skip to Main Content

Berkshire Wildlife Linkage aims to reduce roadkill by giving critters safe passage

From high overhead, Route 8 is a thread, barely visible, woven more or less north-south across rural Massachusetts. But at ground level, it can be a stone-cold wildlife wall —- and killer. “We saw a huge splatter of blood,” said Jane Salata of Lenox, speaking of her journey along Route 8. Salata and others want to even the odds for animals of all sizes. This summer, The Nature Conservancy is pushing a long-term project, Berkshire Wildlife Linkage, to reduce the carnage of roadkill by collecting data that can inform future road and bridge projects. If animals die going over roads like Route 8, the project asks, why can’t more of them find safe passage under them? FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE <more>

Eversource Rate Increase Hearings Scheduled
– August 1 in Pittsfield

On January 17, 2017, Eversource Energy submitted a proposal to the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to update the company’s electric rates. The proposal requests a net increase in annual delivery revenue of $35.7 million, representing a 28 percent increase in those revenues to support our electric distribution operations. On June 1, 2017, Eversource filed a revised rate design proposal with the DPU that shifts revenues between Eastern and Western Massachusetts as compared to the original proposal. This has the potential to change customer bill impacts. FROM EVERSOURCE <more>

Community Solar Has Arrived At Co-op Power

It is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Seriously. Community Solar has been on the Co-op Power To Do list because YOU wanted it! Well now you can have it!! We now have 3 megawatts of community solar for you, the members and supporters of Co-op Power. No money down. Nothing built on your property. Available to anyone paying a NGrid or Eversource electric bill in western or central Mass. With a path to ownership after 10 years. If the solar revolution has passed you by so far, here’s your opportunity to get on board. Save 15% off your electric bill AND support community solar for all in our region! FROM CO-OP POWER <more>

Court Tells Walmart Developer:
Neighbors Have The Right To Take You To Court

For the second time, a judge has told a Connecticut developer that homeowners in Greenfield have the right to go to court against a proposed 135,000 s.f. megastore on the French King Highway in Greenfield, Mass. In late June of 2017, a Franklin County Superior Court judge threw out Ceruzzi’s motion for Summary Judgment. The small town of Greenfield, Massachusetts made national news in 1993 when it voted to block a Wal-Mart superstore. It launched a national movement of Sprawl-Busters. But the battle never stopped. In 2006, Wal-Mart came back for a second try. Today, 7 homeowners are still fighting to keep the world’s richest family from building a store bigger than two football fields across the street from their homes. FROM SPRAWL-BUSTERS <more>

Canada’s Desjardins may stop pipeline loans,
cites environment

Canadian lender Desjardins is considering no longer funding energy pipelines, a spokesman said on Saturday, citing concerns about the impact such projects may have on the environment. Desjardins, the largest association of credit unions in North America, on Friday temporarily suspended lending for such projects and may make the decision permanent, spokesman Jacques Bouchard told Reuters by telephone. FROM REUTERS <more>

 

return to top


Jobs (click here for full job listings below)

In-Lieu Fee Program Assistant – Dept. of Fish and Game – Boston, MA

Program and Development Assistant – Schumacher Center for New Economics – Egremont, MA

2017-18 Position Openings with TerraCorps – Various locations

Various Positions – The Manice Education Center (MEC) – Florida, MA

Sierra Club – Temporary Boston Online Organizer – Boston, MA

Volunteer Opportunities in the Berkshires w/The Trustees  Stockbridge & Cummington, MA

Mass Audubon – Berkshire Nature Camp Educators @ Pleasant Valley – Lenox, MA


return to top

 


Berkshire Wildlife Linkage aims to reduce roadkill by giving critters safe passage

FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE | BY LARRY PARNASS, lparnass@berkshireeagle.com

OTIS — From high overhead, Route 8 is a thread, barely visible, woven more or less north-south across rural Massachusetts. But at ground level, it can be a stone-cold wildlife wall —- and killer. “We saw a huge splatter of blood,” said Jane Salata of Lenox, speaking of her journey along Route 8.

Salata and others want to even the odds for animals of all sizes. This summer, The Nature Conservancy is pushing a long-term project, Berkshire Wildlife Linkage, to reduce the carnage of roadkill by collecting data that can inform future road and bridge projects. If animals die going over roads like Route 8, the project asks, why can’t more of them find safe passage under them?

Salata, a 67-year-old psychotherapist and hospice social worker, donned a brightly colored safety vest the other day. She joined a team of four scouting bridges and culverts in the region to see whether they already enable wildlife to travel under the road. They log the results and make them available to the state Department of Transportation, as well as to a wider project related to climate change.

After a morning wading through streams and ducking inside culverts and bridges, the team paused at a roadside picnic table for lunch. A stream of cars and tractor-trailer trucks pounded by on one side of the table, against a backdrop of thick forest. On the other side of the table, water coursed down the Farmington River, as hills of the Tolland State Forest rose over the far bank. “It’s the only barrier between amazing habitats,” Laura Marx, a forest ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, said of the highway.

For years, in a project it acknowledges to be ambitious, the nonprofit has been working to rebuild natural wildlife corridors obstructed by decades of human construction. In the 90 miles the Appalachian Trail passes through the state, it crosses 40 roads. “The challenge is just the sheer numbers,” Marx said.

The Berkshire Wildlife Linkage project seeks to improve safety for wildlife, with a side benefit of easing hazards for people traveling the roads. One way to achieve that, the project says, is to encourage the state to consider wildlife passage when it rebuilds infrastructure. In that, the DOT is a willing partner. Judi Riley, a spokeswoman for DOT, said the department likes to join forces with environmental groups on this issue, folding their findings, when it can, into proposed work plans. The goal, she said, is “to identify key areas where wildlife collisions with vehicles occur most frequently.”

The DOT is also a partner, with other state agencies, in a volunteer effort called Linking Landscapes for Massachusetts Wildlife. Like the conservancy project, it works to improve public safety, protect wildlife and bring conservation principles into transportation planning. The DOT’s partners include the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the University of Massachusetts. “They have been very open to figuring out what’s working and not working,” Marx said of the highway department.

Seeking proof
To make its case, the conservancy is amassing a database documenting wildlife migration patterns. Aside from identifying places where culverts and bridges restrict passage, the project is tallying road kill incidents and using wildlife cameras and winter animal tracking. Andrew Wood, a graduate student at the University of Vermont, is on the road-kill beat this summer, aiding the project and gathering material for a master’s thesis.

In addition to scouting Route 8 on Berkshire County’s eastern edge, he will be working with Marx to study wildlife passage successes — and failures — on portions of the Mass Pike and Route 2 to the north. Marx said it’s trickier to gauge the ways in which the Pike obstructs animal migration. Though travelers don’t know it, the highway accommodates many river and stream crossings, some of which are large enough for wildlife to use. “There’s definitely some use by wildlife,” Marx said of passages under the Pike. “We’d love to get a more complete picture.”

So far, Wood has been prowling Route 8, checking a theory that the road may prove insurmountable for abundant wildlife in nearby forests. That’s what computer models suggest. “Common sense tells us the same thing,” he said. “These areas have large blocks of intact forest habitat. If severed, they’re very hard to put back together.” But he cautions evidence is still needed. “We don’t know actually what we’re going to find on this road,” Wood said of Route 8. “What we can offer is the eyes and perspectives of ecologists and scientists.”

On a recent Wednesday, Jessica Applin of Belchertown, another wildlife ecologist, joined the conservancy project. Three years ago, she finished her own master’s degree related to wildlife corridors, focusing on the Westfield River watershed. She’s studied wildlife corridor issues along Route 23 in Great Barrington and Route 7 in that town and in Sheffield. She learned in June that a bobcat died on another road she studied, Route 112 in Worthington.

Data collection
Elia Del Molino, program manager with the Berkshire Environmental Action Team in Pittsfield, was leading the surveying on Route 8. Along with gathering data on wildlife obstacles, the team will be reporting findings to the 13-state North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative. “We find these culverts that are washing out,” Del Molino said. “The fear is the next big hurricane.” “A bigger culvert is better for everyone involved,” he said. “This is how you can make this road more permeable and safer for wildlife.”

At one point, three members of the team climbed down banks off Route 8 to check the vitals on a 1923 bridge. Traffic streamed by overhead. Del Molino waded off to check upstream and downstream widths. “Just be sure you put down in the comment section that there are minnows,” he called out to Salata, who remained up top with a clipboard.

The stream occupied the full width below, from one abutment to the other. “Nothing’s going to move through here,” Del Molino said of possible animal passage below the road. And that presents a roadkill risk. “If something pops up over this guardrail, it’s hard to stop.”

He expects action soon to repair two culverts carrying a stream in the Pittsfield State Forest that had been restricting passage of brook trout. The devices had decayed. “They were literally falling into the stream,” Del Molino said.

Del Molino has been helping team member Salata and others qualify as lead observers in the collaborative’s data project by examining 20 structures. By midday, Salata had completed her 15th. But in winter, she also brings a new expertise in animal tracking, fostered through study with expert Sue Morse. “Every time I go out I learn one more thing,” Salata said. For the rest of the summer, Wood has perhaps the most gruesome task in the conservancy project — hunting for animals that didn’t make it across a road. He’s been traveling Route 8, checking in with town highway crews and residents. Even older reports have value, he said, though they often lack detail. “They may not be carrying a GPS in their back pocket, like I do,” Wood said of residents.

People can also use the state’s Linking Landscapes website to enter information on roadkill. The homepage for the site, linkinglandscapes.info, features a database link at the top that brings visitors to a form used to report roadkill. The form includes a map that pinpoints where wildlife were hit and killed.

While the conservancy project aims to restore corridors for wildlife, getting animals off highways benefits everyone, Wood argues. “It goes both ways with roadkill. Hitting even a small animal can injure your passengers,” he said. “There’s a lot of common ground here.”


Eversource Rate Increase Hearings Scheduled
– August 1 in Pittsfield

On January 17, 2017, Eversource Energy submitted a proposal to the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to update the company’s electric rates. The proposal requests a net increase in annual delivery revenue of $35.7 million, representing a 28 percent increase in those revenues to support our electric distribution operations.

On June 1, 2017, Eversource filed a revised rate design proposal with the DPU that shifts revenues between Eastern and Western Massachusetts as compared to the original proposal. This has the potential to change customer bill impacts.

Eversource’s request addresses increases in operating and maintenance costs and capital costs associated with investments in the electric network since the last decision by the DPU approving a general distribution rate increase in 2011.

The DPU will review our request, conduct public hearings in Eversource’s service area, and then make a decision by December 29, 2017 for new rates to become effective January 1, 2018.

Public Hearing Schedule
July 26 at 7 p.m.
Department of Public Utilities
5th Floor, Hearing Room A
One South Station Boston, MA 02110

August 1 a 6 p.m.
Berkshire Community College
Boland Theatre (Koussevitzky Building)
1350 West Street Pittsfield, MA 01201

August 2 at 7 p.m.
Cape Cod Community College
Main Theatre, Tilden Arts Center
2240 Iyannough Road West Barnstable, MA 02668

For More Information
Visit the Electric Distribution Rate Review page on Eversource.com. Use our online General Comment Form for comments or questions. Residential customers can also call 877-659-6326 while Business customers can call 888-783-6610.

return to top


Community Solar Has Arrived At Co-op Power

FROM CO-OP POWER

It is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Seriously.

Community Solar has been on the Co-op Power To Do list because YOU wanted it! Well now you can have it!!

We now have 3 megawatts of community solar for you, the members and supporters of Co-op Power. No money down. Nothing built on your property. Available to anyone paying a NGrid or Eversource electric bill in western or central Mass. With a path to ownership after 10 years.

If the solar revolution has passed you by so far, here’s your opportunity to get on board. Save 15% off your electric bill AND support community solar for all in our region!

We have expanded our Buying Group Membership to include this Community Solar offering to bring new members into the fold. It’s a great time to expand our community.

This is the first time we have a valuable service that almost everyone in our network can use, where we can be bringing benefit to people in our community every month for decades to come. It’s an exciting time indeed.

Three megawatts of Community Shared Solar are ready to flip the switch. This is not some far out dream or a conceptual idea. The arrays are built. Power will start flowing as soon as the utilities commission these four systems in Western Mass. And we want to be ready!

When the utility receives electricity from our arrays onto the grid, they change those kilowatt hours into net metering credits and distribute them to participating electricity accounts.

Anyone who wants to save 15% on their electric bill in NGrid and Eversource Western and Central Mass can subscribe.

Here’s how it works: 1) You sign up for certain number of shares in the community solar array. 2) At the end of each month, you’ll receive a credit on your electric bill that represents your portion of the kilowatt hours produced by the array. (The utility converts kilowatt hours into credits when they’re placed on the grid.) 3) You’ll pay Co-op Power 85% of the value of your credits through your Common Good account.

We want to fill all of these subscriptions within the next 45 days. We want you to ask you to sign up, share this email with friends that might be interested, and suggest or invite local businesses and organizations to sign up too.

Community Solar is not on your home, so you don’t need to own where you live, or have the perfect roof angle, or even cut down those lovely, carbon sequestering trees!!!

This opportunity is HERE and NOW!!! Go to our website and sign up. Our website will walk you through the sign up process. We are very excited to announce that we’re using Common Good (formerly r-Credits) as our payment processor. They provide this service for free. It’s free for you to sign up. It’s free for you to send Co-op Power the monthly payment for 85% of the credits we apply to your electric bill. It’s free for Co-op Power to receive those funds from you. AND, you get the other benefits of being able to use your Common Good credits for other purchases while you accumulate bonus Credits based on all your transactions. I think you’re going to find lots of other uses for your card once you have it!

We’ll send you an email asking for a copy of a recent electric bill once you sign up. Once we receive it, we’ll send you a contract with a recommended number of shares for your subscription. All the members combined willl save more than $100,000 a year. This number will increase over time as electricity costs increase.

We will assure you a place in this program during the early enrollment period – through July 17th. After that we’ll be advertising to the general public.

Please don’t just sign yourself up today, bring a friend or two and get our community growing, like the plants, by the energy of the sun.

If at least 20% of the people we’re signing on qualify as low to moderate income, we can count these arrays as part of our DOE funded Sunshot projects and get us closer to winning a prize for exceeding the requirements for that award program, so please make a special effort to reach out to people you know with limited resources. After all, who needs the 15% savings the most?

There is also space for organizations and businesses who want to go solar with no money down, so feel free to sign your business up or ask your favorite local organization to participate as well. We can even help make those calls for you if you know someone who might be interested.

If you are ready to join us in getting off unsustainable energy choices and saving our members over $100,000 this coming year sign up today. Also, please consider helping to spread the word on Facebook by clicking Interested and then inviting your friends to this Event!

The only limit is that people must obtain their electricity from Eversource or National Grid in Western or Central Massachusetts. (It needs to say WCMA someone on your bill!) This opportunity is first come first served. Since the electricity is not generated on your home itself you will be receiving it in the form of net metering credits. Think of them like a CSA but from the sun, and they get delivered directly to your electricity bill.

Let’s do this together!!!

Allow Co-op Power to help you save money, strengthen our community, and be kinder to the planet by signing up today.

All the best, Lynn Benander President and CEO


Court Tells Walmart Developer: Neighbors Have The Right To Take You To Court

For the second time, a judge has told a Connecticut developer that homeowners in Greenfield have the right to go to court against a proposed 135,000 s.f. megastore on the French King Highway in Greenfield, Mass. In late June of 2017, a Franklin County Superior Court judge threw out Ceruzzi’s motion for Summary Judgment. 

The small town of Greenfield, Massachusetts made national news in 1993 when it voted to block a Wal-Mart superstore. It launched a national movement of Sprawl-Busters. But the battle never stopped. In 2006, Wal-Mart came back for a second try.

Today, 7 homeowners are fighting to keep the world’s richest family from building a store bigger than two football fields across the street from their homes. The neighbors sued town officials in 2011 for approving the plan, and have been in court for nearly 5 years.
This legal battle has stretched on for six years – as the developer keeps appealing the venue and the right of neighbors to challenge the decision that created this monster. Find out more at www.sprawl-busters.com.

 Canada’s Desjardins may stop pipeline loans,
cites environment

FROM REUTERS | BY ETHAN LOU | CALGARY, ALBERTA
Canadian lender Desjardins is considering no longer funding energy pipelines, a spokesman said on Saturday, citing concerns about the impact such projects may have on the environment.

Desjardins, the largest association of credit unions in North America, on Friday temporarily suspended lending for such projects and may make the decision permanent, spokesman Jacques Bouchard told Reuters by telephone.

He said the lender would make a final decision in September. Dejardins, a backer of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd’s high-profile expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, has been evaluating its policy for such lending for months, Bouchard said.

If it makes the decision permanent, that would likely mean Desjardins would not help finance other major Canadian pipelines projects, including TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL and Energy East and Enbridge Inc’s Line 3. Read full article here.

Jobs

 


Program and Development Assistant – Schumacher Center for New Economics – Egremont, MA

The Schumacher Center is looking for an exceptional individual to join our team and support other program staff and the executive director in representing the organization and furthering its goals. A successful candidate will be a detail-oriented team player with proven writing, speaking, and event coordination skills. Full details and how to apply here.

return to top



2017-18 Position Openings with TerraCorps – Various locations

TerraCorps, formerly MassLIFT-AmeriCorps, is an innovative national service program helping communities conserve and secure land for the health and well-being of people and nature. This year we are looking for 36 members to serve in full-time, 11 month positions. Members will carry out capacity building projects; educate or train individuals; recruit, train, manage, and support community volunteers engaged in land-based activities; and identify new individuals and groups to participate in education, recreation, or service opportunities centered around land access and conservation.

Members serve as: Land Stewardship Coordinators, Regional Conservation Coordinators, Youth Education Coordinators, or Community Engagement Coordinators.

These 1,700 hour AmeriCorps positions receive a living allowance, education award, and additional AmeriCorps benefits. The 2017-2018 program will run from 8/28/17 – 7/27/18.

Application specifics, position descriptions, and information about organizations hosting TerraCorps members can be found at here.

Applications will be accepted until all positions are filled. Interviews begin mid-April, and we aim to fill all positions by the end of June.

AmeriCorps programs provide equal service opportunities. TerraCorps will recruit and select persons in all positions to ensure a diverse and inclusive climate without regard to any particular status. We encourage applications from individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations for interviews and service upon request. TerraCorps is a grant program of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

return to top


 

Various Positions – The Manice Education Center (MEC) – Florida, MA

The Manice Education Center (MEC) is intentionally located in a unique outdoor setting within the heart of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. MEC operates several distinctly different seasonal programs that are experientially focused in high-quality environmental education, wilderness camping, and leadership training.

Summer Outdoor educators will lead wilderness expeditions for campers & can expect to guide an average of 6 backpacking and/or canoeing trips, ranging from 2 to 5 days in length.  Expedition locations inlude the Appalachian Trail, Long Trail, Savoy Mountain State Forest, Taconic Trail, Battenkill River, Deerfield River, & Connecticut River. Educators receive training in backpacking and wilderness navigation, participate in a 2 day professional canoe clinic, & can earn free certifications in Wildernes First Aid and/or Waterfront Lifeguarding.

APPLY TODAY – SEND US A COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO EMPLOYMENT@CHRISTODORA.ORG 

For more details please visit our Jobs page (click here).

Please share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues! If you have any questions about employment in Christodora programs, please contact Matthew Scholl, Programs Director at 413.663.8463 or email us at employment@christodora.org

return to top


Sierra Club – Temporary Boston Online Organizer

The Online Organizing team furthers Sierra Club’s goals by using online tools and tactics to engage members and activists at the local and national level. The team focuses on providing timely, engaging actions that Club activists can use to influence policy decision-making processes, as well as further develop and grow Sierra Club’s activist and volunteer leadership bases. This is a temporary position running June – September 2017. Visit the Sierra Club’s website for all the details.

return to top


In-Lieu Fee Program Administrator

MassCareers Job Number 170003IV

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is accepting applications for their new In-Lieu Fee (ILF) Program Administrator position. The ILF Program Administrator will be responsible for developing a comprehensive framework for ILF Program planning and implementation including: identification, prioritization, selection, review, and approval of proposed mitigation projects; monitoring and tracking implementation, performance, and completion of approved mitigation projects; and managing all financial, accounting, budgeting, and reporting activities and requirements related to DFG’s administration of the ILF Program consistent with Department policies and the ILF Program Instrument. The ILF Program Administrator is a position within the Office of the Commissioner but will also work collaboratively and in partnership with staff from the Division of Ecological Restoration, Division of Marine Fisheries, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the agency’s Land Protection Program.

For additional information and details about the ILF Program Administrator position, and to apply, please visit the MassCareers Job Opportunities website and search for Job Number 170003IV or click here. The job is open until filled. However, applicants within the first two weeks typically receive preference. For additional information about DFG’s In-Lieu Fee Program click here.

Questions? Please contact Christy Edwards at christy.edwards@state.ma.us or 617-626-1518.

return to top


 Volunteer Opportunities with The Trustees

“Time travel” with The Trustees, and take our visitors on the voyage with you! Become a National Historic Landmark Greeter at Mission House (Stockbridge) or Tour Guide at the William Cullen Bryant Homestead (Cummington) and share the stories and magic of these special places. No experience necessary. Training provided. Fridays through Sundays. Flexible. Fun. Social. Rewarding.

Visit www.thetrustees.org/volunteer or contact tbeasley@thetrustees.org or413.532.1631 ext. 3119 for more information.

return to top


Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Back To Top