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End-of-Year Bottle Bill Update

from Jane at BEAT

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped BEAT gather signatures to put the Updated Bottle Bill on the ballot in 2014. And thank you to MassPIRG, Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, and the Environmental League of Massachusetts for heading up the statewide collection and delivery of all the signatures to Beacon Hill.

On December 16th, the Massachusetts Secretary of State announced that the initiative petition for the Updated Bottle Bill had qualified for the November 2014 ballot!

Qualifying a ballot initiative is difficult, because of the enormous number of signatures required, the short period of time we’re given to collect them, and the strict rules on how we can gather them. For example, if a petition sheet has even a small stray pen mark, all the signatures can be disqualified. Yet at the end of the day, the Secretary of State counted 94,950 valid signatures, more than any other ballot initiative in the state and 38% more than the 68,911 signature threshold needed to qualify.

Over 800 people worked on the petition drive, gathering 130,000 signatures from all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts. Another 100 volunteers spent long days counting and sorting petition sheets, or delivering and picking up petition packets from town halls across the state.

There is the potential for another much smaller petition drive in May, but for now the effort to Update the Bottle Bill is entering a new phase: ensuring that the Updated Bottle Bill passes, whether in the Legislature or on the ballot.

Passing the Updated Bottle Bill means recycling an additional one billion bottles every year, decreasing litter on our streets and in our parks, and saving our cities and towns millions in disposal and clean-up costs.

Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far!

Massachusetts to Require Grid Modernization Plans for Electric Utilities

New business models to improve reliability, achieve cost savings, promote clean energy, and encourage the use of electric vehicles

The Patrick Administration’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) today issued an order that will result in the modernization of the Commonwealth’s electricity grid. Massachusetts’ electric utilities will be required to develop a Grid Modernization Plan that includes investing in infrastructure for advanced metering functionality.

Advanced metering enables two-way communication between the utility and the customer, helping to achieve cost and energy savings and allow for efficient grid operations. The necessary infrastructure includes smart meters, communications networks and new data management systems to give customers greater choice about their energy use and real-time information to enable the utilities to respond better to storms.

In addition to savings and reliability, grid modernization will allow for easier adoption of clean energy technologies like renewable distributed generation and electricity storage. Advanced metering also enables targeted electricity rates for electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations.

The order follows an study into the potential for grid modernization technologies such as advanced meters, cell phone applications and smart appliances. The investigation was launched in 2012 and resulted in a comprehensive report to the DPU from its grid modernization stakeholder group after eight months.

In addition to requiring the plans, the DPU has proposed a targeted cost recovery mechanism that will enable the utility to recover costs for investing in grid modernization technologies more quickly than the typical cost recovery mechanism allows.

“Grid modernization will allow customers to gain more control over their electricity usage and save money on their electricity bills,” said DPU Chair Ann Berwick. “Developing a policy to fully realize the benefits of a modern grid is part of the DPU’s mission to increase the reliability of electric service for residents across the Commonwealth and facilitate the integration of renewable power.”

In a second order issued today, the DPU launched an investigation into initiatives that will encourage the expansion of electric vehicle use in the Commonwealth. The investigation will include the potential for electric vehicle batteries to back up intermittent sources of power, like wind and solar. The effort is consistent with the Commonwealth’s recently announced initiatives to expand alternative vehicle use and install the necessary infrastructure.

“The directives in the Grid Modernization Order will set in motion major advancements that will benefit the Commonwealth’s electric energy customers,” stated DPU Commissioner Jolette Westbrook, “Enhancing benefits to customers is a core motivation in striving to modernize the electric grid.”

“With this Order, we require the electric utilities to adopt a new business model that is more forward thinking,” said DPU Commissioner David Cash, “and it encourages the continued expansion of clean energy technologies like solar, wind, storage and electric vehicles.”

In 2008 and 2012, respectively, Governor Patrick signed into law the Green Communities Act, and An Act Relative to Competitively Priced Electricity in the Commonwealth to significantly enhance the development of energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed generation.  Developing these policies on grid modernization and electric vehicles serves the goals of those laws, and is vital to the Commonwealth’s efforts to promote clean energy resources and a more efficient and reliable electric system.

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Scott Jackson Named Conservationist of the Year by the Nature Conservancy

December 12, 2013

Scott Jackson, extension associate professor in the department of environmental conservation, has been named the 2013 Conservationist of the Year by The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts to recognize his efforts in conserving the Bay State’s lands and waters.

The award was presented Dec. 12 at the organization’s Boston office.

“Scott Jackson has been a tireless advocate for science-based conservation for more than 20 years,” said Wayne Klockner, executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. “Honoring him as our 2013 Conservationist of the Year provides just a small portion of the recognition he deserves for his countless contributions to the health of Massachusetts’ natural environment.”

“I am honored to be recognized by The Nature Conservancy, an organization that has done much to integrate science and conservation action in Massachusetts and throughout the region,” Jackson said. “I am deeply indebted to the many individuals and organizations with which I have been able to collaborate and without which my work would never have been possible.”

According to The Nature Conservancy, Jackson’s contributions to conservation in Massachusetts include co-founding the River and Stream Continuity Project, which developed standards for culverts and bridges to help minimize their impact on wildlife and river health and created approaches for prioritizing replacement of these road-stream crossings. These methods are being used across New England and the northeast to protect and restore river continuity.

He also led the use of underpass systems to facilitate wildlife movement across roads and in development of methods for evaluating the effectiveness of animal-passage structures, beginning with construction and evaluation of the Henry Street tunnels in Amherst in 1987, the first such structures in North America. This early experiment helped establish the foundation for widespread adoption of wildlife crossing structures in the U.S. and Canada.

Jackson also co-led the statewide Critical Linkages connectivity assessment completed this year by the UMass Amherst landscape ecology program. Critical Linkages identifies the dams, road-stream crossings and road segments most important for conservation and transportation agencies to address in order to minimize the impact of these structures on wildlife movement and viability, while maintaining a safe and reliable transportation infrastructure.

The Conservationist of the Year award was created in 2005 to recognize the efforts of conservation leaders in protecting the state’s lands and waters. The Nature Conservancy staff and trustees periodically select an individual to honor who has made a significant impact on conservation in Massachusetts.


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Will EPA New England put another Toxic Waste Dump next to an Elementary School in Stratford?

How familiar does this sound?! The New England division of the EPA – the same one that will be making decisions on the Housatonic Rest of the River – is proposing to allow a company to dig up their toxic waste and dump it onto a lot in the middle of a residential neighborhood, yards from a children’s playground and around the corner from an elementary school. It is General Electric in Pittsfield all over again!

Let’s make sure that EPA gets the message – no new toxic waste dumps. Toxic waste belongs in a licensed facility, not next to elementary schools!

Here is the story from Toxics Action Center:

Stratford’s story is almost too crazy to believe.

For nearly a century, right up until 1989, Raymark Industries manufactured asbestos brake linings for cars, trucks and trains at their factory in Stratford, Connecticut. The company dumped toxic waste from their factory around town, polluting soil and groundwater in the area with asbestos, lead, and other toxins. They even handed out their waste mixed with dirt for residents to use as soil for backyard gardens and for developers to use as “clean fill”.

Now, almost twenty-five years after Raymark closed and the clean up began, the EPA’s only “cleanup solution” is to dig up the toxic Raymark waste and dump it onto a lot in the middle of a residential neighborhood, yards from a children’s playground and around the corner from an elementary school.

Tell the New England division of the EPA: Don’t just dump Stratford’s waste in a neighborhood. Do a real cleanup – one that puts the waste in a landfill equipped to handle this toxic threat.

Stratford, a nice, quiet suburb outside New York City on Connecticut’s southwest coast, is one of the last places you’d expect a massive hazardous waste site. At least that’s what Tom Smith, a father of two, thought when he moved his family to Stratford a decade ago.

Tom knew that creating a toxic waste dump in his neighborhood was wrong, so he and his neighbors joined together to form a community group: SaveStratford.org. We’ve worked with Tom and SaveStratford to convince the EPA to abandon their toxic dump plan and agree to a fully funded cleanup that truly helps and protects the community.

Yet today, more than twenty toxic sites remain in town, with waste buried underneath businesses and parks right next to homes, near schools and next to the public beach.

Sadly, the EPA has dimissed all the cost-effective cleanup proposals put forth by the community and stuck to their plan to dump the waste in the middle of the neighborhood.

When a community is home to a toxic waste site, residents deserve a true cleanup: one that is fast and complete, protecting families’ health. We believe that goal is best achieved when the EPA works with citizen groups, like Tom’s, to come up with a truly complete cleanup plan.

Tell the EPA that Stratford deserves a real cleanup that puts families first.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Broude

Executive Director
Toxics Action Center

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Invasion of the Snowy Owls

from MassWildlife

An invasion (called an irruption by biologists) of Snowy Owls is occurring in the eastern United States and Massachusetts is at the center of it all! An irruption occurs when birds appear in greater-than-usual numbers and observed in unusual locations. Most of the Snowy Owls in Massachusetts have been reported in coastal areas, where the dunes and large grasslands mimic the tundra-like habitats the birds usually live. Logan Airport has likely seen the highest density of these owls in eastern North America. As many as 15 owls have been seen at the airport at one time.  Snowy Owls have turned up at a number of other sites in Massachusetts as well, including birds in central Massachusetts and even a bird in downtown Springfield.

“Snowy Owls are often found in Massachusetts during the winter, especially along the coast,” says Andrew Vitz, State Ornithologist for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife). “What makes an irruption year unusual is the high number of birds and the unusual places they are spotted.” Best bets for spotting owls are on public beaches and conservation lands in coastal Essex county north of Boston as well as federal, state or local beaches on Cape Cod and in Plymouth County.  MassWildlife advises anyone who sees a Snowy Owl to observe from a respectful distance. In more urban areas, startled birds can easily be injured or killed after colliding with buildings or power lines.

Weighing approximately 4 pounds and standing nearly two feet tall, the Snowy Owl is North America’s largest owl (by weight).  This species is a circumpolar breeder of the far north including Alaska, Greenland, and Russia, where they breed on the ground in the open tundra. To blend in with its environment, the owl is white with a variable amount of dark barring on its chest, back, and head. These birds feed primarily on lemmings, and when food is abundant, adults may raise up to 12 young. Last summer, according to Vitz, lemming numbers were very high in northern Quebec, and the owls likely had an extremely productive breeding season. Birds are probably moving south in large numbers because there are simply too many of them for the breeding area to support. In fact, most of the birds arriving in the lower 48 states this winter are heavily barred, suggesting they are birds that hatched last summer. The irruption of Snowy Owls this year comes as somewhat of a surprise. Generally Snowy Owls undergo large scale southern movements about once in every four winters. However, a large irruption occurred in the winter of 2011-2012 and a smaller “echo” irruption in 2012-2013. “A third consecutive irruption of Snowy Owls raises many questions about the environmental conditions in the Arctic, “says Vitz. “However, at this point there are more questions than answers. In the meantime, this is a terrific opportunity for people of all ages to see this spectacular Arctic bird.”

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Non-Profits Invited to Apply to Azavea ‘Summer of Maps’ to Receive Pro Bono Spatial Analysis

December 18, 2013—Azavea, an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development company, invites non-profits nationwide to submit an application to be considered for its third Summer of Maps. Azavea Summer of Maps is a program that offers $5,000 stipends to student GIS analysts to perform pro bono geospatial data analysis projects for non-profit organizations over a three-month period in the summer of 2014. The application process is organized into two phases. The first phase, organization applications, is currently open, and organizations have until February 9 to submit their application at http://www.summerofmaps.com.

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From One World Conservation Center
P.O. Box 4715
Bennington, VT 05201

Natural Science Toolkit for Homeschoolers Program Series

Want help with the science curriculum? Do your kids like to be outdoors? Join homeschool educator and naturalist Mary Batcheller and OWCC Education Coordinator Jen Loyd-Pain as we use science tools as a springboard for learning in nature. All four monthly themed sessions will focus on the use of different science tools through fun and interactive activities. Classes will take place in the forests and fields of our Greenberg Reserve and in the education center.

You may come to all four sessions or choose the ones that interest you and your children most. Participants will be divided into two groups (grades K-3 & 4-8) and taught age-appropriate skills.

Pre-registration is required as space is limited. Please call the center or email jloyd-pain@oneworldconservationcenter.org to register. Fee: $8 per child and $7 for each additional child in the family. There is a discounted price of $28.00/child if you sign up for all four sessions up front. Parents are encouraged to accompany their children at no additional cost.

Natural Science Toolkit for Homeschoolers Session 1: The Wonders of Weather
Wednesday, January 8, 2014 1 – 3 pm

Find out what those weather forecasts actually mean for wildlife. Both groups will venture out into the Reserve to learn more about clouds, and to measure temperature, relative humidity, and wind in the microclimates of varied habitats. The following topics and skills will be addressed:

Grades K-3: Cloud shapes and types; how we determine temperature in sun or shade, above ground and under snow; how to discover the amount of moisture in the air and what it means; and wind speed.
Skills utilized will be observation & recording; measurement; use of basic instrumentation; exploration; and hypothesis formation.

Grades 4-8: Cloud types; temperature, including Celsius and Fahrenheit conversion; how a barometer and psychrometer are used to determine air pressure and humidity respectively; the Beaufort Wind Scale and how to use a wind anemometer; and concepts such as the scientific connection between temperature and humidity; weather differences between microclimates; and how changes in weather over time may impact wildlife and their habitats.
Skills utilized will be observation and recording; measurement; precision and accuracy; hypothesis formation; and estimation.

Natural Science Toolkit for Homeschoolers Session 2: Winter Ecology
Wednesday, February 12, 2014 1 – 3 pm

Nature may appear to be sleeping, but there’s a lot going on out there. Many animals, especially mammals, stay active and local all year long. We’ll talk about how to find out which mammals are around, hibernation, seasonal cycles, and more. Relevant skills will be targeted appropriately to each age group.
Fee: $8 per child.
Please register by Friday, February 7.

Natural Science Toolkit for Homeschoolers Session 3: Forestry
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 1-3 pm

The woods are waking up. We’ll get out there and get hands on to discover how to identify trees, their characteristics, a bit about dendrochronology (tree ring dating), forest cycles and changes in the land, trees as habitat for wildlife, and more. Relevant skills will be targeted appropriately to each age group.
Please register by Friday, March 7.

Session 4: Wetlands
Wednesday, April 9 1-3 pm
Please register by Friday, April 5

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Winter Book/Study Group!

It’s not too late to join the Hilltown Sustainability seed saving Winter Book/Study Group!  We are reading Carol Deppe: Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, available at the Creamery for 20 percent off until Christmas.  We have just started the book, so you haven’t missed too much.

Our next two meetings will be on Thursday, January 9th from 6 to 8pm; and Thursday, January 23rd from 7 to 8pm.  We will continue to meet on the second and fourth Thursdays through February and early March.  All meetings will take place in the Sustainability Library upstairs at the Creamery.

For our next meeting, we will be reading the first five chapters, through page 76.  For more information, please contact Sadie at 634-5013, or Michael at 413-358-6919 or alterman@speakeasy.net.  We hope to see you in January.

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