In a new report, Greg Whitmore, an entomologist, identified 62 species of macroinvertebrates in the Mill Brook.

Mill Brook has been the topic of intense study and debate in recent years, much of it focused on Mill Pond. The freshwater river system provides some of the only cool-water fish habitat on the Vineyard.

A plan by a prominent Vineyard conservation group to restore the Mill Brook headwaters in Chilmark has run into fierce opposition from a nearby resident who says it conflicts with decades of observation.

A spirit of collaboration prevailed Monday evening at a forum that begins a yearlong study of the Mill Brook watershed. The 3,700-acre watershed includes the historic, much-discussed Mill Pond near the center of town.

The Mill Brook watershed management planning committee will hold the first of several public forums on Monday, Sept. 29, at 5:30 p.m. at the West Tisbury library.

When I was a young boy growing up in Chilmark, this was the time of year when my friends and I would spend most of our days fishing the brooks and ponds for native brook trout.