Shellfish licenses for the 7/1/25 - 6/30/26 harvesting year are now on sale at the Town Office. Please see the official notice for details. 

A message from our Tree Warden, Kyle DePietro: Several weeks ago I contacted Tom Shmeelk, the state entomologist about the winter moth outbreak in our area and the possibility of releasing parasitic wasps on the island. At the time of our conversation, he informed me that the supply of parasitic wasps was already accounted for this year. They have been released in Phippsburg and Georgetown. He did feel confident that they would travel to Westport Island from these release sites but also said that Westport was on the top of the list for reevaluation in the Spring of 2026. Once established, Tom said the wasps were very effective in controling winter moth. He also confirmed that the winter moth has been hybridizing with our native Bruce Spanworm. So far, most of our oaks and other hardwoods have made a recovery and regained their leaf canopy. Another cyclical native inch worm that Tom was even more concerned about is the Fall Canker worm. Similar in appearance to the Winter Moth, the Fall Canker worm is also very destructive and follows a similar life cycle to the Winter Moth and Spanworm. Tom speculated that the Fall Canker worm, which has cyclical outbreaks, will cause widespread defoliation of hardwoods in the Spring of 2026. So while the parasitic wasp introduced to control wintermoth may be effective, we may still see wide spread defoliation of hardwood canopies in the spring of 2026. There are also native parasitic wasps that target canker worm which will eventually check the cyclical outbreak of the canker worm. From my understanding each worm has specific parasitic wasps that specialize in individual species of worm. So in conclusion, we may see another hard start to hardwood spring growth in the fall of 2026. Home owners can spray BT which is a bacteria that targets all caerpillar species but the majority of the woodland canopy will have to rely on parasitic wasps and other natural checks that reduce populations. I will be reaching out to Tom to see if he may be interested in doing a small talk on Westport later this summer.

Cheers,

Kyle

The Planning Board and Select Board have been looking at ways to be more consistent about following our own ordinances regarding business regulation for the sake of all residents (and the businesses too!). One requirement of our Building Code Ordinance, is that any businesses that can be seen or sensed from outside a residence (via traffic, lights, noise, smells, stuff, buildings, signs, etc.) are required to obtain a permit and may need to undergo a review with the Planning Board. If you have such a business, and have not done this before, that's okay! But now that you know, please complete our Business Registration Form to find out next steps. For the handful of businesses that have already gone through the process, please fill out the form if your business has expanded since then. Even if you have a business that you think wouldn't require a permit or Planning Board review, we encourage you to complete the form to make sure, and to qualify to be listed on our town website businesses webpage. We field A LOT of requests for referrals, and this is where we send folks!