Outdoors in RI: SPRING! MV Hunting, Coastal Cleanup, Blue MBA, Waterfire Schedule, URI’s A Better World

1st Day of Spring! TODAY

Spring officially arrives TODAY, Friday, March 20, 2026, marked by the vernal equinox—the moment when day and night are nearly equal in length across the globe. This year, the equinox occurs at 10:46 a.m. Eastern Time, signaling the sun’s direct alignment over the equator as it moves northward. From this point forward, daylight hours will continue to grow longer, bringing the gradual shift toward warmer temperatures and the seasonal changes most people associate with spring.

While meteorologists consider March 1 the start of spring for record-keeping purposes, the astronomical definition tied to the equinox tends to carry more symbolic weight. It reflects a natural turning point: longer days, higher sun angles, and the early signs of renewal in the environment—from budding trees to the return of migratory birds. In places like Rhode Island, that transition can still feel gradual, with lingering chilly mornings even as afternoons begin to moderate.

The equinox has also long held cultural and historical significance, observed by civilizations for centuries as a time of balance and new beginnings. Today, it remains a meaningful marker—whether you’re watching the sunrise a little earlier each day, planning spring activities, or simply welcoming the shift out of winter.

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Cherry Blossom Time!

During this week’s visit to Washington, DC by the head of Japan, she brought with her 250 Cherry Blossom Plants in honor of our nation’s 250th.

Today starts thee National Cherry Blossom Festival IN D.C. – HERE for more info: https://nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/

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Big news for hunters in Massachusetts

(from Martha’s Vineyard Times):

Gov. Maura Healey announced today at a press conference in East Falmouth that she plans to introduce legislation to expand hunting access amid major concerns about tick-borne diseases and allergies.

Among the legislative proposals, Healey plans to reverse a blue law that currently prohibits Sunday hunting for the first time in the state’s history, expand who can use crossbows for hunting, and reduce the setback limits for bowhunting to open up thousands of acres of land as fair game.

The decisions follow multiple public listening sessions and the reception of over 11,000 public comments about changes to these hunting laws.

Meanwhile, the state’s Department of Public Health announced it’ll take proactive steps to monitor for and raise awareness about alpha-gal syndrome by making cases reportable to the department by healthcare providers and laboratories.

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Volunteers Needed for Coastal Cleanup

Volunteers needed to help us clean up winter debris on our Fort Adams coastline on Saturday, April 11, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Bring the entire family and a thermos for complimentary coffee. We have all of the supplies. Sign up through the link below.

Contact: Nikki Raccio, Events Manager

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University of Rhode Island launches updated, online Blue MBA program

Reimagined online “Blue MBA” will elevate global leadership in ocean innovation  

The University of Rhode Island has officially launched a new version of the Blue MBA program. The reimagined two-year, part-time program focuses on advancing knowledge, solutions, and talent for tomorrow’s ocean economy challenges and opportunities. The online graduate program has been updated with flexibility in mind, while retaining its commitment to an interdisciplinary approach that prepares business leaders for their next promotion.

Students will gain valuable access to the latest research, technology, and tools needed to excel in the ocean economy space. Additionally, students will have an experience that blends business expertise with ocean and sustainability efforts.

The program is designed to be a signature offering from the Ocean State’s premier public university. Faculty members from the URI College of Business, Graduate School of Oceanography, and College of Environmental and Life Sciences collaborated to deliver an integrated and streamlined curriculum that meets today’s learners where they are.

“We approach the ocean as an ecosystem, an economic driver, and as a source of inspiration for innovation and stewardship,” said Blue MBA Program Director Jay Oliver, Ph.D. “We want students, alumni, partners, and communities to see URI as the premier place to explore opportunities to advance their careers and make a difference in the world.”

The Blue MBA leverages URI’s longstanding partnerships with those in the blue economy space and commitment to ocean science, coastal resilience, and workforce development. URI routinely collaborates with industry and the U.S. Navy and serves as a home for partnerships that have helped shape Rhode Island into a hub for undersea technology. This has led Ocean Engineering Professor James Miller to refer to Rhode Island as the “Silicon Valley of underwater technology.”

Beginning in the fall of 2026, the program will be offered 100% online, with blue economy content being integrated into all the coursework. As part of the program, networking opportunities will be held each June at URI’s Bay Campus in Narragansett.

“URI is redefining what it means to integrate ocean research with real-world business impact,” said College of Business Dean Sean Edmund Rogers. “The new online version of the Blue MBA program builds on decades of momentum. The innovative, flexible program will help Blue MBA students prepare for opportunities in ocean business and innovation in the state, the region, and the world.”

To learn more about the Blue MBA, please visit www.uri.edu/bluemba.

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WATERFIRE Schedule is out – get your calendar!

The 2026 WaterFire lighting season:

Full Lighting Dates

Saturday, May 30 – Celebrating WaterFire’s 500th Lighting
Supported by: Rhode Island School of Design, with additional support from Achievement First
Sunset: 8:12 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 7:00 PM

Friday, July 4 – Full Lighting: Commemorating 250 Years of American Independence
Supported by: RI250 Commission
Sunset: 8:23 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:00 PM

Saturday, August 1 – Full Lighting: Clear Currents Community Paddling Night
Supported by: Amica Insurance and Brown University
Sunset: 8:03 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 7:00 PM

Saturday, August 29 – Full Lighting
Supported by: FM
Sunset: 7:33 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:30 PM

Sunday, September 6 – Full Lighting: Labor Day Weekend
Supported by: Providence Tourism Council
Sunset: 7:10 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:00 PM

Saturday, September 26 – Full Lighting: Celebrating Rhode Island Educators
Supported by: Rhode Island Department of Education
Sunset: 6:35 PM | Lighting ends at Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:30 PM

Saturday, October 17 – Full Lighting: United Way of Rhode Island’s Centennial Celebration
Supported by: United Way of Rhode Island
Sunset: 6:01 PM | Lighting ends at 11:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:00 PM

Saturday, November 7 – Full Lighting: 14th Annual Salute to Veterans
Sunset: 5:32 PM | Lighting ends at 10:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 4:30 PM

Basin and Partial Lightings

Friday, June 12 – Basin Lighting
Supported by: GoProvidence
Sunset: 8:21 PM | Lighting ends at 10:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 7:00 PM

Thursday, June 18 – Juneteenth & RI Pride Partial Lighting: RISD + Memorial Park Area
Supported by: Providence Tourism Council
Sunset: 8:23 PM | Lighting ends at 11:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 7:00 PM

Friday, July 17 – Basin Lighting
Supported by: GoProvidence
Sunset: 8:17 PM | Lighting ends at 10:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 7:00 PM

Friday, August 14 – Basin Lighting
Supported by: GoProvidence
Sunset: 7:46 PM | Lighting ends at 10:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:30 PM

Saturday, October 3 – Partial Lighting
Supported by: Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation
Sunset: 6:23 PM | Lighting ends at 10:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:30 PM

Saturday, December 11 – Holiday Basin Lighting
Supported by: GoProvidence
Sunset: 4:14 PM | Lighting ends at 9:00 PM
Onshore programming and vendors open at 4:00 PM

Starts at Sunset Events
Located on the Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge
Presented by the Providence Tourism Council

Thursday, July 9 – Sunset (8:22 PM) to 10:00 PM

Thursday, September 17 – Sunset (6:51 PM) to 9:00 PM

Thursday, October 29 – Sunset (5:44 PM) to 9:00 PM

Thursday, December 31 –  Sunset (5:30 PM) to 9:00 PM

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URI’s Metcalf Institute kicks off 2026 Annual Public Lecture Series with environmental journalist and alum Meera Subramanian

On Thursday, April 2, the University of Rhode Island Metcalf Institute will host a conversation with Meera Subramanian, award-winning environmental journalist and a 2012 Metcalf alum, about her new book, A Better World Is Possible: Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis, which was created in collaboration with New York Times bestselling illustrator Danica Novgorodoff. Subramanian will be in conversation with Metcalf 2015 alum Elizabeth Rush, author of The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood, and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World.

Climate anxiety doesn’t discriminate by age, and Subramanian’s book shows how young people are grappling with it. Through text and illustration, A Better World Is Possible conveys stories of action and hope in the form of four youth activists who have witnessed the effects of climate change up close — from wildfires in the Pacific Northwest to floods in Bangladesh — and come together to help organize the world’s largest climate protest. All ages can learn something from this young adult graphic novel.

“Throughout A Better World, there are interludes where we pause the storytelling and drop in the science, to make it more accessible,” Subramanian said in an interview with Metcalf. “We go through what fossil fuels are and what extreme weather events are. What is environmental justice? What does religion have to do with it? It gets into the misinformation and disinformation campaigns that have happened. The end interlude is about solutions, so you come out with all the things that can be done right now.”

Subramanian’s work has appeared in publications such as Nature, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Orion, where she is a contributing editor, and her first book, A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, was short-listed for the 2016 Orion Book Award. She writes narrative nonfiction about home in the personal and planetary sense, in a time of climate crisis.

“Climate change can feel intimidating, and I think that’s a lot of the reason why people of all ages are less engaged,” Subramanian said. “It feels really important to try to bridge that divide. And that’s what Metcalf Institute is all about. How do we teach scientists and journalists to communicate all this stuff that’s going on that, we admit, can be complicated? Storytelling, of course, is the way to do that.”

Rush lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and teaches creative nonfiction at Brown University. Her book, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, Guernica, and others.

Both Subramanian and Rush participated in Metcalf Institute’s Climate Change Seminars for Journalists in 2015, and Subramanian was a 2012 fellow in Metcalf’s signature Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists, which returns for its 28th year this June. “Thanks to the Metcalf fellowship, I was able to connect directly to many of the scientists and scholars whose work provides the backbone of the stories that I write. It also gifted me a community of like-minded writers,” Rush shared. Subramanian added, “Metcalf is a chance for journalists to get their hands dirty and fill their heads with enough science to fuel infinite stories.”

Co-sponsored by URI’s Harrington School of Communication and Media, the Department of English and Creative Writing, the Environmental Arts and Humanities program, and the Environmental Education program, and with special thanks to ecoRI, the free and open-to-the-public event launches Metcalf’s 2026 Annual Public Lecture Series. It will take place at the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus in the Hope Room of the Higgins Welcome Center. Join us for a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by the conversation at 6 p.m. Books will be available for purchase and author signing. Registration is encouraged for in-person attendees and required to receive the livestream link. Learn more at URI’s Metcalf Institute website.