Next New England

Lovely early fall weather means we’re spending our whole hour-long episode outside. All these sunny days, though, mean a shortage of water for crops, gardens, livestock, and lawns. Climate scientists warn that droughts interspersed with periods of heavy storms are becoming the new normal in New England. We look into how farmers and the rest of us are adapting. We also consider what “national monument status” means. President Barack Obama just granted the status to nearly 90,000 acres of the north woods of Maine, and is considering doing the same for miles of ocean canyons and mountains off the coast of Cape Cod. And: it’s back to school time, but that means something different for the children of seasonal workers, bringing in the late summer crops. Our Dry New England Summer Livestock farmer Bill Fosher with sheepdog Zues. (Courtesy Bill Fosher) It was an unusually dry summer for much of New England. Massachusetts was (and still is) the hardest-hit. This week, Governor Charlie Baker announc