohibited the practice, but migrants have reportedly been continuing to stay there. Jennifer Mehigan, a spokesperson for Massport, said last week in a statement that 'no families have stayed at the airport' since Healey's order. The reason the committee postponed that subpoena vote last week was that there wasn't a quorum necessary to proceed with official business. Not all Republicans were present, and Cruz needed unanimous consent to resume the hearing later in the day. Democrats did not agree.
