This story is part of a New England News Collaborative series marking Earth Day 2025. Using fishing nets and kitchen spatulas, they scrape samples into plastic trays for a closer look.

Staff and budget cuts at local offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are degrading weather forecasts and adding chaos to New England's commercial fisheries.

However, as climate change represses winter weather, tick populations have boomed. “Over the last 20 years, instead of one winter out of six or eight or 10 being truncated, now, a majority of ...